Winter tires

Hello there,

I would like to know if winter tires are necessary for a 2019 4runner ? The all seasons that are on their are brand new all season tires , so will I require winter tires ??

 

It depends on how much snow you'll be driving in. The OEM tires were decent in dry and wet situations for me, but they lost traction in the snow occasionally. To be fair, the only time I really got scared was in packed snow and ice, and I was in 2WD.

If you drive in the snow a lot, I would consider some snow rated AT's. I don't think that snow tires are necessary. But, if you have the money, the 4runner would be a frickin' beast on snow tires.

 

I would purchase at LEAST a set of AT's that are snow rated with the mountain/snow flake patch depending on how much snow and ice pack you get in your area. Everyone that says you don't need winter tires because you have 4x4 shouldn't be driving on snowy / icy roads. 4x4 does not help you stop on snow and ice packed roads, it only makes you go faster which in turn puts everyone around you on the road in danger because now you can't stop with your bologna skin tires on snow and ice. Just my opinion. I used to live in northern Ontario and we got lots of snow. After driving with a true winter tire I would never go back to an AT or ever worse an "All-Season" tire in the winter. Like I said this is only my opinion but it could be well money spent when you don't plow into the rear end of another car on snowy roads in 4x4...

 

I would love to be able to afford two sets of tires for my 4Runner.

The factory Dunlop tires that came with my 2019 are at the bottom of the list of tires rated by consumers on tirerack.com. They are awful. My girlfriend's sister's husband wanted to buy mine when I took them off last week for the sister's suburban. I refused. I didn't want to get blamed for her crashing in the snow due to horrible tires.

Yes, you need to get rid of the factory Dunlop tires ASAP. Buy the new Cooper AT3 or Falken Wildpeaks, or anything with the mountain snowflake symbol.

I replaced mine with Goodyear Wrangler Authority's which have the symbol.



But I'm older and from Idaho where we don't get offended by tire noise and a stiffer ride.

 

I went with wildpeaks. 100s on the other forum rave about them especially in cold wet climate. I always went with KO2s and learned quickly they are awesome in the summer but wet and below 32 is like driving on banana peels. That said always kept 2 sets and ran defenders in the winter. Wildpeaks are a slight summer compromise but still preform good.