Greets.., I had considered ACOS, but refrained as I chose to go with the complete set-up from OME, i.e., front coils, rear leafs, shocks, and ended up with a good level ride. In addition I went with an ARB front bull bar bumper with Warn 8000 winch which together dropped the front end down enough to gain a slightly lower front end, and thusly a higher rear end.
One can debate this, but going forward in deep snow with a lower front end seems to 'plow' down the snow so as to give two advantages; less impacted snow clinging to the under-body, and a bit more traction, i.e., less friction.
You will be able to adjust your front end height lower with the ACOS, and perhaps gain a bit of forward advantage. In the old days the look of a slightly lowered front end on muscle cars was known as; 'the California rake', where often larger meaty cheater slicks were on the back drive wheels.
Another thing about going forward in the snow is the concept of getting 'high-centered', and thusly getting stuck with an accumulation of a small snow mound directly underneath the under-body. Seems a lower front end wins part of the debate by continuing to sweep down snow enough to prevent that impaction from enough snow to stick to the under-body eventually adding to the mess that in certain situations such as going slow through a snow drift can end up with spinning tires while the vehicle is stuck on a snow mound, thusly high-centered.
Problem is the whole theory is shot down when considering driving backwards out of being stuck in a situation of your imagination. You might consider a rear bumper system, or a trailer hitch ball in which you can withdraw a small portable winch, (many are available), so as to quickly install in a stuck situation. Snow anchors, etc., are also available should there not be any convenient anchor points for a rope, such as a tree. Trees are somewhat lacking in the areas you intend to go.., right? Consider using Spectra rope on the winches instead of wire cable, as the wire can be very, very dangerous in frantic moments, (if they snap, or come loose from the anchor point).., especially when it is dark. Others might chime in about winching safety, or you can easily 'google' about that.
In the old days Jeep people often used narrow tires in which to get down deep through the snow in which to reach harder surface. That, and with studs could maintain a fair traction. Today many go with wider tires, and deflate them in which to hopefully 'float' on the snow.., or mud. However, you must have a way to re-inflate your tires once out of deep snow, etc. Your choice(s), lol. Anyway, if you get stuck be sure to keep one eyeball on your RPM gauge lest you red-line your engine in desperation to get out of the stuck situation, blah, blah. I would be concerned less about side wall issues unless there are a lot of rocks under the snow which could pierce your side-walls. There is a GoodYear tire with Kevlar which could be great to prevent that.
I prefer to not go into deep off road snow as the hassle of getting stuck is not as much fun as it used to be.., lol. If you wish to 'play' be sure to have a buddy-system, i.e., another vehicle, or two, etc., which can be certainly useful to help each other out of being stuck. There are youtube videos aplenty that have groups of 4X4 vehicles negotiating all kinds of snow conditions, whether on flat spaces, up, and down hills, trails, etc.
Be sure to have water-proof gloves, rain pants, and a handy small shovel. I have often dug down a foot, or three.., in which to make a path down to harder surfaces in which to back out of deep snow. I have done that off road, and amazingly on hard roads. Really useful to have a LED head-lamp to wear in stuck places during the night. Take your time as sweating will chill you down, possibly to a dangerous level leaning towards hyperthermia.
For my situation I use normal sized XJ tires called Blizzaks, made by Bridgestone, which have a thousand sipes, (tiny jagged slices cut into the tire tread). They also have a certain depth of a special compound that helps maintain flexibility of the sipes too.
http://www.bridgestonetire.com/tire-brand/blizzak Be warned though.., take 'em off for summer use, as there is no point to wearing down, or wearing out the special compound. I keep them on a dedicated set of wheels in order to make change-over just a short amount of time. I wish Bridgestone would make an off-road tire with the Blizzak process employed. Any other brand for that matter... One retail seller;
http://www.tirerack.com/winter/brand...nd=Bridgestone tests out tires, so can give you their impression of whatever tire brand you are interested in. I can tell you that in my local ice pond vehicle races.., Blizzak's are King, i.e., as stud-less tires.., imagine that.
Personally I have chains for certain issues, but they are really old school. Sometimes I get stuck, and I don't bother to put them on, I just lay them out, and drive upon them for just really short distances, say ten feet. Sure they become rather tangled up, but no matter. I just gather them up, and put 'em away, blah, blah. If that does not work then the pain of putting them on in a stuck situation is just a plain hassle, lol, but getting unstuck is a reward from the pain, lol.
However this is a modern age, and there are perhaps better solutions. Check out this link, and read anything, and everything about these traction enhancements.
http://flextrax.mysite101.net/ Sorry, I can't say much about experience with them, but they seem to be really appropriate for snow driving, whether on a road, or off road. I suppose knobby tires, (non-Blizzak types), and these would be ideal for playing around.., but again I have no experience with them yet. Thinking about it though.., as for me these Flex-Trax, GoClaws, SnowClaws, seem to be really good solutions.
I use Dynapro MT mud tires for the summer, and would be very hesitant using them in the winter with any kind of snow traction devices. Perhaps the combination would work, but I can tell you that I don't think so, having gotten stuck with a really good mud tire in the snow. I don't think the mtzp3 tires would be that great in snow either. Perhaps great in the Lebanon during the summer, as the Mickey Thompson's might be better in sand.
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/w...tire-shootout-first-place-hankook-dynapro-mt/ The Hankook Dynapro MT not only won the mud-tire-shoot-out for 2011, but seem to work in sand, dirt, and rocks really well too, but you'll have to dig around to find that out, lol. Use the jk freaks link below, as the link above no longer seem to dig deep into the subject as archived in the link next below, blah, blah.
http://www.jkfreaks.com/forums/show...ER-NETWORK-(Massive-Mud-Tire-Shootout-Results) I think the tire your friends use won 3rd place. Perhaps that's all they could find to buy in their local area. Me.., I had to ship a set from Washington State, via a barge to Alaska, (.33 cents per pound).
Personally I would not want a lighter front end.., in fact I carry extra gear in the cargo area for even more additional weight. I want to get down deeper in which to gain traction. Many in snow country throw in extra weight, such as sand-bags, snow machines, whatever... I anticipated this requirement of mine by using balanced OME coils, and leafs. I figured that the Old Man Emu products from Ozzy-land were not only primo for their tortured rutted washboard roads, but that they would work well on various similar roads in Alaska.., with miles, and miles between any help. So far I have been correct.
Other than the above, I think you'll do just fine with your present suspension system. Mine is a conservative 2" lift, and I do well enough with regular sized winter snow tires. Of course you could build a winter specific vehicle, but that's another subject.
Happy Trails.
