Wheels for a Pacific North West winter

[Snowball]

Curious as to how the tires on the 20 ATs or 21 road perform in wet snow conditions. I drive up to the local ski hills every week in winter (paved roads) and I don’t want to be one of those many (many!) people that the tow truck has to come to rescue on snowy days.

For my old SUV I currently have two sets of wheels and the winter tires (mountain/snowflake rating) have never let me down.

In summer I drive on some logging roads but I suspect that the 21s would be fine for this. I have a preference for 21s for improved range.

Should I:
A) Get the 20s and use them all year round
B) Get the 21s and use them all year round
C) Get the 21s and the 20s and use 21s in summer and 20s in winter
D) Get the 21s and a separate set of winter tires (recommendations?).

We get a huge amount of precipitation in winter here and the rain/snow combination can make the roads quite interesting at times. Would love to hear your experiences.

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[jjswan33]

B is the only one that is not a viable option unless you want to deal with chains/cables.

Personally I would opt for A or D but that depends on your comfort experience driving in snow, the ATs performed fine for me last winter and I was up snowboarding 30+ days. That said I am not a fan of those tires for other reasons.

 

[Redmond Chad]

No experience myself, but I recently met an owner from Seattle with 20s that said he went skiing most weekends the last two winters. He was very pleased with how the 20s performed in the snow.

He bought another set of the 20" tires for next season, since his were starting to get low after 24k miles.

 

[Riviot]

A

More convenient to not change out, many more options once original tires wear out, do pretty decent on snowy road.

It's more about Your driving than the tires; it's 7200lbs, give it the respect you would an F750.

 

[cbrcanuck]

Curious as to how the tires on the 20 ATs or 21 road perform in wet snow conditions. I drive up to the local ski hills every week in winter (paved roads) and I don’t want to be one of those many (many!) people that the tow truck has to come to rescue on snowy days.

For my old SUV I currently have two sets of wheels and the winter tires (mountain/snowflake rating) have never let me down.

In summer I drive on some logging roads but I suspect that the 21s would be fine for this. I have a preference for 21s for improved range.

Should I:
A) Get the 20s and use them all year round
B) Get the 21s and use them all year round
C) Get the 21s and the 20s and use 21s in summer and 20s in winter
D) Get the 21s and a separate set of winter tires (recommendations?).

We get a huge amount of precipitation in winter here and the rain/snow combination can make the roads quite interesting at times. Would love to hear your experiences.

Same boat. I wound up going with the 21s to max the range in the warm season (so far so good), and I'm going to get designated snow tires/wheels for winter. Lots of winter driving (Vancouver), skiing etc, and last winter I read enough reviews that had me concerned enough to want designated snow tires. Mostly still some slipping down hills with the 20" ATs. As you know, it can get REALLY slippery in the NW. And then I'm just going to use one of my off-season tires as a spare.

 

[kylealden]

I went with E: none of the above and bought a set of studless Blizzak LTs for my 20s in the winter. The Scorpions are definitely passable and 3PMSF rated, but a proper winter tire is still significantly better, and I do a lot of pretty sketchy winter driving over basically every pass in the northwest. Plus I want to save my Scorpions for dirt ?

In the winter I also carry some AutoSocks in the sub-frunk in case of truly dire emergency.

I've been happy with this but I'll admit the tire swap is a hassle.

 

[Mathme]

I had this same conundrum when ordering and selecting tires as they all seem to have tradeoffs...as I too drive from the Bay Area up to Lake Tahoe at least monthly year round.

• 22s = sporty on road, no real good snow options in this size.
• 21s = Proprietary wheel/tire size and after almost 1.5 years, there still isn't another tire on the road yet
• 20s = best OEM tires for the road, but alas the decreased mileage.

At the end of the day, I went with the 20s as that will provide the best snow/rain traction from the start. With the off-roading package, you also get the full size spare upon delivery...this will make for a 5-tire rotation sequence which I hope will help the tires last longer.

When it comes time to replace the tires, there's several options in the 20 OEM size 275/65 - 20 that are ATs, as well as all seasons. The other option is to go with a 275/60 series tire which is about the same height as the 21s...and there's also lots of options in that size as well.

As others have said, the best thing for winter is a dedicated tire...which I believe is available in all wheel sizes....but that creates its own set of hassles (storage, etc.).

I realize the Pac NW snow is different that down here in California (I grew up in the Tacoma Area and went to college at WSU). What I've generally found here in CA, is that a good set of All Season tires will be OK for most driving situations. If it's any worse, they tend to close the roads. I will be curious to see how these 3PMS tires do in the crud this winter.

Finally, on the reduced range on the 20" tires. Yeah, it is 40 miles or so however, I've found that even 230-270 miles at a time is still 4+hours of driving. Sometimes in the past I've been able to go all the way to Tahoe (225 miles) but more often than not people with want a break along the way. I figure I'll just include a charging stop and call it good while people and the dog need to pee.

 

[jjswan33]

22s = sporty on road, no real good snow options in this size.

Not sure if this is true. At least I know you can get a Nokian Hakka's in this size, which is one of the best snow tires on the market.

 

[Mathme]

Good catch there. when I typed it I was thinking more along the lines of 3PMF tires rather than dedicated winter. I seems there's winter tires in all 3 wheel sizes...from what I recall.

 

[Snowball]

Same boat. I wound up going with the 21s to max the range in the warm season (so far so good), and I'm going to get designated snow tires/wheels for winter. Lots of winter driving (Vancouver), skiing etc, and last winter I read enough reviews that had me concerned enough to want designated snow tires. Mostly still some slipping down hills with the 20" ATs. As you know, it can get REALLY slippery in the NW. And then I'm just going to use one of my off-season tires as a spare.

Have you managed to find winter tires or alternative wheels for the 21s?

Good plan re spare tire.

 

[Snowball]

I realize the Pac NW snow is different that down here in California (I grew up in the Tacoma Area and went to college at WSU). What I've generally found here in CA, is that a good set of All Season tires will be OK for most driving situations. If it's any worse, they tend to close the roads. I will be curious to see how these 3PMS tires do in the crud this winter.

Here they don't so much close the roads... they just get blocked by vehicles with inadequate tires spinning their wheels and going nowhere! Don't want to be one of them!

 

[EVentually]

As others have said A or D is most common. It makes sense to start with A and if you're unhappy with how the wear on the tire is or need slightly more range, then you can easily switch to A.

I'm currently using the stock 20s. Might upgrade to falkens or blizzaks in a couple years.

 

[cbrcanuck]

Have you managed to find winter tires or alternative wheels for the 21s?

Good plan re spare tire.

Haven't looked yet, I don't expect to find a lot of options. Not sure if I'm right on this (I don't know much about tires), but I assume the bolt pattern would be the same that I could get a 20" set of winter tires/rims to fit what came with the 21s. Just do a wholesale swap twice a year.

 

[Greg Chick]

My Perelli 21" Scorpions handled extreme snow better than we expected. Zero slippage. At 6,000 ft. elevation, in a white out blizzard, the truck climbed steep windy roads. I have no idea how, but it was amazing. It must be the snow mode that I got downloaded and the Quad system.

 

[gregtay]

Curious as to how the tires on the 20 ATs or 21 road perform in wet snow conditions. I drive up to the local ski hills every week in winter (paved roads) and I don’t want to be one of those many (many!) people that the tow truck has to come to rescue on snowy days.

For my old SUV I currently have two sets of wheels and the winter tires (mountain/snowflake rating) have never let me down.

In summer I drive on some logging roads but I suspect that the 21s would be fine for this. I have a preference for 21s for improved range.

Should I:
A) Get the 20s and use them all year round
B) Get the 21s and use them all year round
C) Get the 21s and the 20s and use 21s in summer and 20s in winter
D) Get the 21s and a separate set of winter tires (recommendations?).

We get a huge amount of precipitation in winter here and the rain/snow combination can make the roads quite interesting at times. Would love to hear your experiences.

Here is what I have done for the last 10 years (and too many cars to count). Run the factory 22" (or sport option) in the summer. Purchase a set of OEM smaller wheels (20") and mount up a set of Nokian Hakka R3s/R10s or whatever they have in the size you need. Works perfect.

Just took delivery of our R1S with the 22 Darks. I will pick up a set of 20"s for my winter set up.
My Escalade is similar... 22" in the summer, 20"s in the winter.

The Hakkas in in the PNW winter are amazing. Great grip in the wet and awesome in the snow/ice then it happens. If everyone put winter tires on in the PNW then we wouldn't have the crazy issues we have when it snows. Also.. most of our mornings are 35 degrees and wet. Summer rubber just doesn't love that... and the winter tires love it.

The other advantage?... your summer tires tend to last quite a few years because you only run then from April/may till oct.

The cons? Well.. storing 4 large tires/wheels, in my case 8 of them. I have the garage space, but still a PITA. And then there is the actual "swapping", I have all the equipment and once you have the jack and tools ready to go, it is only a 30-45min job for each car, but still something you need to find time for.

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