Utility vehicles and tires.

This is a progression in my vehicles and the tires they had. This is also a history in my lessons with the fact that AWD/4WD is not the only major component of successful and confident driving in snow or off roading. Honestly, tires affect all cars and how they perform. A sedan will perform best with a certain type of tire. Same with sports cars, trucks, or any type of vehicle. This is about utility vehicles and their tires. First, let my layout a list of the vehicles that I have owned and the tires and drive each one had:

width/%  Rim  vehicle                   drive
245  /70 R16  Jeep Grand Cherokee       4WD
235  /70 R15  Nissan Xterra             4WD
245  /65 R17  Jeep Commander            4WD
195  /65 R15  Subaru Impreza hatchback  Symmetrical AWD
225  /55 R17  Subaru Crosstrek          Symmetrical AWD 
245  /50 R20  Subaru Ascent Limited     Symmetrical AWD
245  /60 R18  Santa Cruz                HTRAC AWD

All of these vehicles listed above were either AWD or 4WD. But they have completely different handling in snow. AWD or 4WD is only part of the equation. Tires make a big difference in snow. Especially width. Width will determine how much grip will be available. Width will determine how easily snow is pushed away. For example, the Impreza was horrible in slush. Driving through thick wet snow pushed the car around horribly. It also did horrible in fresh snow for traction. Although the Impreza and the Crosstrek had the same AWD system and had all season tires. To say that the 225 tires did considerably better than the 195 tires is an understatement! 245 tires do even better. I pushed the Jeep Commander all the time in heavy snow The 195 tires just will not cut it.

But there is more to this than wheel width and AWD/4WD. Tire tread is important too. For example I took my Jeep Grand Cherokee off the pavement quite a few times and it did excellent. I tried to take the Nissan Xterra on some of the same area and it failed where the Jeep Grand Cherokee succeeded. Granted the Nissan had 235 tires and the Jeep 245, but the Jeep also had aggressive outer tread where the Nissan did not.

Will 265 perform better than 245s? For Snow, mud, and sand - very likely yes. Especially if they have good tread. But it should also be noted the more aggressive the tread is and the wider the tire, the worse the gas mileage will be. Other considerations are comfort, noise, and tire roll. The more aggressive the outer tread is, the noisier the tire will be. The more sidewall a tire has, the more roll the tire will have.