Tires for Towing 20k 5ver and Snow at altitude

rvexodus wrote:

So we will not be trailering up our mountain road in the winter. Just driving it to get to town for some staples. We go from 9500ft down to around 7500ft over a 5 mile stretch to get to the highway. There’s really only one spot where it gets tricky as the grade is steep and there’s a ledge. People slide off the road all the time. This is a cabin community so there is regular traffic which is good. We snowmobile from a winter lot where we keep our vehicles to our cabins in the winter.

My goal here is to find a tire that will work well in those conditions but not get destroyed trailering.

So Duratracs are a great tire for snow. But read my responses above. They will last good towing, but I wouldn't want them for anything other than inclement conditions. Especially on a dually, since they require far more tire rotations than most tires in my experience and the challenges with front to back rotations (on a truck with presumably nice wheels like yours).
I spent several winters in the CO Rockies. And year round travel into the back country, tugging the snomachines up the hill to the sno parks all winter.
Trust that most decently aggressive AT tires will eat up the snow well. If you do have challenges it will be more around the dual rears and not being able to get low enough tire pressures in the rear. But if its too slippery, add weight.

Grit dog wrote:
OP I’m presuming you’re not towing the 5ver in the mountains in the snow. That’s a different ballgame. But any smaller trailers won’t have a need for chains in the vast majority of CO Mtn winters.
Being your truck is a big doolie, you’ll use 4wd more than in the same vehicle if it was a 4 wheeler. But not an issue. It’s a push o the button. Short of just running a single rear wheel, for normal winter driving, drop your rear tires pressure to 20-25psi and add some weight. 500-1000lbs in back will help a bunch. And the further back the weight, the better. Ideally if you’re not using the bed, put the rear load divider in and pile the sandbags at the back. Although that defeats any ability to use the truck bed really.

If you’re really thinking you need easy auxiliary traction for steep grades on maintained roads and aren’t in the category of needing chains, tire socks actually work quite well on ice and greasy snow.
That said wintering at 9kft in CO, most of the winter it’s cold and grippy enough to not even need 4wd for normal drivin around. (Apologies if I’m presuming you don’t understand the nuances of different types of winter driving, although you did ask what tires to get so trying to provide some additional guidance as tires are only part of the equation.)

So we will not be trailering up our mountain road in the winter. Just driving it to get to town for some staples. We go from 9500ft down to around 7500ft over a 5 mile stretch to get to the highway. There’s really only one spot where it gets tricky as the grade is steep and there’s a ledge. People slide off the road all the time. This is a cabin community so there is regular traffic which is good. We snowmobile from a winter lot where we keep our vehicles to our cabins in the winter.

My goal here is to find a tire that will work well in those conditions but not get destroyed trailering.

daniellemill wrote:
I use Duratrac a lot too! So far, I have not received negative reviews, although its price is higher than usual!

Do you tow with them and if so how much weight. These appear to be great tires but look like they could leave some rubber behind with a heavy load. And yes they do appear to be a few bucks more don’t they.

blt2ski wrote:
I started running cooper's at 25, now 61.
The ONLY brand I've had issues with are michiblows.
Reality most brands are good. At the end of the day, they need to have a tread pattern that suits your driving habits. Along with weather you expect to drive in. Choose your poison as some say.
The only Michelin I've liked is the ,XDE M+S. That's a 19.5 mdt tire.
Toyota has a M55 or did, another good adverse reaction tire. All steel sidewall and tread. I had those on a dually rear, ran a hwy on the front. Yes it was a 4x. I was never off road enough to run all 6. I'd do the same with Duratracs on the rear too. I was pulling a 24' TT to a ski area every weekend from Dec to March. I still had to use chains when traction devices were required for rigs over 10k GVW. Appreciated the chains for down hill runs.
Enjoy what ever you get. Hope they work.

Marty

Wasn’t knocking cooper Marty. Just was telling you my story. I will definitely look into them along with a few other recommendations. Thanks again!

The Michelins you have are M/S, which means mud and SNOW. I wouldn't change them. I'd be more concerned with the tires on the trailer. I run Michelin XPS Ribs on my trailer.

rvexodus wrote:

ksss wrote:
The Duratrac is a good aggressive Winter tire. I had that tire on a 2018 ZR2 which of course is nothing like what your running it on. I can say that off road in the Winter that tire is totally impressive. I doubt it would last more than 35K and still have meaningful tread left pulling that kind of weight. However, that is about 3 years away and that may be a better way of looking at it. There are times when the miles you get on a set of tires are important. There are also times when the performance of the tire matters more. If your traveling at 9500 ft through the winter, I would chose a really good Winter tire. I am happy with the Falcon Wild Peaks. They are not as aggressive as the Goodyears, but they are a good Winter tire. We spend 6 months of the year in snow, and few buy Michelins.

Thanks for the reply. Yup the Michelins were great for traveling in good weather. Heck we even took them to AK in the spring and they did great. But they are on their last leg. I'll take a look at those falcons. You do any heavy towing on them?

I have had them on a 3500 SRW for a year and half. That truck is licensed to 30K. They are wearing great. I just put them on a 3500 DRW licensed at 40k. We run those two trucks at max GVW. Too soon to say how they will wear on that DRW truck. I really like how they perform running heavy in the Winter, we have seen a lot of that so far. That Falcon is the best selling pickup tire at the tire shop I use. That says something, large tire shop with a large Ag representation. Every truck I have is now running Falcons.

The BFG KO's are a great tire on ice/snow pack when new. After about 50% it is much less so, and if your towing with that tire, that 50% doesn't last long. They are not a great tire pushing fresh snow, whether new or not.

OP I’m presuming you’re not towing the 5ver in the mountains in the snow. That’s a different ballgame. But any smaller trailers won’t have a need for chains in the vast majority of CO Mtn winters.
Being your truck is a big doolie, you’ll use 4wd more than in the same vehicle if it was a 4 wheeler. But not an issue. It’s a push o the button. Short of just running a single rear wheel, for normal winter driving, drop your rear tires pressure to 20-25psi and add some weight. 500-1000lbs in back will help a bunch. And the further back the weight, the better. Ideally if you’re not using the bed, put the rear load divider in and pile the sandbags at the back. Although that defeats any ability to use the truck bed really.

If you’re really thinking you need easy auxiliary traction for steep grades on maintained roads and aren’t in the category of needing chains, tire socks actually work quite well on ice and greasy snow.
That said wintering at 9kft in CO, most of the winter it’s cold and grippy enough to not even need 4wd for normal drivin around. (Apologies if I’m presuming you don’t understand the nuances of different types of winter driving, although you did ask what tires to get so trying to provide some additional guidance as tires are only part of the equation.)

Stick with what you have. On a DRW it's not going to matter much. Air down the rears to 30psi and carry on!

OP, any real AT is what you’re looking for. Not a watered down almost HT tread like the Michelins, Firestone transforce etc.
Think BFG AT, Cooper or Toyo AT3, Falken AT3, and IMO a very good traction/treadwear band for the buck Nitto Terra Grappler.
But the Terra graps are a little louder like BFGs.

The RT tires are a great choice for everything BUT snow. Resist the urge to get an AT MT tweener tire like Nitto Ridge Grapler or Toyo RT. Great treadwear and dry off road traction. NOT the best rain tires and NOT good snow tires.

Since you’re all season and hauling heavy I won’t recommend siping, but if you weren’t hauling heavy siping would benefit all around.

The most important is tire pressure when the going get slippery. Run as low as possible tire pressure in snow and ice for best traction.

daniellemill wrote:
I use Duratrac a lot too! So far, I have not received negative reviews, although its price is higher than usual!

Duratracs are everything you’d want except they are basically a mud tire but louder than most mud tires once they get partially worn. Loudest tire I’ve owned short of dedicated mud tires (not MTs, real mud tires like Swampers and Boggers). Don’t do it especially for a pavement pounder.