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Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:45 pm

Hey all:

I have the Gowesty 16" Wheel and tire package and unfortunately for me they came with some awesome 3 season tires, but they SUCK in the snow and are dangerous to drive. The tires are 215/60-16 and I'm wondering what other sizes would fit. I would love to run BFG AT tires.

Anyone have any suggestions on what they are using on those wheels besides the Michelin HydroEdge? Something with more meat for winter driving would be great.

Thanks!

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:04 pm

Can you find something sort of like these?

http://www.busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=ICEBEAR16

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:08 pm

Those are okay, but I'm really wondering if the BFG All-Terrain tires will fit. They look the best and are rated for rediculous snow (like we just got up here in VT) ha!

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:08 pm

For snow and ice, the BFG ATs are not so good. The ultimate snow/ice tire I have found are made by Green Diamond in Iceland. I have them on my subaru, I don't know if you will find a size to fit your application. If you do, you will be very happy. They are significantly better than Blizzacks, which were the best ice tire for the last few years.

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:27 pm

Maybe something like this would be better for you in Bulington....

http://nokiantires.com/en/tire_hakkacq.aspx?season=winter

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:34 pm

Ah yes... The Hakkepellittas or whatever they are. Everyone up here seems to have them. I gotta tell ya though, I like the raised white lettering and all season performance that the BFG's could offer.... It's a toss-up I guess.

Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:57 pm

Randy in Maine wrote: Maybe something like this would be better for you in Bulington....

http://nokiantires.com/en/tire_hakkacq.aspx?season=winter

I my Hakkas!

Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:00 pm

Here's a pic of the wheels.... I suppose I should have specified a tire when I got them, but Gowesty is obviously not dealing with snow! ;-)

Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:13 pm

BFG AT's suck in the snow, check the vid below, a syncro completely powerless to escape from ~8" of snow, if you check the second vid you can see that it has BFG ATs on it.

The only thing that works well in snow is LOTS of sipes, any of the Hakka tires will be orders of magnitude better than the BFG ATs, greendiamond, blizzaks all of them have the same siped design and work very well. You can also get your tires sipped at a good tire shop if you live in snow country.

The Hakka CS (available in many 16" sizes) is a year round tire that has a snow tire sipped design and runs very quiet on the highway, should be good for 70k and has great snow traction, the only place the BFG AT will be better then the hakka will be in sticky mud.

Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:07 pm

jackbombay wrote: BFG AT's suck in the snow, check the vid below, a syncro completely powerless to escape from ~8" of snow, if you check the second vid you can see that it has BFG ATs on it.

The only thing that works well in snow is LOTS of sipes, any of the Hakka tires will be orders of magnitude better than the BFG ATs, greendiamond, blizzaks all of them have the same siped design and work very well. You can also get your tires sipped at a good tire shop if you live in snow country.

The Hakka CS (available in many 16" sizes) is a year round tire that has a snow tire sipped design and runs very quiet on the highway, should be good for 70k and has great snow traction, the only place the BFG AT will be better then the hakka will be in sticky mud.

Not necessarily true. The BFG AT's are better than most in the snow primarily because they have a lot of biting edges (sipes), and can throw the snow out of the wider and blockier tread pattern. I'm not attempting to compare the BFGs and Hakkas as they are very different designs, and comparisons would be silly.

BTW, the worst place to take BFG ATs is in sticky mud! They absolutely will not work, and will not clean themselves of the muck. That's for the Mud-Terrains (though they're not even the best in this category). After years of four wheeling Jeeps with both types of tires in many conditions, I have found the BFG ATs to be a relatively even wearing road tire, great in the wet, and decent in the snow, and probably one of the best all-around severe weather tire available. It just depends on how and where you plan to use them.

As for the guy in the blue Syncro, I know him well, and at the time of the video he was off on a 4x4 trail out near Tahoe. He didn't have his tires aired down (which probably would have helped him extricate himself quicker in this situation), and actually pulled out on his own right after the camera was shut off. Any vehicle, with nearly any road legal tire would have suffered the same fate, likely worse. The BFGs are great tires, not perfect, but a great tire. There's more than just marketing behind the decades of success behind this tread pattern and construction. As for the Hakkas, I have no personal experience. However, they do not appear to be off-road oriented, but sound great for simple ice and snow road travel. For that I would say they were fine, but I would never intentionally take them offroad.

Lundy

Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:20 pm

I have the Hakkas on my Syncro on GoWesty 16" rims. I truly love them. I had the BFG's on my Land Rover they are positively scary in the snow. I switched them out to Nokians and the difference is staggering. My wife was so impressed, she had me switch out the Range Rover's tires as well to the Nokians.

To drive the point home, on Sunday, up at old Snowbowl, we parked next to a Toy 4wd truck with the BFG's. The lot had melted and refrozen to a nice slick surface by the end of the day. The Toy just spun wheels and had to be pushed out of the spot by 4 of us. We just put it in reverse and went on as normal with the Nokians.

The BFG's look cool.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:55 am

Hey Dogpilot,

What size did you put on? I'm in the same situation as the original poster: GoWesty 16"s w/ the Michelins but want to get something a little better for the snow. Looks like the CS is available in either 205-65 or 215-65.

R.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:03 am

Looks like the Hakkes are the way to go!.... Thanks dogpilot! ;-)

Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:12 am

Lundy wrote:
Not necessarily true. The BFG AT's are better than most in the snow primarily because they have a lot of biting edges (sipes),

But they have far less biting edges than a hakka, and comparing to an all season (non "traction" tire) tire is stacking the deck in the ATs favor, IMO.

Lundy wrote: and can throw the snow out of the wider and blockier tread pattern.

A good snow tire holds the snow though, snow and mud need notably different tires for best results.

Lundy wrote:
BTW, the worst place to take BFG ATs is in sticky mud!

But the Hakka would be worse in that situation was my only point there.

I have never owned BFG ATs, but I have seen several 4X4 trucks with them in the snow first hand to know they are weak when it comes to snow traction. 2 friends of mine had virtually identical Toyota trucks, one had BFG ATs and the other had a hakka style snow tire, you'd have though the one with BFG AT's didn't have 4wd, pathetic by comparisson.

I've lived through many many winters of 500" plus of snow fall, one 900" year and a 700" year, I speak from lots of experience when I talk about snow traction.

Lundy wrote: Hakkas, I have no personal experience. However, they do not appear to be off-road oriented, but sound great for simple ice and snow road travel. For that I would say they were fine, but I would never intentionally take them offroad.

I have taken my Hakkas off road a fair bit, as long as the "road" is dry they do fantastic, all those working edges that help in the snow so much do the same thing in the dirt. I have not driven them in mud, but I am pretty confident they would clog up pretty quick and be useless, but I have chains for that, and also would never intentionally head into muddy terrain in any vehicle regardless of tires solely because of the road damage that results from driving a vehicle on/in mud.

Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:39 pm

Again, my original point is not to suggest one over the other, rather it depends upon what they are being used for. In my experience the BFGs are fine for snow (not ice), and are in fact better than many other commonly used tires (Hydroedge, Vancos, etc.).

If you're commonly dealing with ice conditions, studs or snow tires sound like the way to go. The hakkas sound great, but if it suits your needs, the BFGs are a nice year round alternative as well.

Cheers!

Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:35 pm

The Syncro has Nokian Hakka's in 215/65 R16. These are about as big as you can get on a Syncro without some interference or requiring a bit of mods. I like the change in gearing it offered for the 2.4, a whole lot cheaper than re-gearing the tranny.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:09 am

I agree with dog pilot. I have the 215/65/16 yokohamas on my 2WD 82 Vanagon. They just clear the front fender front opening and the r/r just clears the sliding door. I have the Go Westy 16 rims they sell.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:56 am

I am running 225/70/16 Michelin Cross Terrains
Fit fine, ok in snow, quiet.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:40 am

Dogpilot wrote: The Syncro has Nokian Hakka's in 215/65 R16. These are about as big as you can get on a Syncro without some interference or requiring a bit of mods.

rsxsr wrote: I agree with dog pilot. I have the 215/65/16 yokohamas on my 2WD 82 Vanagon. They just clear the front fender front opening and the r/r just clears the sliding door. I have the Go Westy 16 rims they sell.

mtac wrote: I am running 225/70/16 Michelin Cross Terrains
Fit fine, ok in snow, quiet.

Mtmac, are you running the GoWesty wheels also? The reason I ask is because part of the tire size constraint issues that Dogpilot and rsxsr have have refered to are due to the GoWesty wheels having a 23mm offset. This pushes the wheel further outboard than normal. With different offset wheels (edit) as well different width wheels, larger tires can be mounted with no clearance problems. I'm just saying that you have to compare apples to apples, if you know what I mean.

Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:30 pm

Loogy, At the time I was trying to finish the conversion to leave on vacation with the Vanagon. Go Westy had complete kits guaranteed to fit. I had seen numerous posts about how to make other wheels fit and just did not have the time. The offset seemed extreme, but the front tire is right up against the upper ball joint. These are 7.5 inch rims I believe. Don't know how much more you could move the offset in. I notice in your signature you specialize in wheel conversions. It's not an impossible task to fit other rims, but my guess is you spent some time figuring it out. Hopefully this post will help you recoup. 8)