It’s no secret that life in Canada means dealing with snow. However, what that looks like can dramatically shift depending on where you reside.

Even in Southern Ontario, weather conditions can swing wildly. Those who deal with constant lake-effect streamers off of Lake Huron or Georgian Bay often measures their snowfall in feet, versus the inches the Greater Toronto Area usually receives, so it’s not surprising winter tire choices are a heavily debated subject. Over the past two decades, my driving habits and the weather and road conditions I’d often deal with—mostly cold, dry roads, maybe some snow slush at the worst—made me more apt to go for a slightly more “performance” winter tire.

But no matter what I’d choose, it always meant the unavoidable inconveniences of seasonal tire-swapping and storing of a set of tires. On top of that, my garage has lost a significant amount of usable space with my wife’s car in there. That’s why this winter, having acquired a 2024 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road a few months ago, I dared to dream of a life outside these shackles. Could an all-season, all-terrain tire—albeit one with the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake rating—safely and reliably suffice?

“All-season” and “all-terrain” historically meant about as much to me as “all you can eat” at a restaurant, favouring cost savings at the expense of quality and sometimes performance—like the tire equivalent of serving reconstituted eggs with a tin of peaches in syrup on the side. No thanks. So, it was a bit of a leap of faith to outfit my new rig with tires meant to do it all, from summertime highway travels and rock crawling, to battling snow, slush, and ice. To say I was reluctant would be an understatement, even if the bold white lettering on the sidewalls looked pretty cool.

With eventual plans for much more overlanding and camping with the family, I fitted my 4Runner with BF Goodrich’s new All-Terrain T/A KO3. I stayed with the OEM sizing of 265/70/17 to minimize any hits to fuel consumption typical of all-terrain tires. Not to mention, staying as narrow as possible should also allow it to perform in the snow to the best of its ability.

Having logged thousands of kilometres crossing the continent and back a few times with this tire’s predecessor, the KO2, I was well aware of its prowess as an all-terrain beast, though it sometimes struggled a little in wet, snowy, or muddy conditions. The KO3 builds on the KO2’s strengths and aims to improve its shortcomings with a revised compound and tread pattern to improve snow performance.

For the maiden challenge, I decided on a brisk weekend camping trip to central Ontario in January, exposing the KO3s to a broad variety of road and weather conditions, and really put them through their winter paces. In-tow was a 3,000-pound teardrop trailer which would be my home for the weekend; this also meant the KO3s had an even trickier job managing the extra weight when braking and accelerating in slippery conditions.

Leaving my home on the Niagara Peninsula, the day started out with dry pavement in sub-zero temperatures, transitioning to a light, fresh dusting of snow around the Holland Marsh area north of Toronto, then to white-out, lake-effect snowsqualls heading up through Barrie. By the time I reached Muskoka, there was a considerable blanket of untouched, fallen snow with more still coming down. Eventually, I broke off the highway onto secondary provincial highways and eventually dirt and logging roads with little to no activity.

By the time I made camp on a plot of lake-side crown land north of Mattawa, I was rightly impressed with the KO3’s grip and control. In fact, I had taken it for granted; the KO3s seemed unaffected despite the massive swing in road conditions. I even tried to explore their limits on a wide, snow-covered section of dirt road with some aggressive brake-pedal stabs, trailer still in tow. But my 4Runner came to a halt in a very short, controlled, and confident order. At crawling speeds, the 4Runner stopped and started moving again repeatedly with ease, cutting through deep, fresh snow without issue.

With overnight temperatures dipping down to –20 degrees Celsius, most tires harden and lose some grip, but the KO3s seemed unaffected the next morning. Once again experiencing varied conditions on the drive home, I was still pleasantly surprised with their snow performance. I came away impressed and fully confident in the KO3’s ability to succeed in its all-terrain mission, even when that terrain is covered in snow. Its Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake marking is well-earned.

Does a true all-season, all-terrain tire really exist? No, and this will surely remain a hotly contested debate for years to come. But this test has assured me that the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A K03 is well-suited for my needs, at least where I live.