Driving in a blizzard last night

[Pryme]

3 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

 

I assume your truck has the 4 auto optional transfer case ( actually not an option but is standard for the higher trim trucks ) and wondered if you ever use it. That same question would also go for dieselfan1 .  The reason I ask is because of my chat with one of the local transmission rebuild shops and his experience seeing this type of auto transfer case ( not saying the HD version specifically ) is prone to failure of the clutches due to the biasing slipping nature of them depending on the road surface one is driving on. 

 

Winter tires are an oddity due to how not just wear but age can reduce their ice performance.in speaking of non studded tires. Sure, any tire ages and has less ice traction then it had when new but winter tires I've found with what I have run in the past can have a drastic reduction in performance over what they "can" do when new in age and brand new. Winter tires are sure not equal in their performance either from brand to brand and years ago when the so called new age studless tires came out and the claims that some performed better than a lower end winter tire with studs, that sounded like a bs story but I found out from testing a tire shops trucks with various tires that it was not all bs at all. Its years ago now and a tire model that Bridgestone quit making as the DM-V2 came out to replace it but that tire for the first couple of winters was something else and defied logic on slick surfaces and am speaking of leaving the truck in two wheel drive and having performance of a four wheel drive with so so winter tires on acceleration from a stop but then age took over and the performance degraded and while still ok, was not nearly as top notch. Then I got a set of studless toyo observe tires of whatever series that was at the time some years ago and they were hardly any better than the well worn and aged blizzaks I had, that was a disappointment. The problem is popular tire sizes become yesterdays tire sizes and they drop the tire size for the winter specialty tire market. 

That’s because more and more ppl want these huge 20+ inch wheels. In the late 90’s early 2000’s the only vehicles with 20” wheels were gangster suv’s

 

ill stick with 18” wheels. More than big enough and lots of proper truck tires to choose from. 

[Pryme]

2 hours ago, dieselfan1 said:

They outlawed studded tires here in Minnesota in 1971.

Damages the roads too much.

If we could, I would be running them.

I grew up in that terrible state(much worse now it sounds like in recent years) and the roads were easily some of the very worst I’ve seen. The Saint Paul mpls area are so bad. This was well after 1971. Studs have nothing to do with it. 

[rjgvt]

35 minutes ago, Pryme said:

That’s because more and more ppl want these huge 20+ inch wheels. In the late 90’s early 2000’s the only vehicles with 20” wheels were gangster suv’s

 

ill stick with 18” wheels. More than big enough and lots of proper truck tires to choose from. 

 

The 20" wheels on my truck were standard, LT275/65R20. My truck hardly looks gangster as the tires are not low profile. I see very few AT4HD trucks with 18" wheels. The optional 18" wheels come with LT275/70R18 tires which are the same size as my spare.

 

Differences: 20" tire is 0.9" taller. 20" tire sidewall is 7". 18" tire sidewall is 7.6". Not a lot of difference between the two tire sizes available for the AT4HD.

 

@Pryme What size are your wheels/tires? I looked at Chevy's website and built a poverty WT truck with 18" wheels and it did not show what size tires are on the truck.

Edited December 30, 2025 by rjgvt

[Atlas]

35 minutes ago, Pryme said:

I grew up in that terrible state(much worse now it sounds like in recent years) and the roads were easily some of the very worst I’ve seen. The Saint Paul mpls area are so bad. This was well after 1971. Studs have nothing to do with it. 

 

Late winter when the roads heave and bust up is really bad. That and the use of car-eating, caustic deicers all winter long.

[Chuck FB]

24 minutes ago, Pryme said:

That’s because more and more ppl want these huge 20+ inch wheels. In the late 90’s early 2000’s the only vehicles with 20” wheels were gangster suv’s

 

ill stick with 18” wheels. More than big enough and lots of proper truck tires to choose from. 

 

In my head I was thinking back further in time, like when radials came out and became the normal tire that came on vehicles and the half ton pickups and the full sized cars of the time in the mid to later 1970's had the 235/75R15 tire and that was thee tire size for a number of years on vehicles of that size, and the skinny tall 235/85R16 became the tire of the HD truck market. Then the HD trucks started getting slightly wider tires and the half ton 4x4 took the big jump ( larger optional tire though ) of the 265/75R16 and that was seen as a fairly large tire and became quite popular ... until it too faded away because HD trucks started going to 17 and 18 wheels and now 20's are very common, and unfortunately with lower profile sidewalls and even lower side walls on the half tons that have 20" wheels. Mind you it doesn't end there as I know 22's are available from factory on some trucks. Yes brake rotor diameter increases and larger calipers definitely did play into this to a degree so it wasn't all bs but what to me is bs is that each time they increased the diameter of the wheel they increased the price of the tire that was made to fit onto that wheel even though the tire physically didn't have any more material built into it , it was like a scheme of build it and jack the price up and the factory wheels the same theme. Then on the other end taking what had been popular sizes and now not as commonly popular, make them hard to come by and jack the price up of them for those that still need those sizes. So your 18" wheels and tires to fit it which carry almost identically the same load as my 20" wheel/tire combo since my profile is lower and the actual air volume is almost identical to carry said load, but the 20" tires just happen to be a fair step up in price. I imagine they had this scheme planned out years ago, keep stepping up the size and charge more "just because they can". My truck came with 20" wheels, there was no option of getting 18" wheels, actually your truck may have had a bare bones 17" steel wheel as standard equipment. 

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, rjgvt said:

My current truck has Auto 4wd, along with 2hi, 4hi and 4lo. I use Auto 4wd frequently. After yesterdays freezing rain turned to ice then rain then snow, I used 2hi, 4hi and Auto today over the course of 80 miles picking up my son and family, get them to the airport and then back home. Drove on ice, ice on packed snow, snow and clear roads. The conditions improved from crappy roads to clear roads as I drove south to the airport then back to snowy roads as I got close to home. I was back home before the plow trucks were salting the roads in my town. I live at the bottom of a dead end road. I go up 2 hills to get to the main road. I’m retired, but when I worked, I never missed a day of work due to weather. 
 

This is my fourth GMC truck with Auto 4wd, the previous three were 1500’s. I use it when the conditions are variable with snow and semi-clear roads. Some towns here do a better job of plowing/salting than others. 
 

In reference to another post, we can run studded tires all year. I hear vehicles running studs during the summer. My guess is that the tires are worn to make it another winter. 
 

Several years ago I went to a wildlife management area after hunting season to track deer for fun, hunt coyotes, etc. I only had AT tires on at the time. There was a lot of snow and I got stuck. The plowed snow kept me from getting the driver door open.  I managed to move my truck enough to get out and try to shovel. Some locals helped get me out and I had to back down the road to a spot to turn around. They all had studded snow tires. I had snow tires before the next winter. 

 

I was wondering how many miles you had on some of those 1/2 ton trucks and if you used the 4 auto a lot on some of them. Also if you were changing the oil in the transfer case as a lot of factors would go into what sort of life a component like that would have, even what tires one runs, road conditions etc as low traction tires or light rear weight and driving style would all dictate how much work gets sent through the transfer case to the front axle. I can sure see though around town as one would be on and off the gas and if driven aggressively it would constantly be ramping up the clutches torque to the front to compensate for the rear tires slipping otherwise. 

 

Speaking of having good traction, other than specialty ice racing spike tires, running a good set of tire chains can sure make all the difference t traction. Of course a total pain in the rear to install and may not even fit at all on some pickups due to lack of clearance within the wheel well or suspension/knuckle components too close to the tire sidewall. And having to drive slow to be easier on the chains and hopefully on a snow surface where the cross chains can sink into the surface to smoothen up the ride. Nothing is invincible as too much snow and or hard snow and its not going to move but its amazing how a two wheel drive can outdo a four wheel drive in some situations quite handily with a set of chains and better yet with a 4x4 fully chained up. 

[Chuck FB]

2 hours ago, chwilliams said:

 

In Oregon they allow both, abet the salt in only certain problematic places and LEOs give tickets out like candy for having studs on past March 31. Put me in charge and both get banned, studs with malice for the sound they make.

 

For chasing storms in the Cascades, non-studded Nokian Hakka LT3's (stock size) have done me well for the past two winters. Only complaint is they wear fast, have probably two more winters (this one included) left in them.

 

Do you put quite a few miles on your tires a winter and the other key factor is if you are driving on a lot of dry warmer pavement due to the logistics of the cascades vs either side of the mountains would have vastly different road conditions as in bare. I have seen some comments under a tire review video mentioning the LT3 being longer wearing then some of the HD type tires that were softer and had extremely limited life as a result. And then if one is driving on much for gravel roads that have bare gravel on them during the winter, that gravel really eats some winter tires as they can't handle that. 

[rjgvt]

5 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

 

I was wondering how many miles you had on some of those 1/2 ton trucks and if you used the 4 auto a lot on some of them. Also if you were changing the oil in the transfer case as a lot of factors would go into what sort of life a component like that would have, even what tires one runs, road conditions etc as low traction tires or light rear weight and driving style would all dictate how much work gets sent through the transfer case to the front axle. I can sure see though around town as one would be on and off the gas and if driven aggressively it would constantly be ramping up the clutches torque to the front to compensate for the rear tires slipping otherwise. 

 

Speaking of having good traction, other than specialty ice racing spike tires, running a good set of tire chains can sure make all the difference t traction. Of course a total pain in the rear to install and may not even fit at all on some pickups due to lack of clearance within the wheel well or suspension/knuckle components too close to the tire sidewall. And having to drive slow to be easier on the chains and hopefully on a snow surface where the cross chains can sink into the surface to smoothen up the ride. Nothing is invincible as too much snow and or hard snow and its not going to move but its amazing how a two wheel drive can outdo a four wheel drive in some situations quite handily with a set of chains and better yet with a 4x4 fully chained up. 

I kept most of the 1500’s for 80k to 100k miles, generally 5 years. The stuff in my current truck came out of my last 1500 truck and then some. I’ve had caps on my trucks and stuff in the bed. The only time the truck is empty is when I first purchase or when trading it in. I’ve used Auto 4wd on each truck. If the transfer case needed service, it was done at the dealer. 
 

I’m 65yo, I generally don’t drive aggressively 
 

The manual for my truck states that chains can’t be used on 20” wheels. 

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, rjgvt said:

I kept most of the 1500’s for 80k to 100k miles, generally 5 years. The stuff in my current truck came out of my last 1500 truck and then some. I’ve had caps on my trucks and stuff in the bed. The only time the truck is empty is when I first purchase or when trading it in. I’ve used Auto 4wd on each truck. If the transfer case needed service, it was done at the dealer. 
 

I’m 65yo, I generally don’t drive aggressively 
 

The manual for my truck states that chains can’t be used on 20” wheels. 

 

Its good to know the transfer cases didn't cause issues at that mileage at least, hard to say what the dealer did for service as I can only speculate that if you had them drop the oil on the transmission and diffs for example, it would be rather likely they dropped the transfer oil as well. 

 

One of my female fiends who is probably about 68 now had said recently but referring to back when I would have been 44 years old that I drove like a grandpa then ( I am almost 61 now ), and I would agree with her LOL. Its how one typically has a vehicle that lasts longer and get considerably better fuel mileage vs driving fast and aggressively.  

 

Yes the manual does say that tire chains will not work on a truck with the larger tires and I can see on the front that if one bought tire chains that a chain manufacture lists for that size of tire it would go too far down the inner sidewall and not work at all with the upper A arm ball joints lack of clearance to the tire. Also I suspect that turning the steering wheel all the way may cause the tire chain to catch the sway bar and not sure about the inner fender liner clearance either. Cable chains "might" be an option but I have not gotten around to seeing if I can source a tire chain or parts there of with the exact cross chain length I believe will possibly work to not get too close to the ball joint. The chains would have to be snugged up good too and now allowed to "reach out" by being on loose. A lot of unknowns there and as to the rear axle I haven't noted items in the way other than the distance to the inner fenders. I can see why GM just says no as that is the easy out but I wouldn't write it off completely. For example my 1995 Chev half ton with the 265 tires that came with the Z71 it also stated that chains would not fit and they certainly do on both axles but again the clearance has to be kept in mind and the size and width of the chains. Tire chains used to be a lot more affordable as now its almost like buying a set of high end quality and size of studded style triple rails for a highway tractor used to cost to buy one set of measly chains for a set of single tires on a pickup. 

[lineman1234]

8 hours ago, dieselfan1 said:

That's nothing

Right, its normal. I never said it was a big deal. 

 

Very cold and blowing snow/blizzards are part of the Minnesota life, as other states. 

 

I did electric linework, the worse the weather, the more i was/had to be out in it. 

    There was no calling in saying i couldnt get to work.

Edited December 31, 2025 by lineman1234

[Pryme]

4 hours ago, rjgvt said:

 

The 20" wheels on my truck were standard, LT275/65R20. My truck hardly looks gangster as the tires are not low profile. I see very few AT4HD trucks with 18" wheels. The optional 18" wheels come with LT275/70R18 tires which are the same size as my spare.

 

Differences: 20" tire is 0.9" taller. 20" tire sidewall is 7". 18" tire sidewall is 7.6". Not a lot of difference between the two tire sizes available for the AT4HD.

 

@Pryme What size are your wheels/tires? I looked at Chevy's website and built a poverty WT truck with 18" wheels and it did not show what size tires are on the truck.

275/70/18 that’s what came stock on my truck. Same spare. 
 

if your spare is a different size, that can’t be good to actually use that. I’d be a bit worried to run diff sized tires. 

 

[rjgvt]

8 minutes ago, Pryme said:

275/70/18 that’s what came stock on my truck. Same spare. 
 

if your spare is a different size, that can’t be good to actually use that. I’d be a bit worried to run diff sized tires. 

 

I hope I don’t need to use the spare. I have the 4 OEM wheels with the BFG KO3’s in the garage for 6 months while my snow tires/wheels are on. I don’t know if one of the 20” wheels will fit for a spare. Maybe when it’s not in the middle of winter and I can go through the car wash, I’ll see if I can get one on there. The tire width is the same and only .9” larger diameter. 

[Chuck FB]

20 minutes ago, rjgvt said:

I hope I don’t need to use the spare. I have the 4 OEM wheels with the BFG KO3’s in the garage for 6 months while my snow tires/wheels are on. I don’t know if one of the 20” wheels will fit for a spare. Maybe when it’s not in the middle of winter and I can go through the car wash, I’ll see if I can get one on there. The tire width is the same and only .9” larger diameter. 

 

What a piss off ( just voicing my displeasure ) that somehow GM thought it was a perfectly fine idea to throw an undersized spare onto the trucks that have the larger wheels/tires. Of course it would be cheaper to do what they did and put the very same wheel and tire combo under the trucks that take the 18 or 20 inch wheels, I am only guessing they use a 17" spare for the low end trucks as that would cost less yet. 

 

So I have a question for you, what wheel did you source for your winter tires and also did you have the genuine self orienting GM tpms sensors installed into them. In searching on line I came up with nothing for 20 cheap steel wheels if lets say one wanted to install the same size tire as what is on our trucks. Yes one could buy a cheaper aluminum wheel although I don't think there is anything really cheap these days for even aftermarket wheels or at least up here in Canada. Also if one was looking for a wheel that had the same offset as the factory wheels, there is hardly a thing out there that I found other than by that company "replica". I am guessing the larger tire should fit as I believe someone else on here talked about putting a larger spare under their truck, may have been a 35 or possibly larger yet. 

 

I can see a difference in diameter would not make the diff all that happy with the carrier pinions constantly working to balance the two axle ends speeds and certainly not if in four wheel drive as then the front and rear axles would be fighting each other due to the difference in rotations per mile. The tire would probably work best on the front axle if in two wheel drive if forced to drive it for quite some distance. The long and short being that a tire would have to be replaced or repaired as soon as possible to make things right. 

[rjgvt]

13 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

 

What a piss off ( just voicing my displeasure ) that somehow GM thought it was a perfectly fine idea to throw an undersized spare onto the trucks that have the larger wheels/tires. Of course it would be cheaper to do what they did and put the very same wheel and tire combo under the trucks that take the 18 or 20 inch wheels, I am only guessing they use a 17" spare for the low end trucks as that would cost less yet. 

 

So I have a question for you, what wheel did you source for your winter tires and also did you have the genuine self orienting GM tpms sensors installed into them. In searching on line I came up with nothing for 20 cheap steel wheels if lets say one wanted to install the same size tire as what is on our trucks. Yes one could buy a cheaper aluminum wheel although I don't think there is anything really cheap these days for even aftermarket wheels or at least up here in Canada. Also if one was looking for a wheel that had the same offset as the factory wheels, there is hardly a thing out there that I found other than by that company "replica". I am guessing the larger tire should fit as I believe someone else on here talked about putting a larger spare under their truck, may have been a 35 or possibly larger yet. 

 

I can see a difference in diameter would not make the diff all that happy with the carrier pinions constantly working to balance the two axle ends speeds and certainly not if in four wheel drive as then the front and rear axles would be fighting each other due to the difference in rotations per mile. The tire would probably work best on the front axle if in two wheel drive if forced to drive it for quite some distance. The long and short being that a tire would have to be replaced or repaired as soon as possible to make things right. 

My winter wheels are GM and the same size and offset as my OEM wheels. 20x8.5J IS47. I bought them at a tire/wheel/off road shop. They were takeoffs and sent out to be powder coated black. The Hakkapeliitta snow tires are the same size as my OEM tires, LT275/65R20. The only difference with the winter wheels are the recess for the center caps are different. They came with Chevy center caps, my GMC center caps won’t fit unless I trim them. I just use the black Chevy center caps.
 

I bought TPMS sensors at the dealer, the same part number that’s in my OEM wheels, 13542523. Parts guy got the part number based on my VIN number.  I use an Autel TS508 to learn the sensors when I swap tires/wheels in October and April. The Autel reads the same TPMS part number on my OEM wheels. 

[Chuck FB]

9 minutes ago, rjgvt said:

My winter wheels are GM and the same size and offset as my OEM wheels. 20x8.5J IS47. I bought them at a tire/wheel/off road shop. They were takeoffs and sent out to be powder coated black. The Hakkapeliitta snow tires are the same size as my OEM tires, LT275/65R20. The only difference with the winter wheels are the recess for the center caps are different. They came with Chevy center caps, my GMC center caps won’t fit unless I trim them. I just use the black Chevy center caps.
 

I bought TPMS sensors at the dealer, the same part number that’s in my OEM wheels, 13542523. Parts guy got the part number based on my VIN number.  I use an Autel TS508 to learn the sensors when I swap tires/wheels in October and April. The Autel reads the same TPMS part number on my OEM wheels. 

 

That was a good fortune on your part that you came across those takeoffs, I wanted the same offset wheels as my factory ones but I knew the odds were not good of finding the very same style wheel for the HC as I don't know how long they have been out, maybe since 2024. So I found someone who was selling his 2022 HC wheels privately and had not run them for very long before putting on some aftermarket wheels and was looking to get something out of his factory wheels so I jumped on that as I wasn't hopeful I would find anything better price wise and just wanted to keep the tires within the fenders with all the crap that flies during the winter or for that matter on gravel during the summer. That's why the aftermarket mud flaps all the way around and the keeping the factory running boards on. Anyway what I was not up on at all at the time I had bought the wheels and then had the winter tires mounted up as no sensors came with these wheels as they would have been pulled to install into his new wheels, is that there was anything special about the GM sensors and the person at the tire shop was obviously not up on it either and sold me their brand sensors. Only after did I realize my mistake and never had put the tires on the truck anyway and bought GM sensors and took the tires/wheels back to the tire shop and they swapped them over for no charge and paid me back what they charged me for their sensors. So I had bought the Autel 508 because of wanting to lower the placard pressure but as per the theme of using the tool to reset locations of the tires I have not and didn't require to, which is why I was surprised you made that comment. So this winter when I took my factory wheels/tires combo off and put on this other set of wheels with the winter tires, I just drove down the gravel road although slower yet just to see if the tpms system would figure itself out and it did but just took that extra time and then the pressures jumped to the current tires. This coming spring when I put the factory wheels back on I will rotate the tires and set the pressures accordingly and I'll see if they do their magic as well. I have had an issue this last summer with the rear tire alarms going off if I happened to dip below a certain pressure if it was cooler out but has not made any sense as I lowered the threshold for the rear tires a bit more and pressure up the tires enough to get rid of the warning to turn that green and then lower them back to the exact pressures and still it would seem fine then but get triggered again but always some 15 or more miles down the road and in fact at the same location on the road which was at the top of a hill, the strangest thing. I've not had that problem so far with the sensors in these winter tires but I had also put extra pressure in to compensate for the forthcoming colder weather but have now lowered down the pressure just that little bit toying with it to see if it will trigger the alarm with these sensors. 

 

Back to the used wheels I bought, they are the clear coated aluminum wheels and it so happened that because these were made for the chev although the prior HC style wheel, the hub caps are exactly the same for both wheels so I just took them off before bringing the wheels to the tire shop as there was no need for them to be messing with them and damaging them for no reason, then I popped them back in before I put them on the truck. I personally like these hub caps in how they function vs the lower trim models that have the fake lug nuts that screw onto the ends of the studs, and on a work truck who needs to be messing with all of that, in my mind poorly thought out for those but at least someone grabbed a brain and made these for the upper trim trucks and don't have to touch the cap to remove or install the wheels. I've watched my brother struggling with those big plastic caps on his Ford king ranch dually as they cover the lug nuts and have to take those covers off every time the lug nuts need re torqueing.