With snow and slush you generally want your tires to cut threw to the road same principal with hydroplaning your sort of floating on the water not cutting threw it.
The wider the contact patch the more you float on the snow instead of finding the road...an off road flotation tire is designed to float on the mud without sinking to the bottom, because who knows where the bottom (or where the mud turns hard to dirt) is....By the way this is also why alot of trucks with wider tires need 4 wheel drive they lose so much by trying to float on the snow. My favorite memory is cruising right on by a brand new Range Rover that was stuck spinning all 4 tires and I just rolled right on by in my Bonne

Don't you just love those 'pretend trucks'?

Sorta building on what BonEvilSSEi said:

X amount of weight on bigger contact patch (wider tires) = less weight concentrated on the small contact patch area = less traction because, as said above, you aren't cutting through the snow and onto a hard base underneath.

X amount of weight on a smaller contact patch (narrower tires) = more weight concentrated on the contact patch area. The tire pushes down more through the snow, gripping the grippier stuff underneath.

Use this for tire size comparisons if you need it or are interested:

http://bonnevilleclub.com/forum/view...410&highlight=

I guess that makes sense, thanks for the explanation guys!

Go to Tirerack, they explain it all

I agree. I like tirerack. They have good info and a lot of reviews.

Yes, the reviews are great for decision making. They have a nice site with lots of tire info.

nevermind, already covered.