The short answer is yes in snow, not really on ice, and the gap between those two is larger than most guides admit.
We read 5,950 all-terrain owner reviews. Snow traction is praised in 16.2% of them and raised as a complaint in 1.5%. Ice traction is praised in 3.4%. Owners talk about snow four times as often and rate it far higher when they do.
Measured testing points the same way. On a crossover fitted with nine different tires on one November day, the two all-terrains stopped shortest, at 74.2 and 79.2 feet, while the touring and all-season tires ran out to 105.
Snow and ice are different questions
Treating winter as one problem is where most of the confusion starts. In the review data the two behave nothing alike:
| Praised | Complained about | Total mentions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snow | 16.2% | 1.5% | 1,051 |
| Ice | 3.4% | 0.9% | 251 |
Snow comes up four times as often and carries a far better ratio: eleven mentions of praise for every complaint, against four for ice.
The mechanism behind that gap is worth knowing, because it explains why no amount of tread design closes it. Snow grips snow. A tire that packs snow into its voids and carries it generates traction against the snow on the ground, and an all-terrain’s deep, open pattern does that well. Ice offers nothing to key into. Grip there comes from a compound soft enough to conform to a surface that is almost perfectly smooth, plus dense siping for biting edges.
An all-terrain compound is built for cut and chip resistance, because the tire has to survive rock and gravel. That requirement and the softness ice demands pull in opposite directions. It is a design conflict, not an oversight.
What the measurements show
Owner reports are experience. Test data is measurement, taken with the vehicle and surface held constant.
Two tests, two different lessons.
Against road tires, an all-terrain wins clearly. In the November 2025 crossover test, the two all-terrains stopped in 74.2 and 79.2 feet. The seven touring and all-season tires ran from 77.5 to 105 feet, with four of them beyond 90. That is a thirty-foot spread at the extremes, on the same vehicle in the same conditions.
Against each other, the gaps are smaller and unpredictable. In the January 2025 truck test, six all-terrains ran from 70 to 87 feet. The rugged-terrain Wrangler DuraTrac RT stopped shortest at 70. The Terra Grappler G3, an all-terrain carrying the snowflake, stopped longest at 87.
So the first decision, whether to run an all-terrain at all where it snows, is well supported by measurement. The second decision, which all-terrain, is not one the category answers.
The symbol is a floor, not a ranking
All six tires in our review set carry the three-peak mountain snowflake. Their snow praise rates:
| Tire | Reviews | Snow praised | Snow complaints | Ice praised |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Grabber A/TX | 531 | 22.8% | 0.9% | 5.6% |
| Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus | 225 | 20.9% | 3.6% | 2.7% |
| Falken Wildpeak AT4W | 1,200 | 19.2% | 2.4% | 2.9% |
| Toyo Open Country A/T III | 845 | 18.2% | 2.1% | 3.7% |
| BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 | 1,575 | 13.4% | 1.1% | 2.4% |
| BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3 | 1,574 | 12.7% | 0.6% | 3.8% |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Same certification, and snow praise running from 12.7% to 22.8%. Nearly twice the rate at one end of the list as the other.
The symbol certifies that a tire cleared a threshold: an index of 110 or better against a reference tire, on acceleration traction on packed snow. It does not say by how much, and a tire scoring 112 carries the same stamp as one scoring 160. Use it to rule tires out, not to rank the ones that have it.
The retailers’ winter scores follow the same ordering, for what a five-point scale is worth:
| Category | Tires | Winter score |
|---|---|---|
| Off-Road AT | 16 | 4.30 |
| Commercial AT | 3 | 4.30 |
| Mud-Terrain | 7 | 4.20 |
| On-Road AT | 23 | 4.00 |
| Rugged AT | 5 | 4.00 |
| Highway-Terrain | 25 | 3.90 |
| Touring | 5 | 3.70 |
All-terrains sit 0.3 to 0.6 points above highway and touring tires, which agrees with the measured stopping distances rather than contradicting them. The mud-terrain figure is the odd one: 4.20 although no mud-terrain carries the snowflake. Owners buying one do not expect snow performance, and a satisfaction score records what was expected as much as what was delivered.
Worth reading alongside: complaints don’t track praise. The KO3 draws the fewest snow complaints of the six at 0.6% while also drawing the least praise. Owners of a tire they bought for other reasons simply mention snow less.
Against a dedicated winter tire
The honest comparison, with the differences that actually matter:
| All-terrain | Winter tire | |
|---|---|---|
| Compound built for | Cut and chip resistance | Flexibility below freezing |
| Deep snow | Good, the voids work | Good |
| Ice | Adequate at best | Substantially better |
| Above 7°C | Fine year-round | Wears quickly |
| Heavy loads | Built for it | Often lower load ratings |
| Gravel and rough ground | Built for it | Wears prematurely |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
The compound row drives everything else. A winter compound stays pliable at temperatures where an all-terrain compound has gone hard, which is exactly when grip matters most. An all-terrain compound survives rock that would tear a winter tire apart.
Neither is a better tire. They are answers to different questions, and the overlap is narrower than the shared lug-pattern appearance suggests.
Two things worth getting right
An earlier version of this article stated both of these incorrectly, and they matter.
The snowflake does not mean all-season capability. It certifies acceleration traction on packed snow against a reference tire. Not braking on snow, not ice, not cold wet roads. A tire can carry it and still be ordinary on an icy morning, which is exactly what our data shows.
All-season tires are not unusable below 7°C. That threshold applies to summer tires, whose compounds stiffen sharply in the cold. All-season compounds are formulated to stay flexible at those temperatures; that is what makes them all-season. They give up ground to winter tires once there is snow or ice, but they are not dangerous at 5°C.
Who should and shouldn’t
An all-terrain is a reasonable single set if your winter is mostly snow rather than ice, you tow or haul through it, you drive gravel or dirt regularly, or you are outside the heavy snowfall regions. Snow praise outnumbers complaint eleven to one, measured stopping backs it up against road tires, and load capacity is where all-terrains beat winter tires outright.
Fit winter tires if your winter means ice, you drive in it daily, or you live somewhere with long sustained snowfall. Ice praise runs at 3.4% against snow’s 16.2%, and that gap doesn’t close with a better all-terrain.
Whichever you choose, pick the specific tire rather than the category. Snow praise ranges from 12.7% to 22.8% among six certified all-terrains, and measured stopping distances ran 70 to 87 feet in one test. The label gets you into the right neighbourhood and no further.
Key takeaways
In short
- Snow traction is praised in 16.2% of all-terrain reviews and complained about in 1.5%. Ice is praised in 3.4%.
- Snow is mentioned in 1,051 reviews against 251 for ice, so owners are not merely quiet about ice; they raise it four times less often and rate it lower when they do.
- In a crossover test, all-terrains stopped in 74 and 79 feet while touring tires ran from 77 to 105.
- In a truck test, six all-terrains spread from 70 to 87 feet. The category doesn’t tell you which is which.
- All six tires in our review set carry the snowflake, yet snow praise runs from 12.7% to 22.8%.
- The snowflake certifies snow acceleration traction only. It says nothing about ice, and neither does the tread pattern.
Common questions
Are all-terrain tires good in snow?
Yes. Across 5,950 reviews, snow traction is praised in 16.2% and complained about in 1.5%, a ratio of eleven to one. Measured testing agrees: in a controlled crossover test on one vehicle, the two all-terrains stopped in 74.2 and 79.2 feet while the touring and all-season tires ran from 77.5 out to 105.
Are all-terrain tires good on ice?
Adequate at best. Ice traction is praised in 3.4% of reviews against 16.2% for snow, and it is raised at all four times less often. The reason is a design conflict: ice grip needs a compound soft enough to conform to a smooth surface, while an all-terrain compound is built to resist cuts from rock. Those requirements pull in opposite directions.
Can all-terrain tires replace winter tires?
Where winter means snow, a certified all-terrain is a reasonable single set and avoids seasonal changeovers. Where winter means ice, it isn’t. Winter compounds stay pliable at temperatures where an all-terrain compound has hardened, and that difference is largest exactly when grip matters. All-terrains do win on load capacity and on gravel, where winter tires wear prematurely.
Does the 3PMSF symbol mean a tire is good for all four seasons?
No. It certifies acceleration traction on medium-packed snow against a reference tire, at an index of 110 or better. It covers nothing else: not braking on snow, not ice, not wet grip in the cold. It is also a pass mark rather than a scale, so a tire scoring 112 carries the same stamp as one scoring 160.
Which all-terrain is best in snow?
The category won’t tell you. All six tires in our review set carry the snowflake, and snow praise runs from 12.7% for the BFGoodrich KO3 to 22.8% for the General Grabber A/TX. Measured stopping distances in one truck test ran from 70 to 87 feet across six certified tires. Compare the specific models rather than relying on the certification.
Should I use P-metric or LT sizes for winter?
P-metric, if your placard allows it. Passenger construction carries about 22% less tread depth and a softer casing than the light-truck version of the same tire, which helps on wet and merely snowy roads where block movement under braking costs you. Deep standing snow favours the deeper tread, so the answer depends on which condition you meet more often.
Where this comes from. Owner figures are drawn from 5,950 reviews of six all-terrain tires, classified against a fixed theme taxonomy. All six carry the snowflake and all are well-regarded models, so this describes good examples of the category rather than the category as a whole, and there is no uncertified comparison group in the review data. A regional breakdown is not included: the location field lives in the reviews sheet and the link between that sheet and the analysed themes has drifted, so it cannot be relied on. It will return once the analysis is rebuilt against a stable key. Stopping distances come from published test results and are compared only within a single test, since vehicle, surface and date differ between them. Ice figures in our test data contain apparent transcription errors and are excluded pending a recheck.