[DJ]

Put a set of Michelin LTX M/S on and drive. Been there, done that.

I lived for 3 1/2 years at 8,700 feet in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Now, I live in the Oklahoma City area, where I was raised up. With 92,xxx miles on my '00 Tundra, and 64,xxx miles on my wife's '01 Sequoia, we have never been stuck.

Two weeks ago, I went back to New Mexico for elk hunting. Angel Fire had 54" of snow in 72 hours, so snow was everywhere. Part of US 64 from Clayton to Raton was covered with ice and suffered a ground blizzard as I drove through it. I drove at 50+ mph through it, solid as a rock, while other vehicles left and right were sliding off the road into three feet of snow in the bar ditches.

Last weekend, we had three days of sleet, about 3" total. Then it warmed slightly, making the surface wet and really slick. I've been several hundred miles through it with nary a problem. Next, we'll see what tomorrow's storm brings us.

Last December, I went deer hunting in Missouri. About 16" of snow had fallen a week before I arrived and about half of it was still on the ground. It was beginning to thaw, i.e. frozen in the mornings but nearly 40 degrees in the afternoon. I went miles offroad across pastures and such, with the ground surface getting very slick under the snow. I never came close to getting stuck.

And you want them to last? The Sequoia has used 1/3 of the tread in 40,000 miles, which leads to a forecast life of 120,000 miles. The truck has new ones after 69,000 miles on the old ones. They spent lots of those miles on mountain roads where they were nearly always on a curve, which wears tires much more quickly. The cost per mile is pretty low.

Finally, wait 'til you get them on a highway ...

No, I don't have stock in Michelin. But, I won't buy any other brand of tire for my vehicles, and my brothers and I all use the LTX M/S.