Jeep Cherokee Forum

Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Grand Cherokee 1984-2004: Winter Tire Reviews

Gear up with the right winter tires and dominate the roads when the white stuff begins to fall.

By Pizzaman711 - September 15, 2015

This article applies to the Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Grand Cherokee (1984-2004).

A dedicated winter tire can greatly improve your traction on the road during the harsh conditions of the winter months. These tires are specially made to perform better on snow and ice than a standard street tire by incorporating special rubber compounds and tread pattern designs. Because of this, you'll only want to run them during the winter months, as using them on dry pavement will cause the tread to wear extremely fast.

Snow Tire Comparison
Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2
Michelin Latitude X-ICE Xi2
Goodyear DuraTrac
Cooper Discoverer M+S
Price
 $125 $128 $170 $88
Size

235/75R15

235/75R15

235/75R15

235/75R15
Snow Performance
 Best Decent Best Great
Estimated Lifespan
 10-20,000 Miles 20-30,000 Miles 40-50,000 Miles 20-30,000 Miles
Warranty
 5 Years/Prorated Mileage 6 Years/40,000 Miles Defect Only Limited
Best Quality: Goodyear DuraTrac

Best Value: Cooper Discoverer M+S

Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2

Price – $125

Size – 235/75R15

Snow Performance – Best

Estimated Lifespan – 10-20,000 Miles

Warranty – 5 Years/Prorated Mileage

The new revision of the old Blizzak tire greatly increased both its snow and ice performance. On this list, these are the best performing studless tires on ice and perform on par with the DuraTracs in snow. What kills these tires is that the technology incorporated to give this performance is only in the first 55% of the tread pattern. Once you get a little past half its tread life, you're left with a decent performing winter tire but nowhere near the performance you had at the beginning of the tire's life. So while the tread may be good for two to three seasons, in reality you'll only get one to two seasons of good performance out of them. For that reason, it isn't recommended getting these tires unless you can find a great deal on them.

Michelin Latitude X-ICE Xi2

Price – $128

Size – 235/75R15

Snow Performance – Decent

Estimated Lifespan – 20-30,000 Miles

Warranty – 6 Years/40,000 Miles

Unfortunately, these tires do not live up to the true winter tire standard. They perform good in slushy snow and slushy ice, but once the snowfall gets to be above 2-3", their performance really starts to drop off. These are a great tire to get you home when the snowfall starts, but aren't a tire to venture out with once the snow starts to accumulate. Compared to other winter tires, the ice traction on these is sub-par at best despite it being in the name of the tire. They also don't offer the option to add studs to increase ice traction. Recommended only if you will be driving in two to three inches of snow.

Goodyear DuraTrac

Price – $170

Size – 235/75R15

Snow Performance – Best

Estimated Lifespan – 40-50,000 Miles

Warranty – Defect Only

The DuraTrac's aren't your standard winter tire and don't intend to be. The tread pattern is designed to be a more aggressive all-terrain type tire. However, this doesn't keep them from performing very good in snow and allowing you the option to add studs for extreme ice conditions as well. While these are the most expensive tire on this list, they allow you to run the same set all year round versus having to buy two sets of tires for the winter season and then a set for the rest of the year. For those of you who off-road in the winter months, these are a good choice as well because they'll give you the traction you need on both the snow covered roads and the traction you need off the road where you may encounter other elements such as mud. Recommended for both on the road and off the road drivers.

Cooper Discoverer M+S

Price – $88

Size – 235/75R15

Snow Performance – Great

Estimated Lifespan – 20-30,000 Miles

Warranty – Limited

These tires will perform great in both deep snow and in slushy snow after a rain or when it begins to melt down. The only place these don't perform well is on ice, and while it's true that no tire performs exceptionally well on ice, a lot of people say these are worse than their normal street tires on it. However, these are studdable, so if ice is a major problem in your area, adding a set of studs is a quick way to solve that problem. The only real downside to these tires is that they're prone to manufacturing defects that cause them to prematurely dry rot, which means you may only get one to two seasons out of them. In addition, the people who did have those problems also had a major headache when trying to warranty the tires. Recommended for driving on deep and slushy snow.

Related Discussion