Originally posted by OffroadX:
Eh? Ever see the tires they run on World Rally cars for snow rallies? They look like freakin' temporary donut spares, skinny little suckers. Yeah, they're studded too, but they use the narrow tire to increase contact pressure to get the tire to bite into the surface better. Same applies here. You can't get a 2-ton SUV to "float" on the snow short of a set of Mattracks, the tires WILL pack the snow under them. Sure that's fine, until you need more traction, in which case an aired-down tire will be less prone to bite into the packed snow and will just spin on top of it.
Seriously, airing up is the answer. You have better clearance, higher contact pressure, and better traction as a result. Not to mention the cold temps will have already knocked your psi down a bit.
Brent
Unless you are on a PACKED road (like the WRC guys), airing up will get you nothing but stuck. Ask the guy driving the Dodge cummings that we pulled out of the snow last Saturday. If the snow is deep enough for you to high center in then no amount of extra air in your tires is going to give you enough ground clearance to make a damn bit of difference.
We wheel in snow 2+ feet deep regularly. The guy in the dodge was chained up with street pressure and all it got him was stuck. After we had him air down and we got him out of the drift he was stuck in he was able to continue on his merry way.
If you're wheeling in real snow your best bet is to give yourself as much floatation as possible.
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