As a preface: I live across the street from one of the 5 or 10 most visited ski resorts in the country, my driveway is a little over 9,000 feet in elevation. Our winter driving up here is a little bit higher end than what the people back in Minnesota complained about growing up. Most people around here run dedicated snow tires. The highway in front of my house frequently closes, and is often snow chains mandatory for commercial vehicles.
I was looking for an AT tire that could handle 1. snow 2. highway miles 3. light trail driving on a little bit of a budget. Went with pumas with kedge grip. I have heard the kedge grip means a softer compound and faster wear, but at the time I was looking for a year-round tire that would be "pretty good" at everything around here. I walk to work, most of my driving is the grocery store/post office run 8 miles into town once every 7-10 days, not a lot of highway driving.
Very light winter, 120 inches this season. Had a few 6-8" days where they handed the new snow like a champ. Handled the firm pack snow relatively well, but needed to go into 4wd a few times to get out of the driveway when getting over the plow berm. I am planning on picking up a dedicated set of snow tires for next winter, I think I expected a little too much out of an AT tire.
5 months and about 500 miles of varied winter driving later and I am pretty happy. They are solid in all conditions I put driven them on, only a little bit of highway noise, but not bad for an AT tread.
Im not to worried about them showing up right away, the quicker the better though.
