Grit dog wrote:
freetheheal wrote:
ksss wrote:
I run the EXO Grapplers on my pickup. I really like the tire. I live about 90 miles from Yellowstone to give you an idea of the weather we have here in the Winter. Really a good tire. When they wear down to under 50% I have them siped again. They wear well and really bite.
Thanks for your input. That's the tire I had my mind set on before thinking about maybe going to a dedicated snow tire. And I have not found much info on that tire from people who run them on 3/4 ton and larger pickups as well as who tow with them. Do they do a good job for you towing in the winter?
The key to what ksss said was having them siped. I'd never done that until a few years ago and it makes a huge difference.
On the truck in my sig with a grabby clutch, no traction control and no torque management with around 1000ft lbs on tap, they grab very well. Just spent a couple days up here misc driving with my work truck 1500 Silverado with new Toyo ATs and the Dodge with siped cheapo Firestone mudders. Slick snot snow/packed and slush. The otherwise useless mudders are twice the tire as the ATs side by side.
Plus unloaded normal driving on dry roads you won't really see increased tire wear like with snow tires.
Don't mean to sound like a tire siping fanboy but I kinda am. It works. Typically on a heavy truck, I'll only do the center 2 or 3 rows of treads and leave the outer rows in tact. I believe that helps with tire life and handling.
The EXO doesn't need sipping until you get down to the tread stiffener that runs through the center of the tire. I looked at my new EXO's and the stiffer shows up at about the last third of the tread. My first set went around 50K, I could have gotten more but I was going into Winter and so I replaced them. My last set I pulled off because I went with a bigger tire 285-70-18 as opposed to the 275's I had run prior. That set would go to 50-60K as well. I have been pulling 30K combined in heavy snow in Island Park, Idaho this Winter. The tire cleans out well and it grips really well in deep snow. The truck stays planted on icy/snow packed roads. Since I spend most of the time on snow packed roads, that is why as the tire gets in to the stiffener that I sipe them.
