Vehicles using LT245/65R17 tires include:
- Acura SLX
- Buick Rainier
- GMC Acadia
- Chevrolet TrailBlazer
- Ford Explorer
- Honda Ridgeline
- Hyundai Veracruz
- Kia Sorento
- Infiniti QX4
- Jeep Commander
- Nissan Pathfinder
- Toyota Highlander
- Volkswagen Atlas
1. Bridgestone WeatherPeak - Best All-Weather tire
Let’s kick this list off with a great all-weather option in the LT245/65R17 tire size, the Bridgestone WeatherPeak. Anyone who’s ever had to deal with winter weather and deep snow knows that a lot of times you just can’t depend on all-season tires to get the job done for you. All-weather tires are designed with features that are much the same as all-season models but with better performance in snow, slush, and ice. With that in mind, Bridgestone thoroughly revamped the Weatherpeak’s tread with a dense pattern of sipes, the hair-thin slits that multiply grip with hundreds of extra biting edges that chew through snow and slush, giving you the advantage in traction that you need. Sipes aren’t uncommon, but Bridgestone’s sipes are a great innovation; they feature a full-depth 3D design that continues to deliver great winter traction even as the tire wears down, along with “snow vices” that trap snow in the tread for snow-to-snow friction and better grip. The Bridgestone Weatherpeak has the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service, and winter-weather testing has shown its braking distances are as much as 30 feet shorter than the competition. With that all taken into account, we gave the Bridgestone Weatherpeak a SimpleScore of 9.7 for traction. Steering response and cornering rank similarly high with SimpleScore; the Weatherpeak’s SimpleScore of 9.5 for handling comes from its rubber formulation and tread features that drivers love for unmatched road manners, steering response, and cornering ability. Bridgestone backs the Weatherpeak with a 70,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty, a best-in-class warranty that’s enough for our team to give this tire a SimpleScore of 9.8 for longevity.
2. Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3 - Best All-Season tire
Next up in our roundup we’ve got the Scorpion All Season Plus 3 from Pirelli. For most drivers of light trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, all-season tires are a great versatile choice and the best, most sensible jack-of-all-trades option all the way around. With a premium all-season tire, you can depend on them for a quiet, refined ride along with year-round traction, long wear, stable handling, and dead-solid, predictable road manners. The Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3 checks all those boxes and more – it’s designed for confident grip in wet, dry, or light winter conditions with a well-designed system of circumferential grooves that give standing water a pathway through and behind the tire’s footprint to resist hydroplaning in wet weather. For year-round traction, there’s a dense pattern of 3D sipes with angled and lateral grooves, helping to chalk up a SimpleScore rating of 9.7 for traction. Pirelli covers the Scorpion All-Season Plus 3 with a 70,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty, thanks to a durable, damage-resistant rubber formulation and robust internal construction, which racks up a SimpleScore rating of 9.8 for longevity. Handling and cornering are correct and quick, with a sequence-tuned shoulder block and redesigned footprint for a SimpleScore rating of 9.4 for handling. Overall, the Pirelli Scorpion All Season Plus 3 gets a composite SimpleScore of a respectable 9.2.
3. Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 - Best Winter tire
Let’s talk about our pick for a winter tire, and the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 is a great choice for winter performance for your truck or SUV. The Blizzak DM-V2 has the design architecture and technology that will let you safely navigate through some of the most difficult winter conditions without putting you and your passengers through a rough nerve-wracking ride. This purpose-built winter tire is loaded with next-generation features like a specialized winter tread formulation that stays flexible for traction in subfreezing weather and incorporates Bridgestone’s multi-cell rubber compounds and a hydrophilic coating. The Blizzak DM-V2 keeps the most rubber in contact with the road with a denser number of block edges in its tread pattern. Its tread compound is embedded with “bite particles” that let the Blizzak DM-V2 dig in and chew its way through snowy, slushy, or icy surfaces, earning a SimpleScore of 9.7 for traction. That enhanced contact patch also helps to enhance steering feedback and response as well as traction and control, chalking up a SimpleScore of 8.9 for handling. Durability is another strong point with this tire; while most tires will naturally see traction fall off as the tread depth wears down, Bridgestone designed the Blizzak DM-V2 with NanoPro Tech Multicell Compound for the first 55% of the tire’s tread depth. From that point on, the remaining 45% of tread depth is a standard winter compound that’s designed to still offer excellent grip on snow and slush (SimpleScore of 9.3 for longevity). As you’d probably expect, the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 is Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certified for severe winter service.
4. Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S - Best All-Terrain tire
If you’re driving a light truck, SUV, or crossover that’s equipped with AWD or 4WD, you need an all-terrain tire to get the most out of its performance potential. You can think of the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S as a pair of rough, hard working hands that are wearing a pair of stylish leather driving gloves: this is a tire that’s versatile enough to do it all. Let’s talk for a minute about the durability of the Discoverer AT3 4S; Cooper covers this tire with a 65,000 mile warranty, one of the best you’ll find for any AT tire in this class. When it comes to longevity, our team gives the Discoverer AT3 4S a SimpleScore of 9.2. In the traction department, the Discoverer AT3 4S gets a very strong SimpleScore of 9.7, thanks to Aqua-Vac channels with deep center grooves for wet-weather traction, a 5-rib Secure-Grip all-terrain tread pattern, Micro-Gauge zigzag sipes and Cooper’s Snow Groove technology that builds snow-on-snow friction as it traps and retains snow. If you have concerns about performance in winter conditions, the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S is certified with the tire industry’s Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service. SimpleScore for handling is 9.4, with steering response, cornering, and road manners that are all precise and confident, thanks to this tire’s durable internal construction that consists of a 2-ply polyester casing with two steel belts and a single-ply nylon reinforcement ply, which contributes greatly to its secure, dead-solid stability and road manners.
5. Continental TerrainContact A/T - Great All-Terrain tire
Time to wrap things up with one more all-terrain tire, one that delivers the best of both worlds: durable, dependable traction off the pavement with ride quality, noise levels, and road manners that are always refined and composed on the highway. The Continental TerrainContact A/T gets an overall SimpleScore of 9.0, rating a very strong traction score of 9.6 thanks to Continental’s +Silane tread formulation and TractionPlus design. The TractionPlus system incorporates a closed shoulder, full-depth sipes, and deep traction grooves for truly dependable grip on or off-road or wintry conditions. The TerrainContact A/T is tough too, with twin steel belts, a 2-ply polyester casing, and a spiral-wound polyamide layer for a confident, secure sense of stability at highway speeds. Continental covers the TerrainContact A/T with a 60,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty, and our team at SimpleTire gives this tire a SimpleScore of 8.4 for longevity. The closed shoulder and reinforced casing of the TerrainContact A/T all help to enhance steering response, cornering, and braking performance, chalking up a SimpleScore of 9.1 for handling. Bonus: the TerrainContact A/T is available with an outlined white letter sidewall that looks great on any truck.
Buy LT245/65R17 tires online
Whether you drive a GMC Acadia, Toyota Highlander, or something else, SimpleTire has a set of the best LT245/65R17 tires that meet your needs at a great price!