Sorry if I geeked out on this one, but I love this stuff.
I believe it has more to do with the tread pattern than the composition.
Common sense would dictate that big wide tread blocks have less biting edges than a tire with lots of edges (like a BFG AT), so you can deduce that most stickies have this weakness.
A big smooth face on a big tread block is what hurts snow traction.
Offroad tires are heavy. Heavy tires suck up horsepower. In snow you want as much wopow as you can.
The durometer changes with temperature. A typical auto tire (at nominal temps) is like a 70a. A sticky: around 61 or 62a
Depending on rubber composition the sticky will still have a softer durometer at a lower temp.
So it's not the fact that it's "sticky" that hurts performance in snow.
Things to consider: tread block deformation and shape will really dictate how a tire will perform but snow conditions vary so much that it's hard to point at one tire as the best.
Deep snow: you need a tire that will float and paddle you forward.
Hard Pack: you need biting edges and directional edges for lateral stability: you may even run a narrower tire to dig down.
Slush: Combo of the two.
Bad:
Better but still no diagonals:
Better:
Better:
decent pattern:
Just as an example: those trucks that run the Red Bull Frozen Rush race use a short coarse sticky tire with spikes:
What I'm getting at is that the fact that it's a "sticky" compound doesn't nearly matter as much in varied snow conditions as the tread pattern will.
Most times stickies get cut in pairs as "drive tires" and "steer tires" ask Robbie about grooving.
I don't think most popular dirt "drive" or "steer" patterns would be great right off the bat for snow, but adding diagonals and siping a set... I think you could make a set work well.
I believe that a properly grooved and preferably sipped short coarse tire would work well. (If you can add spikes, even better).
If you don't want to try tire screws or spikes, try some star patterns and go nuts with as many biting edges as you can.... there is a reason why BFG's and those michelin starcross tires work so well in some varied snow conditions.
So assuming you've to the power and your rig is nice and light: I'd start grooving and go have fun.
