Any tire that does "really well" in cold conditions and snow is going to be a soft compound and quite on the highway. But they will not be the best in the mud and will not last very long if you do mostly pavement.

Any tire that says they do all of this well is lying and a tire that tries to do all of this will be mediocre in each category at best.

For example on my BMW I have Michelin Pilots for summer and a set of Blizzaks for the winter. If I tried to drive on the Blizzaks all year round I wouldn't get 10,000 miles out of them but if I tried to drive on the Pilots all year round I wouldn't get out of my driveway in Iowa winters.

You have to be honest with yourself and where this truck will really spend its life. If I were you I would go with the Toyo Open Country AT’s or a set of Yokohama Geolanders (both are in 255/55/18). They will both be great on the road and will be able to go a little off-road (not like a MT of course but better than a HT). And either will fare on snowy pavement better than muddy trails which I am guess would make more sense for you.


Just my 2cents and I have bought and sold my share of tires, believe me....

 

Thank you RJ! I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration too. I'm getting a lot of excellent feedback.
Thanks again!

 

I just wanted to add the 99 HSE I just picked up had M Sync's and I was getting a bad shaking at 55 mph. I tried to pull them off to do some work on the fender (It's dented so I'm replacing it) and I could not get them off the truck. So I went over to Pep Boys and the tire/ mech working there (an ex LR mech) got them off with some serious hammering. I picked up a set of Hankook's for about $ 760.00 installed, and balanced. The truck rides like glass. Hope this helps.

 

Thank you SKYGUY! Yes it helps to know this info. Just out of curiosity how many miles were on your M Sync's. Mine have 77,400+.

 

Well...............
I bought My RR about a month ago, from a guy who bought it from a Lady who had it serviced all the way up to 100k from LR, from looking at her records (which he relinquished to me) at 77k she needed new. and it now has 151k I did not find any records of him buying new the whole time he owned it, well that's not totally true he did by (1) which he paid $141 for. It was the same one's I bought. That's kinda why I looked for those so I would have 5 matching tires.

 

Not sure if you guys consider Consumer Reports reliable but they had a "General Grabber tire" that did well in their 2008 issue for $184 ea.

My tire dealer said:
Goodyear "Fortera" wear uneven don't last"
Vredestien "never heard of them"
Toyo Open Country A/T "were quiet and did well in all terrain" (hence A/T)
Yokohama Geolanders $198 ea. did well on CR
Hankook he could not get anymore
Current CR says a Michelin Hydroedge did very well.
Have any of you purchased these yet????
Its another expensive purchase so I'm just being cautious by asking many questions to many before jumping into anything.

 

The Grabbers are great tires, I love em. However like I mentioned before, if you don't do much snow or off roading you can do better for an on-road tire with less aggresive tread.

Vredestien are solid tires. I've had Geolanders as well and they were just fine.

I pretty much order all of my tires from Tire Rack or Discount Tire Direct then have them installed locally.

 

Thank Chris X. I'm narrowing down my selection now with all the help on the forum. Thanks always for your comments.

 

On tire racks web site you can do a side by side comparison check reviews and tread patterns as well as depth.

 

Agree with Skyguy on that statement.

I should clarify that when I mentioned the Grabbers, I meant the ATII's. Apparently they make a Grabber HTS that is more of a highway tire. Might be worth looking into.