About the Snowflakesymbol... its important to udnerstand the story behind this sign... Because of many years wheels for my offroadcars was i doing some research and in german offroad-forum.de had we often diskussions about it...
The fact as i know is, that there exists a OEM wintertire (which is one of the badest wintertires at all after reading tests about it...) which is used to compare to all other tires. If the other tires get better remarks than this special wintertire, they get the snowflakesign. Because the OEM tire is a old one and the new tires come with new, better, compounds is it not that difficult to get better remarks.
BUT! and now it comes, they will work fine for a few days winter but never replace a real wintertire. Thats impossible. And at all, or from all ATs, is the BFG AT still the one with the worst wintercompound. Even in rain is this tire to handle carefully on a 2,5to rig, on our lightweight Crosstreks is just not enough weight on the tire to make it working nicely.
I used the Cooper Discoverer M&S in 235/85 R16 in my old G class and was offroading with them too. This wintertire was going really well offroad and in one of our offroadareas could i outrun a HUMVEE which had big problems there on the wet/icy ground....
The right tirechoice is depending of to much factors and allways a compromise what you are prioritising on first place. I just take myself... i choosed the General Grabber AT because of the gravelroads i may drive here in Norway (and the look, it just still looks cool... ) but honestly? Its worthless.... a light SUV all season or a real wintertire with priority on wet roads would fit my needs much better than the AT. And when i have to replace the ATs will i go for such a alternative.
So whatever you gonna to do, think about what your real needs are, how many wheelsets you have or can accept to have. Then choose the tiretype fitting best your needs. (or just go for the look, up to you
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