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I've tried both narrow and wide winter tyres on 4 different BMWs over the years. In deep snow, the only time wide tyres are better is when the snow is well packed and you are generally riding on top. In this situation it is easier to pull away from a stop and not dig in so that the car becomes high-centred, with a wider tyre. Basically, if you can walk on the snow without sinking in, then wide is better, in all other circumstances, narrow is better. In our neighbourhood, it is common to not see a snowplough all winter, so we can get quite a base of packed snow and ice.
On ice, my experience with modern winter tyres is that wider gives a slight advantage due to a wider band of sipes continually being pressed on to the surface as the wheel rotates.
In deep wet or slushy conditions and packed but loose snow, narrow tyres definitely work better than wide, as the slush will lift the tyre off the road to some degree if it is wider, but not enough to give any meaningful increase in ground clearance, just less grip as the tyre sort of hydroplanes in the snow.
As we don't see much deep and soft snow here, wider winter tyres work better for me.
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