What do you guys think, will somehting like MT MTZ's be as good on snow/ice as a snow rated tire?

What about studding the tires on a QC 2500 diesel? I've heard that it isn't good to run studded tires on a heavy truck, and I've heard it is fine to do.

Gonna need a set here real soon and just trying to decide which way to go.

 

From my experience No. Mud tires are terrible in the snow and rain. They are good in the mud that's it. The lugs on mud tires are very hard and stiff to prevent damage for off road use. All season or snow tires have dmaller lugs that are sliced to make them softer and flex to give to more traction in the snow or rain. You have to base the tire on what type of driving you do the most.

Don't you have 4wd. My truck goes like a champ in the snow with all season tires on it?

 

I tried my pro comp xtreme at's out on a snowy hilly road and it did awesome from a dead stop. never got stuck with them either. oh and forgot to mention that I have close to 70k miles on them. still plenty of tread left though.

 

If you want to run mud/off road type tires for snow and ice have them siped. Works about as well on ice as studs and better in moderate snow pack. The other benefit is a cooler running tire and supposedly better ride, however in a 3/4 ton pu thats something I've never noticed. It's all I run here where I live, we get more snow than ice, softer compound tires that have been siped don't generally last as long on the Cummins because of the engine torque. I spend a lot of time on gravel roads so soft compound tires don't work for me anyway. Siping cost is about the same as studs. I used to run two sets, one for winter and one for summer, however somtimes during the summer I would find myself in situations where the more road oriented summer tires wern't enough, glad I have a winch. Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

i had procomp's X-terrains on my truck. they are getting thin but still have some bite left. they sucked in the snow so i went out and got a set for my factory wheels. they are 315/75r16 wild spirits. they are supposed to be a knock off of the wild country. anyways they were $156 each and so far have done awesome in the snow and highway. they made the ride much nicer too since they aren't as aggressive as the xterrains.

 

Ok, so the off road tires don't appear to be too hot for ice and snow. Looks like I'll just get a set of snow tires.

I don't understand how a softer tire's wear has anyhting to do with engine torque though, the heavy weight of the truck maybe, but torque has nothing to do with it.

 

Ask the guy where you buy yourtires if softer compound tires will wear as long as a harder compound. The Goodyear dealer locally won't sipetires for Diesel pu's because of the torque they put to the ground will tear them up. Not my words, theirs. I went to another dealer...

 

A diesel isn't putting anymore torque to the ground than any other 325HP truck (diesel or gas).

What matters are gear ratios, RPM's, etc. Since HP is a realtionship of torque and RPM, either can be traded for the other at the drive wheels via gears (i.e. you can increase drive wheel RPM at the cost of torque and vice versa). That's exactly why we have a transmission and gears!!! It's also why HP, not torque output is the essential measurement of an engine's ability to do work.

Here's an example:

The formula to calculate HP is Torque X RPM divided by 5252.

Let's assume a small jet engine (we will use a transmission to transfer power form the jet's shaft to drive wheels). Let's say it makes it's max power at 60,000 RPM and is rated at 200 HP at the shaft. Using the formula we see that this jet only makes 17.51 lb-ft of torque. (60,000 RPM X 17.51 lb-ft torque = 200 HP)

Let's say our second engine a regular V-8, also rated at 200 HP at its crankshaft, but it makes it's max power at 4,000 RPM. Using the formula we can figure out that it makes 262.6 lb-ft of torque, substantially more than the jet engine....but remember, torque and RPM can be traded off as long as the equation remains balanced. (4,000 RPM X 262.6 lb-ft torque = 200 HP).

Ignoring parasitic losses in the drive train, etc, we're going to use each engine in a vehicle to see which engine can tow more load....

Let's say we want to turn the rear wheels of our vehicles at 1,000 RPM and then we'll see how much torque is being applied to those wheels by each engine....

For the jet, to drive the rear wheels at 1,000 RPM, we would have to use a 60:1 reduction gearing (1/60th of 60,000 RPM is 1,000). So, that ratio reduces the jet engines RPM's but that also means it multiplies the torque by the same amount (the equation has to remain balanced). So, with that ratio, the rear wheels are outputting 1050.6 lb-ft (17.51 lb-ft at jet shaft X 60 due to gearing = 1050.6 lb-ft).

For our V-8, in order to turn the rear wheels at 1,000 RPm we only need a 4:1 ratio (1/4th of 4,000 = 1,000). So, following our formula, we see that the rear wheels on this vehicle put out....1050.6 lb-ft!!! (262.6 lb-ft at crankshaft X 4 due to gearing reduction = 1050.6 lb-ft)...the equation is balanced.

Since both engines are 200HP, they are capable of exactly the same amount of work. Torque and RPM of the engines in this case mean nothing.

Since a deisel is RPM limited compared to gas engines, they have higher torque output for the same HP equivalent. However, that RPM limitation means lower gearing ratios (assuming you wish to match performance to a comparable gas engine). So , yeah, you have to trade off that torque to get the RPM at the rear wheels.

Now, does that mean the transmission and gearing from the factory are absolutely perfectly matched to the engine? Not necessarily. A lot of other factors have to be considered. Drivability, cost, etc. Things are always a compromise. However, in general terms, your Cummins isn't putting significantly more torque to the ground than say, the hemi powered version.

In other words, that tire dealer is full of @%$#