^^^^^^^^^ This exactly. When you want more grip (offroad or on snow/ice) dropping the pressure in the tires by only 4-6 pounds will make a big difference, also two bags of sand are easy to manage, cheap and help also.

 

I spent about 8 hours driving home from skiing at Grand Targhee yesterday, plus about an hour getting there from Jackson (not counting the forty minutes waiting for Teton Pass to open)—so basically from western Wyoming, into Idaho, and then back across a good portion of Montana. 375ish miles, Google says 6.5 hours, and the difference was in road conditions. With Nokian LT2s on it, the truck performed great, on everything from visible pavement with a "powdered sugar"-looking coat of snow to full-on packed snow and some ice. Yes, I still had to reduce speed a fair bit, but I never found the performance of the truck (or tires) lacking, and being able to run Google maps on Android Auto meant that I had a better idea of where the corners were during low-visibility stretches.

 

Ive drove my first winter in alberta w the 20" hankooks and they were fine for winter. I then flew into regina and drove another f150 with the goodyear tires and they really did suck Huge difference in traction. I currently have the nokians and they are a step up over the hankooks obviously. For me it matters being able to stop half a truck length shorter. Thats alot of energy to put into the back of another vehicle when you dont saving my insurance rates. Free tires really if you look at it that way. The absolute best snow vehicle i ever had was a 2006 honda crv with blizzack tires. A complete tank. Ive had cj and tj jeeps tacomas etc. my worst driving experience was a 99 chev sierra. The abs system was a joke. My two bits anyway.

 

Got a couple inches of snow here last night. It was cold, so the snow is the light fluffy stuff. With this type of snow at least, you have to be very easy on the accelerator to keep from spinning a little when taking off.

Surprisingly, traction/stability control will allow a decent amount of spinning before kicking in, even a little sliding.

I just drove in 2wd as the main roads were pretty clean. I did have the traction control kick in once as I was doing about 65 mph on the interstate.

I'll keep driving it around through some more snow before making a final decision on whether or not to put sandbags in the back.

I do have a spray in Line-X liner, Dee-Zee bed mat, and roll up tonneau cover so that probably adds around 200 lbs in the back total. Also, I've got the factory 20's with the factory Hankook ATM tires.

 

Stock Goodyear All-Terrain Adventures (snow rated tires), 400 lbs in bed and 4A. My truck goes anywhere.

 

You have the LT 18's?

 

Yes. They are the 18” LT “C” load rated factory upgrade. Been great tires so far.

 

Put it in sport. Turn traction control off and letter rip tater chip.

 

Well the 275/55r20's are poop in the snow. I have 300lbs of sand in the back and have to use 4wd even on packed roads if I want to get anywhere. The non LT aren't sever snow rated

 

I'm not arguing with your experience with the 20" GYWA w/K tires, I'm just sayin that my experience was completely different. Bed cover (90lbs) and truck stuff (another 30lbs), so 120lbs in the bed, total. Put it in 4A and then 4H, and never had a problem driving in 18" or so of snow. I got stuck momentarily at the bottom of a slight hill where there was a snow bank 4' tall, which I couldn't see when I went down the one-way street. Rocked back and forth a few times, got some running room, and whee! back up the hill I went.

That's as close to stuck as I've gotten in this truck.

-John