Snow/Ice rated all-season tire recommendation

Sign1941

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I am seriously leaning towards the pirelli, and new rims. Height is same however I need to speak with my tire guy and see if I can get either a wider tire for stance and appearance or have him point out a safe offset rim in the one model we like.
I Switched out the OEM tires for some Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus - 265/70R17E
Love the tires, the ride quality and very low road noise is incredible!
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I Switched out the OEM tires for some Pirelli Scorpion A/T Plus - 265/70R17E
Love the tires, the ride quality and very low road noise is incredible!
Have any pics? I like my oem rims but if I'm going to do the level kit and wider tires wife said look at rims too, ???. Might do it in stages not sure yet til I speak with my buddy who owns a tire store. Went to high school together so I trust him and he very fair on pricing and won't try to upsale us.
 

Sign1941

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Have any pics? I like my oem rims but if I'm going to do the level kit and wider tires wife said look at rims too, ???. Might do it in stages not sure yet til I speak with my buddy who owns a tire store. Went to high school together so I trust him and he very fair on pricing and won't try to upsale us.
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Fawnbuster

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Wondering if I can move up from 18 inch wheels to 20 inch that allows a wider pirelli the same tire just a size bigger 275/60R/20 as opposed to factory 265/60R18 without having to trim anything (level lift going on) And how much affect on mileage and safety? I'll research the weight difference. Tirerack stated I would have to use my oem tpms
 

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Dang 12 pounds more per tire from oem. Hankooks 35lb the bigger pirelli is 47 lb. Not sure on the weight of my oem rim vs the ones we like
 


Sign1941

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Dang 12 pounds more per tire from oem. Hankooks 35lb the bigger pirelli is 47 lb. Not sure on the weight of my oem rim vs the ones we like
Funny they don’t feel any heavier than the OEM tires? There is zero affect on power and really smooth on the pavement.
 

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Funny they don’t feel any heavier than the OEM tires? There is zero affect on power and really smooth on the pavement.
Tirerack has same size or much bigger but don't have that one in a 275.
 

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Funny they don’t feel any heavier than the OEM tires? There is zero affect on power and really smooth on the pavement.
Sorry I should've quoted myself better, the 275 is heavier than our oem tire it's a 265. The perelli you have is 41 lb.
 

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Thanks for the pictures @Sign1941. The tires are looking real nice on the stock wheels. Sounds like you are happy with them. :thumbsup:
 
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slowmachine

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End of winter followup on the Discoverer AT3 4S:

I started this experiment knowing that I was not buying the absolute most capable winter tires available. I knew that I could drive one of our AWD SUVs with "real" snow tires if needed, so I took the plunge with the Coopers.

We had a fairly mild winter, but we had the full range of temperatures and conditions. The AT3 4S did the worst, as you might suspect, on ice and icy slush. Still, very manageable with conservative driving. The Blizzaks on our CR-V do the same, so not a big difference. I did use 4H on the road when conditions were sufficiently slippery to avoid driveline binding. Funny thing, the time when 4H helped the most was getting from my own driveway into the garage. It's a slight uphill, due to drainage slope. In 2H, the front wheels would stop at the edge of the concrete slab, and the rears would spin. Shifting into 4H allowed the front tires to grab the dry concrete and prevent the truck from sliding sideways into the garage door opening.

There was some concern about rapid wear with the relatively soft rubber compound. I had read an owner report on Tire Rack from a guy in upstate New York whose AT3 4S were worn out at 20,000 miles, and some members here said they would never buy a tire with such a short life. From my experience so far, and a bit of math, I project a service life of 30,110 miles if I run them down to 4/32", which is the usual minimum tread depth for winter use, and 36,801 miles to 2/32", for summer use. These numbers are at least 50% better than the unnamed guy on the Tire Rack forum reported. If you have 5 tires, as I do, add 25% to those numbers for the life of the 5-tire set.

These tires are quiet enough for comfortable highway use, regardless of temperature or conditions. Based on my experience to date, I would buy them again.
 

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Exact same experience. I was totally happy with the AT3 4S in all conditions including glare ice, deep snow etc.. Totally exceeded my expectations.

I'd be amazed if there wasn't a bit of a wear penalty for summer months, almost would consider putting the Hankooks back on for summer road trip but that seems like overkill.

End of winter followup on the Discoverer AT3 4S:

I started this experiment knowing that I was not buying the absolute most capable winter tires available. I knew that I could drive one of our AWD SUVs with "real" snow tires if needed, so I took the plunge with the Coopers.
 

Dgc333

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FWIW, my new Ranger with the Tremor package came with General Grabber ATx tires. Surprisingly they have the mountain snow flake symbol. I was very surprised since the all terrain tread design is contrary to good winter tires tread design. My beater Dakota came with a set of Master Craft all terrain tires with a very similar tread design. They were by far the worst tires I have ever had on a 4x4 pickup in the snow. I have Firestone Winter Force tires for the Dakota. They are a beast in snow and slush but are noisey.

I will give the Grabbers on the Ranger a try before deciding to get dedicated winter tires.
 

BCRanger

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FWIW, my new Ranger with the Tremor package came with General Grabber ATx tires. Surprisingly they have the mountain snow flake symbol.
I think that symbol is almost meaningless, honestly. I mean, better than without of course. But it comes down to compound (softer, generally) more than tread pattern. That's why I was surprised that the AT4 4S did as well as they do, not sure how they are able to balance wear and cold weather tread softness. Have good off road tread as well.
 

VAMike

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I think that symbol is almost meaningless, honestly. I mean, better than without of course.
Not even that. The only thing the snowflake means is that the manufacturer paid to have the tire tested, and that the tire performed 10% better than the (decades old) reference all-season tire. That's right, just a 10% improvement over something that was baseline in the 80s. Many non-snowflake tires will pass the test, but the manufacturer doesn't pay to put the snowflake on (potentially because they want to sell you a different tire that does have the snowflake). The test is ancient, and doesn't reflect what most people actually care about in a tire. (It tests for spin-up traction in relatively loose fresh snow, not for how the tire handles on hard packed, icy, or slushy roads--which is why deep treaded tires with traditional rubber that feel really squirrely on winter roads can get the snowflake even though they perform noticeably worse than tires with a good winter rubber compound.) The snowflake is a thing just because there isn't a better standard, not because it's a good standard. There's been discussion about revamping the standard due to the fact that nobody wants to make the reference tire anymore (because it is so obsolete that it's too much effort to switch over from making modern tires), but I haven't heard that they're planning to make the testing significantly more rigorous. It's certainly the case that today the snowflake does not mean that you're buying a tire that's particularly great at winter driving--the standard simply can't differentiate between mediocre and really good winter tires.
 
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slowmachine

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16,000-ish miles into this, I replaced the Discoverer AT3 4S with a set of Michelin X-Ice Snow SUV in 265/65R17. The Coopers still have about 8/32” of tread remaining. The thing that drove me to get “real” snow tires is that my wife decided that she really likes driving the Ranger. She’s a Boston-taught driver, which means deep throttle and hard braking. She needs all of the ice-braking capability that I can buy. I’ll put the Coopers back on in the spring, and run them next summer to get my money’s worth from them.

For those who have followed this since the beginning, I think that 25,000 miles is a good estimate of service life for this tire, if you’re going to run them through the summer like I did. I’m back to swapping to snow tires every winter. There’s no money to be saved by running soft rubber in the summer. I’ll be looking for a highway tire with M+S rating, probably Michelin, for my next summer set.
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