Tire: Blizzak W965
Category: Light Truck/SUV Studless Ice & Snow
UTQG (treadwear): Not rated
The Bridgestone Blizzak W965 is a tire that was developed to provide snow and ice traction, with the ability to be fitted to commercial vehicles that require additional loan carrying capacity. While only available in a small range of 16" and 17" wheel sizes, it does come in Load Range E (10 ply) sizes within that range, which means it can be fitted to select commercial, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles that need traction in winter driving conditions. This tire uses a unique Tube Multicell tread compound with tiny pores and micro channels to disperse water that is created during driving in snow and ice. Very cool technology here. The first 55% of the tread of the Blizzak W965 utilizes this Tube Multicell tread, while the remaining 45% uses a standard winter compound. These tires meet the industry standard for severe snow and ice, and Bridgestone recommends that you only install these in sets of four.
The Bilzzak W965 is not the highest rated snow and ice tire for light trucks and SUVs, but that isn't to say that it's a bad tire, because it's not. It has great snow and ice traction, it's just not as good as the rest of the field and that's partly due to it's ability to be fitted to heavier vehicles, and that means the tread design and must change to compensate. That being said, for winter tires, these will last quite a while. So you'll be able to get your money out of them. Drivers note that these are some of the toughest winter tires on the market for trucks and SUVs, I've had a number of people note to me how they haven't had any flats, even when driving around job sites all the time. This comes from the 10 ply structure used by Bridgestone and is a definite selling point if you go to a lot of job sites or spend a good amount of time driving on gravel roads. These tires are also very popular among independent snow plow drivers. So while this isn't the highest rated truck/SUV studless winter tire, it remains a crowd favorite among drivers of heavy duty vehicles.
