I do a lot of snowboarding in the winter, and a lot of driving, both highway and mountains. I have cooper zeon ltz 275/60/20 on now, and I was thinking about getting toyo open country m/t 33 12.5 20 for the winter. Snow and ice are both a factor. Should I stay with my coopers, or should i switch tires for the winter? I have no lift or torsion bar crank on 02 1500 4x4 5.9. I really like the dc fc II also.

 

As far as ice goes, nothing is gonna be real good unless they got studs on 'em. But in general, the more tire surface you can get on the ice, the better you are. Mud tires are terrible, followed by the AT/MT hybrids like the FCIIs, Interco M16s and the new Nitto Trail Grapplers. The best ice tire you could get would be one with more of a street profile, anything rated real good on wet pavement will generally do well on ice, comparatively.

As far as snow, that would depend on what you plan to run into. Plowed, shallow, hard packed snow would require the same tire as ice would, and I'd imagine your Coopers would outperform the FCIIs or any mud tire.
Now if you are talking about deep, unplowed snow, then the same aggressive treads that do well in mud often are the better tire for that situation.
I have the FCIIs and love them, but don't deny the Zeons are a great tire, just not quite aggressive enough or have the ply rating I need.
IMO, unless you are going to venture in deep, unplowed snow, stick with what you got...

 

Thanks, i'm in deep snow, packed, and every other kind of snow possible, i almost slid off the mountain before, and i would rather be safe than sorry, the fc II's are sick, im gonna get those next most likely.

 

I was too. I lived at 10,300ft in the Rocky Mtns for 5 years. Other then studded tires the best tire IMO is the Nitto Terra Grapplers. They got me through deep snow, Packed snow and ice and even worked out really well in the sloppy mud during hunting season.

This is a 6' Chain link dog run


Top rail is about 4-5' off the ground

 

good to know, did you have the 37's then? dude, i cant wait for the winter after seeing those pics, reminds me of mammoth mtn

 

i dont want to thread jack but dodgenitto where in the colorado mountains is that if you dont mind me asking. heading up to colorado in a couple of weeks going through wolf creek pass and then all the way up to I-70 and east into denver

 

They were taken about 20 miles south of Breckenridge CO. No I was running the 33" with the stock 20's

 

Fairplay CO. North of Wolfcreek. 45 minutes from I-70 and Hwy 9

 

how many miles did you get out of them?

 

Only downside to the Mud Grapplers besides the noise is they don't tend to hold up that long on pavement. I know 'Nitto has had pretty good luck with his, but I know a lot of guys who have them, kinda the mud tire of choice with a lot of guys in my huntin club. I know a couple guys who log about 18-20k miles a year get a new set yearly, just before hunting season.

For a tire that wears and handles on pavement almost as well as an A/T, but can play off-road almost with any M/T, the FCIIs are an unbeatable choice. Great write-up on them in the August issue off Off-Road Adventures, by the way...