Do you like your Sumitomo AT tires?

On this forum I hear all tire brands are...suspect. “Hear?”

Hydro planing is best curbed by larger tread voids, so any real AT tire with deep tread will be good for that and if you have them siped, they will be pretty much as good on ice as dedicated snow tires.
For low expense, I look for new takeoff tires like on Craigslist. Or if it's not a super popular size, Amazon has some great tire prices.

Is it really that simple? I see reviews saying that Toyo's and Cooper AT3 are scary for hydroplaning, for example, although of course they have deep treads.

(I was all excited about the Cooper ATW, sticky winter tires rated for year-round use, until I saw that they don't come in load E.)

I know, everyone is sick of talking about tires here. But I haven't seen much about the Sumitomo ATs, except for a few people listing them in their sig files.

Idk, I have Toyo ATs on a truck now (where it rains everyday, lol) and had AT3 Coopers on another one ,F250, a few years ago in WA and AK. No issues with either. And I dont slow down for rain and typically not for snow either unless traffic dictates.

It's about tread depth and amount of voids for the most part for hydroplaning. Some tires have special channels in the tread to help with hydroplaning, but that's pretty much just car tires and ones with a lot of contact surface and not many voids (good for pavement traction, not great at getting water out from under the tire).

I have my favorite tires for sure, but yes it is pretty much that simple, IMO.

And having tires siped, while it does cut down on tire life, if loaded heavily, improves traction pretty much across the board, especially on slippery surfaces. It does not improve traction in straight line acceleration or cornering if you're nearing the limits of traction on dry pavement, because they act like snow tires and the tread moves around too much.

Cooper makes plenty of E load rated dedicated snow/ice tires.
While snow tires also generally have a softer rubber compound, the big thing they have is a lot of sipes in the tread, from the factory, though. That's why siping pretty much any other tire improves traction. Although I wouldn't want to sipe a tire that already has a fair amount of factory siping like most all season or highway tires. Don't want to slice up the tread into too many small slices either or they'll chunk out pieces of tread more and wear quicker.
Probably don't see Sumitomo much becasue they're, IMO, considered "cheap" tires. I've never run them and can't comment personally, but that's why.
They may be fine tires though.

I do. Eliminated almost all of my sway over my OEM's. Very happy with the way they handle the snow also. My guy pointed out to me that UPS around my parts use them on their trucks, and they research the sh*t out of everything they do.

Thank you, K Mac and Grit Dog :).