Deadman has the right concept of skinnier tires for winter overall. Skinnier tires does two things - allows the snow to compact more with a higher pressure on the ground for a given footprint, and it reduces the leading edge width of your tire track, which reduces the drag caused by trying to compress a wider track vs a narrow one.
This works up until the snow is too deep where if you sink too low into the snow with the narrower tire, your front end / underbody now becomes a plow, as well as a higher risk of high centering the vehicle, reducing the overall force of the tires on the ground, actually reducing tractive force. If you plan to go extremely deep, where high centering is a big concern, you'll want a wide footprint on a lifted truck, which will help prevent your vehicle from sinking too deep into the deep stuff.
I would say anything 15" or less, skinny is the way to go. All aspects of winter driving will improve. When it's 1.5'+, you want to avoid high centering.
This works up until the snow is too deep where if you sink too low into the snow with the narrower tire, your front end / underbody now becomes a plow, as well as a higher risk of high centering the vehicle, reducing the overall force of the tires on the ground, actually reducing tractive force. If you plan to go extremely deep, where high centering is a big concern, you'll want a wide footprint on a lifted truck, which will help prevent your vehicle from sinking too deep into the deep stuff.
I would say anything 15" or less, skinny is the way to go. All aspects of winter driving will improve. When it's 1.5'+, you want to avoid high centering.
