So not that it really matters at this point, but I’ll share a few tidbits…
My first Ranger (2000, extended cab, 2wd, 5-speed, 3.0) called for the 225/70/15 tires. At the time they wore down and needed replaced there wasn’t many options in that size. I actually ended up calling Ford (not my local dealer, the manufacturer) and asked what was safe to do (I really didn’t know much back then). They said it would be safe to go up or down one tire size (235/75 or 215/75) and 235/75/15 opened up a world of different tire options, so that’s what I did. Interesting enough, my speedometer was slightly off from the factory and the 235s corrected that. I never looked back with that truck, just kept going with the 235s.
I always ran a decent AT tire and found that for the most part they did reasonably well in the snow. Originally I got a set of AT tires for the front and MT tires for the rear for winter, but that only really worked better in deep snow. I did buy a set of tire chains and that 2wd was a tank with chains. I bought them from
www.tirechains.com, last I checked they were still making them in PA, so better than cheap China ones.
About 400# seemed to work good for AT tires in snow, but if it was deep snow and MT tires, less weight worked better.
Hankook Dynapro AT tires suck in the snow. Same with Nexen AT tires. Remington and Sport King were great AT tires all around but neither are available anymore. My parents have been pretty happy with Mastercraft Courser AT tires, I’ve been running the CT/CXT ones. Mastercraft is Cooper’s old patterns. My 92 had Kenda MTs when I got it and they did surprisingly well.