First off, don't panic about it. If you are staying on the road, they will be plowed quickly, and most people just run all season tires. The sun is so strong out here that stuff melts quickly on the roads. Where I would focus is getting caught in a storm and retaining good performance.
I don't know where you will live, but in Colorado, where powder tends to turn into hardpack in about 2 minutes, I think the BFG AT ko's are nothing more than acceptable, and they suck in deep snow. They aren't a bad tire, but in my experience the "best tire ever" label is way, way overblown. They are really good in comparison to a BFG MT, but BFG MT's that aren't siped are awful on hardpack and more or less just create a sledding experience.
You have to realize that the BFG AT is an all season tire compound with decently aggressive lug spacing. All season compounds suffer in very cold temps (they start to freeze), which is the necessary tradeoff to hot weather usage. The interlocking center tread clogs easily and has no channeling to speak of, and it is designed for tread stability, not snow performance. Take a look at the Dunlop Dueler RT to see what the BFG AT might look like if it were designed for snow performance.
If you are just going to be staying on the road, then you should get a pure snow tire. Nokkian Hakka Q's are excellent, and you will find that an awful lot of people run them in the Northeast and in the Rockies. Nobody else has ever heard of Nokkian. The Bridgestones are excellent performers, but they are poor in comparison on dry pavement.
You will not find any performance snow tire that has anything even closely resembling an interlocking tread. The latest models of these tires usually have an arrowhead center design with channelling outflow towards more aggressively spaced shoulder lugs. This is your balance between forward traction and lateral traction. The BFG AT will do reasonably well in forward traction, but in my experience, the lack of predictable lateral traction is this tire's major weakness aside from a lack of ability in the deep stuff. Braking performance isn't stellar, either.
The new breed of "studless" snow tires use a microcell compound that acts like a sponge to suck water off of ice, plus they have tons of siping. The compounds do not freeze at extreme temparatures, unlike an all terrain or all season (or MT's). These tires empirically perform near the level of studded snows. The truck sizes have quite a bit of lug spacing and with 4wd will handle full range of road snow in every area (forward/lateral/braking). If I was looking at driving in a storm at 15 degrees below zero on steep grades with fatal dropoffs, I gotta tell you, the BFG AT wouldn't even be on my list.
All you need to do is look at what tires are used in snow racing. The Bridgestones and Nokkians will be at the top. You will never see a BFG AT or anything like it, and there is a reason for this. And so for road use, I would simply ignore the idea that the compound and tread design of the BFG AT can even begin to compete with the microcell compound and siping of a studless snow. As I think of it, the Bridgestone Winter Dueler would probably be an exceptional tire for the XJ. Just remember that these tires have to come off in the summer.
Now I run trxus MT's, as everybody should know by now, and they absolutely smoke the BFG AT's in every snow category. I used to drive around with white knuckles on the BFG's, and the trxus are so good I get myself in trouble from time to time. They are so good when I put them on my XJ that I got rid of the Bridgestone all seasons on my AWD Subaru, which could not keep up in any category, and replaced them with Nokkian WR's. Now I can't compare them to say the Nokkians, because a car size vs. a big offroad size isn't a good comparison (neither is Old Man telling you that his massive 35x12.5 AT's, which have more lug spacing than a 31" MT, will work just as well in 235 size, which they won't).
The trxus grip on hardpack due to the center lug design with siping (I think this siping is far more effective on snow than the very limited siping of the BFG AT). They self clean the deep stuff, and they have far better lateral traction than the BFG AT ko's, which, IMO, is the most critical element of snow driving as it can be the least predictable. For combined road and trail use in the winter in the Rockies, I would not run any other tire. I've been stuck with 33" AT's just pulling into a camping spot with 10" of heavy snow, which is pathetic.
I'd still take a Winter Dueler or Hakka Q for pure road use any day of the week.
Your mileage may, of course, vary. But I doubt it.
Nay
. They are equal if not better than the BFG AT/KO's plus their cheaper :thumbup: . Although, you should see some of the tire guys faces when they go to balance them :roll:. Comical to say the least :shocked:
