Ok so me and my co-worker got to talking about tires...so to make a long story short...he thinks that a tall skinny tire will go a lot further in snow than a tall wide tire...so say a 32x11.5(tall wide) compared to a 32x9.5(tall skinny) with the same exact tread...So what i told him in most cases yes thats right because the skinny tire will dig down to the ground and get better traction and handle better, but i said for deep snow like a few feet of snow that the wider tires would be better because they would pack the snow down and sit on top of it rather than the skinny tire would sink down and you'd be pushing snow with your axles a lot quicker and not go anywhere, but he didn't seem to believe me.lol....So whats your guys thoughts???

PS. Im not saying any of this from much experiance or any testing, i just cooked this crazy thought up in my head that i was wondering was right or not

 

You are right

 

Good deal!!! I proved a guy 40 years older than me and who knows everything wrong...now i can sleep good tonight

 

I prefer a tall skinny tire in most applications especially any mud or snow. The do exactly what you are saying, dig deep and get to the bottom. The wider tire is good for somethings I suppose but not on my rig. 36-10.50's all the way.

 

For really really deep snow it's all about fat air downed tires however if you look at the rally cars in europe when they go in the snow they have the skinny tires it just depends on the situation

 

Agreed. But most of us don't wheel in really deep snow and when it comes to floating on top your just not going to do it with a 12.50 tire. If you look at the Arctic exploration trucks the tires are grossly wide, I would guess somewhere in the 15-20 range at a minimum.

 

I'd say skinny no matter what. My Geo metro did awesome in the snow, and you don't get much smaller unless you own a Honda 600

 

My tires are skinny, I am not. I am not even that tall.
However my son in-law is both tall and skinny.
I am old and my carcas is a little rough and wrinkled, like being aired down.
He is young, his skin is soft, his muscles fully inflated.
Then how come this winter I moved 10X the snow he did?

 

You are correct. Think of deep snow like deep sand, the wider the tire the better. I'm not talking inches but several feet. Where there is no solid ground to dig down to or its so far down that getting there is pointless you need wide tires to float on top.

EDIT: I do have one question though, why do you have 11.5" tires stretched onto 12" wide wheels?

 

yeah 12" wide wheel is insanely wide seems like if you got even a little low on air it would blow a bead wider tires aired down are way better in the snow with the right size rim heres my jeep with 33/12.5/15's on 8" wide wheels im running 5lbs of air pressure and were on atleast 5ft of snow before we would hit dirt

 

can u guys please stop talking about snow. its giving me flashbacks.

 

ya, snow, whats that?

 

They where on the jeep when i bought and dont wanna waste money on different wheels when i am planning on getting wide tires in the future...and i dont air down at all...never have and never will i stick to mudding and light trailing nothing to insane that i need to air down...And it doesn't stretch the tires out, my wheels are closer to 11.5" not exactly 12" i just rounded up.lol....And by the way if you think 11.5" tires on them wheels are bad the previous owner had 10.5's on it when he sold it to me

PS. i almost got a set of 33x15.5 tires for it but i was short on money to get them and time to make them fit, so i went with the 32x11.5's instead for now till i get some extra time and money to cut the fenders and make them fit.