Winter Driving Experience

Check back in 3 weeks and i’ll probably have an answer for you.

Traditionally you’d want a 3PMSF rated tire for driving in the snow, and the Goodyear Wrangler Territory M/T tires on the Sasquatch pkg from the factory at are not rated for 3PMSF as far as I know. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re bad in the snow… it could be that Goodyear just never submitted them to get rated.

But I’ve driven on several mud terrain tires that were bad in the snow. So the lack of a rating was just another deciding factor (the pricing was the other) that caused me to order the non-Sasquatch Badlands trim. That comes with BFGoodrich KO2 tires, which are 3PMSF rated and is generally regarded as one of the better all-terrain tires on the market for driving in the winter.

RagnarKon

Check back in 3 weeks and i’ll probably have an answer for you.

Traditionally you’d want a 3PMSF rated tire for driving in the snow, and the Goodyear Wrangler Territory M/T tires on the Sasquatch pkg from the factory at are not rated for 3PMSF as far as I know. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re bad in the snow… it could be that Goodyear just never submitted them to get rated.

But I’ve driven on several mud terrain tires that were bad in the snow. So the lack of a rating was just another deciding factor (the pricing was the other) that caused me to order the non-Sasquatch Badlands trim. That comes with BFGoodrich KO2 tires, which are 3PMSF rated and is generally regarded as one of the better all-terrain tires on the market for driving in the winter.

The Goodyears on the SAS are not M/T for mud terrain, it's a new design for the Bronco since Ford had the Wrangler removed. There is a full video many months ago talking about it and yes it's not rated as of that video due to being new

The Sasquatch tire size is basically a 35/12.50 flotation size. Floatation tire sizes are great for airing down in rocks and sand, not ideal for snow. You want to cut through snow which means narrower tire sizes work better in those conditions. If you live in an area that sees a lot of snowfall you probably want another set of wheels/tires for the winter months. If you only get occasional snow you'll be fine but just be aware the Bronco will want to skate on occasion.

Anyone who has spent a winter or two in a lifted ride with big tires can attest to this. It can be fun because it makes your vehicle slightly unpredictable, keeping you on your toes, but it can also suck when you can't make the turn at the bottom of the hill and ricochet off the guardrail or can't get stopped at the light. Anti-lock and anti-skid have improved on this quite a bit but they're not foolproof.

ResidualGenius

The Goodyears on the SAS are not M/T for mud terrain, it's a new design for the Bronco since Ford had the Wrangler removed. There is a full video many months ago talking about it and yes it's not rated as of that video due to being new

Huh, are they all-terrains?

Odd that they would label them as M/T tires and have them not be M/T tires.

I was under the impression they were literally the usual Wrangler Territory M/T’s with the word “Wrangler” removed for obvious reasons.

RagnarKon

Huh, are they all-terrains?

Odd that they would label them as M/T tires and have them not be M/T tires.

I was under the impression they were literally the usual Wrangler Territory M/T’s with the word “Wrangler” removed for obvious reasons.

I recall a video with Ford employees referring to them as Maximum Traction and specially NOT mud terrain. They made a point to make the distinction.

4hi is essential with Mud Tires, ask me how I know

ChetC

The Sasquatch tire size is basically a 35/12.50 flotation size. Floatation tire sizes are great for airing down in rocks and sand, not ideal for snow. You want to cut through snow which means narrower tire sizes work better in those conditions. If you live in an area that sees a lot of snowfall you probably want another set of wheels/tires for the winter months. If you only get occasional snow you'll be fine but just be aware the Bronco will want to skate on occasion.

Anyone who has spent a winter or two in a lifted ride with big tires can attest to this. It can be fun because it makes your vehicle slightly unpredictable, keeping you on your toes, but it can also suck when you can't make the turn at the bottom of the hill and ricochet off the guardrail or can't get stopped at the light. Anti-lock and anti-skid have improved on this quite a bit but they're not foolproof.

Couldn’t agree more. As someone who has driven in MN winters for almost 40-years (heck we have snow 5 months a year) this is all true. I guess I’m looking for first-hand experience to determine if this is better than/worse than/same as one might expect.

Judging by the way I can drift this thing in the corners on sandy/dirt/gravel roads I forsee no issues with driving in the snow. Sasquatch package with stock tires... I'm very accustomed to snow driving as well though. Had rear wheel drive MR2 with street tires I took all over Colorado and had a blast driving that thing.

Cable Guy

I recall a video with Ford employees referring to them as Maximum Traction and specially NOT mud terrain. They made a point to make the distinction.

haha… okay

Sometimes I feel like marketing people should stop trying to come up with new marketing things.

So it sounds like Goodyear tried to make the Sasquatch tires a hybrid R/T (or maybe even X/T?) tire but just didn’t label them as such.

MT stands for maximum traction, not mud terrain.

Cable Guy

I recall a video with Ford employees referring to them as Maximum Traction and specially NOT mud terrain. They made a point to make the distinction.

There is a video from a Goodyear tire guy that explains the differences and it is M/T "Maximum Traction" as stated above. New Tire @RagnarKon

ResidualGenius

There is a video from a Goodyear tire guy that explains the differences and it is M/T "Maximum Traction" as stated above. New Tire @RagnarKon

AcesandEights

MT stands for maximum traction, not mud terrain.

Well…

A) That’s dumb.
B) Someone should tell Ford. ;)

RagnarKon

Well…

A) That’s dumb.
B) Someone should tell Ford. ;)

That's funny they have plastered it wasn't mud-terrain in 21MY and just looked at my 22MY order now and just says M/T but online now says mud too LMAO ANotehr awesome Ford change. Probably not even the same tires as last year now too. Maybe they got them cert'd Nothing surprises me anymore on this journey

ResidualGenius

That's funny they have plastered it wasn't mud-terrain in 21MY and just looked at my 22MY order now and just says M/T but online now says mud too LMAO ANotehr awesome Ford change. Probably not even the same tires as last year now too. Maybe they got them cert'd Nothing surprises me anymore on this journey

I checked the 2021 Order Guide, and it also said mud-terrain tires.

So either the Goodyear guy was blowing smoke talking about how it was this special "maximum traction" tire, or Ford never got the memo that M/T actually meant "maximum traction". I'm betting it is the former.

I mean if it's a mud-terrain tire that is also good on the road/snow/etc, totally cool with that (imo, at that point, it becomes an X/T, R/T, or A/T tire, but whatever). But you'd think if they developed this fancy brand-new tire for the Bronco they would send their tire in for the industry-standard certifications (like 3PMSF).

RagnarKon

I checked the 2021 Order Guide, and it also said mud-terrain tires.

So either the Goodyear guy was blowing smoke talking about how it was this special "maximum traction" tire, or Ford never got the memo that M/T actually meant "maximum traction". I'm betting it is the former.

Watching the video with Goodyear representatives and how emphatic they were about it, I’m going with the latter. The Ford website is rife with errors. It always amazes me how little many marketing people know about their own products. I was a marketing exec for decades so I say this lovely… we can be pretty clueless sometimes. You need good communication and relations between product management and marketing. I can see the gaps at Ford even from the outside

Cable Guy

The Ford website is rife with errors. It always amazes me how little many marketing people know about their own products.

Sounds like GY and Ford should get in bed with marketing LOL

If you're talking tires, maybe the tire manufacturer knows:

https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tires/wrangler-territory-mt
"An Original Equipment Maximum Traction tire (MT) that offers superb traction, on or off-road..." (emphasis added)

By the way, it's not a new tire. Ford spec'd a Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT and then asked they remove the word Wrangler from the side. It's been out for years, and although it may have been spec'd by Ford for their Bronco any changes for that are insignificant.

Alright so I got bored and got WAY too carried away with my research over lunch.

Many people consider the Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT tires to be mud-terrain tire, and from what I've seen, the Goodyear reps seems to be perfectly fine with the "mud terrain" label. That said, Goodyear themselves basically considers it to be a hybrid tire that is designed to be a livable/everyday tire with some characteristics of a mud-terrain tire. Essentially the vehicle manufacturers went to the tire manufacturers and asked for a mud-terrain tire that was also good for everyday driving, and the Wrangler Territory tires is what Goodyear came up with. "Maximum Traction" is Goodyear's special marketing term for their "everyday" mud-terrain tires. And while they didn't outright say it... it's pretty obvious it was designed to have the same "MT" initials as mud-terrain tires—clever idea.

They do not have 3PMSF rating, but they do have a Mud & Snow (M+S) designation. Obviously a M+S designation isn't as robust as a true 3PMSF rating for winter driving, but it shows that it was designed with snow in mind.

I'm really hoping someone from Quebec, Canada who happens to have a Sasquatch-packaged Bronco takes some tire/tread pictures for us. I believe Quebec (and maybe some other areas in Canada?) requires 3PMSF tires for part of the year, so I'm interested to see if they have a different tire on their Bronco than what everyone else gets in the United States.

This TFL podcast gives you a good idea of how Goodyear views the tire. They Goodyear reps dodged a lot of the more direct questions Andre asked, which kind of sucked, but it also gave some good insight into the shortcomings of the tire.

And now that I've spent almost all day researching a tire... I guess I should probably actually do the work I'm paid to do. :cool:

RagnarKon

I checked the 2021 Order Guide, and it also said mud-terrain tires.

So either the Goodyear guy was blowing smoke talking about how it was this special "maximum traction" tire, or Ford never got the memo that M/T actually meant "maximum traction". I'm betting it is the former.

I mean if it's a mud-terrain tire that is also good on the road/snow/etc, totally cool with that (imo, at that point, it becomes an X/T, R/T, or A/T tire, but whatever). But you'd think if they developed this fancy brand-new tire for the Bronco they would send their tire in for the industry-standard certifications (like 3PMSF).

Ford knows …they just don’t care.