Locations in Utah: 23
First Utah location/opening date: Salt Lake City UTS 01 | June 5, 1985,
Common vehicles: Pickup trucks, SUVs, CUVs, modified 4x4 vehicles
Major regions/cities: Salt Lake City, St. George, Orem, Ogden, Layton, Logan, Moab
Road conditions: Snow, rain, some ice, dirt and gravel trails, hot asphalt, mountainous two lane roads
According to the 2020 census, Utah is the fastest growing state of the decade, principally due to migration from other states. Even Covid-19 hasn’t slowed down growth. It’s no wonder why! Utah has a lot to offer both natives and transplants alike, including its abundant beautiful natural landscapes, outdoor recreation, job and career growth opportunities and a moderate cost of living.
Pair a booming population with Utah’s often challenging four-season weather conditions, and you can see why it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re safe on the road. That includes making sure your vehicle is equipped with the appropriate tires. With its interstates, snowy state highways, gravel roads, suburban streets and famed off-road trails, there’s ample reason to make sure your tires are suited to your driving needs.
Discount Tire wants you to have the right tires for you and your vehicle, so we created a list of our recommended and most popular tires in Utah as well as the best snow tires for Utah winters!
BEST CAR TIRES FOR UTAH
Utah is a four-season state, meaning it experiences a true summer, spring, fall and winter. Summers tend to be pretty hot (up to 100-degrees) and winters tend to be pretty cold (often at or below freezing).
However, southern Utah tends to be milder in cooler months and warmer in the summer. Northern Utah is notorious for its snow—when it does snow, it snows a lot and often all at once! Rain is also a factor, although in general the humidity and rainfall are rather low.
With its variable weather conditions, it should be no surprise that the most recommended tires for Utah are commonly all-season tires.
However, a significant portion of Utahns do keep two sets of tires: a set of summer tires and a set of winter tires. Considering the extreme difference in warm and cool weather driving conditions in Utah, especially in the middle and northernmost parts of Utah, Discount Tire recommends that you switch to snow tires in the winter. See the best snow tires for Utah at the bottom of the page.
As you can imagine, the most popular tire greatly depends on the driver’s needs.
The northern region is also home to the majority of universities and colleges in Utah. When it comes to passenger tires, college students want affordable tires that still provide reliable performance for their sedans. The Sentury Touring and the GT Radial Touring VP Plus are the top choices for students thanks to their budget-friendly price tag and dependable all-season performance.
However, when budgets are expanded a little bit (read: parents are footing the bill!) there’s a definite preference for higher quality tires. A favorite not just with students and their parents, the Michelin Defender 2 is a highly demanded tire due to its reliability, all around capability, long tread life and range of available sizes.
The Continental Control Contact Tour AS Plus is a popular option as well due to its fuel efficiency, exceptional all-season traction and long tread life.
Another favorite all season tire in Utah is the Yokohama YK-GTX, a well-liked performance tire that offers excellent drive comfort, wet and dry performance, and value. This Yokohama and the Michelin Defender are the top recommended tires on Treadwell for Utah!
BEST TRUCK TIRES FOR UTAH
Trucks are not in short supply in Utah! If they’re not used for working on the farm, property or the job site, they’re often the family caravan vehicle or off-roading toy. Unsurprisingly, all-terrain tires are preferred for trucks in Utah, with the majority of truck owners de facto replacing their stock highway or touring tires.
But it’s easy to see why that’s so: Utah boasts some of the most beautiful country and scenery in the United States with a robust off-road, off-trail and outdoor recreation culture. Hot spot areas like Moab, Hurricane, St. George, Hardware Ranch, Diamond Mountain Plateau and so many more all have something to offer the 4x4 and UTV/ATV crowd!
Check out our list of the best all-terrain tires for more ideas.
Our most recommended truck tires for Utah feature the heavy hitters of the off-road and all-terrain world, including Falken, Goodyear, BFGoodrich and Cooper.
For starters, the Pathfinder AT, a Discount Tire exclusive, and the Cooper Discover ATP II are very good options for Utah’s off-roading culture while giving reasonable on pavement manners. And while they’re high performers, they're not “bank breakers” so they’re very popular with Utahn’s on a budget.
Our Utah Discount Tire locations can dependably be expected to regularly install Falken Wildpeak AT3W’s on trucks. It’s a customer favorite. This Falken is actually capable in all weather conditions and is backed by the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake symbol, so you can count on it for loads of wet and cold weather traction, both on and off-road.
Up next we have the Goodyear Wrangler Ultraterrain AT which gives thrilling on and off-road performance and is also backed by the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake rating, to boot. The classic BFGoodrich All Terrain KO2 is another beehive state favorite thanks to it’s 3-peak mountain snowflake rating, all-terrain capabilities and dependable traction.
But not everybody wants to romp off road, which is why we’re covering highway truck tires too. We recommend the very popular Michelin Defender LTX MS because it comes in a wide assortment of sizes (from car to truck), delivers a quiet ride, handles dependably and gives matchless all-season traction. Equally as popular is the highly recommended Bridgestone Dueler LX, a luxury highway tire with a generous 70,000 mile warranty, powerful all-season touring performance and confident handling.
BEST SNOW TIRES FOR UTAH
We’d like to restate that Discount Tire recommends that you change to snow tires for the winter season if your region gets serious winter weather, including snow, ice and even temps consistently below 45 degrees.
It’s pretty typical for drivers in Utah to keep two sets of tires, one for winter and another for warmer months. Summer tires are equipped starting in April, and snow and winter tires start making an appearance in mid October. We typically recommend all-season tires for the warmer months, as they tend to perform better in Utah than summer tires. But when winter strikes, it’s got to be a good set of snow/winter tires.
We even got one of our local experts on winter tires in Utah to weigh in:
"For Utah drivers, try finding at least M+S rating, or even better, the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake designated tires. These types of tires will offer superior traction for a true 4-season climate while still offering a great ride and overall life expectancy.
Utah also recently adopted a new law for snow season: you must have the above-mentioned ratings to drive up to the canyons and ski resorts. During ski season, it can really put a damper on your day if you don’t have them."
– Jake Smithson, Sandy, UT Discount Tire store manager
Utah can get some pretty heavy snow, although ice on the roads isn’t a huge problem in high population or high traffic areas like the Salt Lake City metro area. Utah cities, private businesses and the Department of Transportation (UDOT) do a pretty good job keeping the roads clear and de-iced. Still, it’s best not to leave your safety to chance.
Without question, the best winter and snow tires for nearly anyone in Utah are from the Bridgestone Blizzak line, which offers a wide range of sizing and applications, perfect for nearly any vehicle. The Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 is a snow tire with touring and performance capabilities and is suitable for cars, CUVs and even minivans. It features excellent traction backed by the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake rating.
The Michelin X ICE Snow is another highly requested favorite for passenger cars including CUVs, probably because of its great wet traction, mileage warranty and run-flat capability.
For trucks, SUVs and even CUVs, the Bridgestone Blizzak DMV2 is the preferred choice with its tight control and grip in winter weather conditions. For absolute mastery of the roads during the winter season, the Hakkapeliitta line from Nokian Tyres is indisputably the best bet, with both studdable and studded tire options.
Still not sure which tires to choose for your commute in Utah? Treadwell can help find the ideal tires for you, your vehicle and your driving style. Making sure your vehicle has the right tires is vital for driving safety, especially when you require severe service rated tires.
And if you have questions or want to upgrade your wheels or tires, give us a call and make an appointment! When you’re ready for your upgrade, be sure to buy and book online to wait less time in-store!