Snow tires?

[J86]

See above post. But even if we do get snow this coming winter, it's not worth it to spend $$$ on new tires because of it. There might be ONE day of snow all winter, and it's usually a few inches.

Where are you going to be living around here??? Haven't heard you're moving to this area.

Working in Red Bank.

[rohan]

I've used studded and studless. They are borderline dangerous on bare roads, especially wet bare roads. Ride is bad and road noise is high. It's a significant trade-off.

As usual not even close to true.  The newest snow tires are very good on dry/wet  roads because of the silica compounds combined with the type of core and tread patterns and we use them on every department vehicle we have- around 35 vehicles in all.  I run them on our Durango-DM-Z3's (we don't drive our car in the winter) and they're perfectly safe on dry roads.  Blizzak seems to be the best we've tried but you can't run them above 60 degrees or so because they wear real fast.  We're using the LM60 and limiting patrol car speeds by policy to less then 130mph when we're using these tires.  

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+LM-60&partnum=26HR8LM60&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&autoMake=Dodge&autoYear=2012&autoModel=Charger RWD&autoModClar=Pursuit V8

[S204STi]

I actually don't think he's that far off on that particular point; I went from summer tires to continental extremewintercontacts prematurely this year because of tire wear, and I found an immediate increase in stopping distances during a panic stop.  I basically left two strips through an intersection recently with hardly any reduction in speed.  Granted, it was close to 80F, and I was flying.  As you get closer to the temps they were designed to operate in that improves, but they're still designed to give you great traction on snow/ice, not on dry, hot pavement.

[rohan]

He said bare roads not hot roads.    They will give you equal/very similar dry road performance in cold weather to your other tires do warm weather because the rubber and other compounds in other tires hardens as it gets colder which is the entire reason for the high silica content: superior grip/performance in cold temps.  

[Minpin]

Shit I forgot about this. Do people in Chicago get snow tires?

[rohan]

Yup. 

[GoCougs]

I actually don't think he's that far off on that particular point; I went from summer tires to continental extremewintercontacts prematurely this year because of tire wear, and I found an immediate increase in stopping distances during a panic stop.  I basically left two strips through an intersection recently with hardly any reduction in speed.  Granted, it was close to 80F, and I was flying.  As you get closer to the temps they were designed to operate in that improves, but they're still designed to give you great traction on snow/ice, not on dry, hot pavement.

Yup. Studless rubber compound effectiveness takes a dive after about 45F and in general sucks on bare pavement of any temperature. Logic begs the question, If they were "very good" and "equal/very similar" why still have dedicated snow tires?

[rohan]

Because you didn't bother to read the whole post? 

He said bare roads not hot roads.    They will give you equal/very similar dry road performance in cold weather to your other tires do warm weather because the rubber and other compounds in other tires hardens as it gets colder which is the entire reason for the high silica content: superior grip/performance in cold temps. 

Extremely elementary stuff really. 

[Byteme]

I've bought one set of snow tires in my life.  When I was a teenager in Missouri I paid $40 for a set of recapped snows, mounted and balanced.  Since then I've never lived where they were necessary.  If it snows where we are now we'll just leave the cars in thegarage and leave the truck parked at the bottom of the drive in case we need to go somewhere.

[2o6]

I'm about to get a New pair of all seasons. Ill leave it at that, all seasons generally get me through the winter ok.

[MrH]

I'm going to go with cougs on this one.  Studless snow tires suck when it comes to grip.  Infinitely better in the snow, much much worse in the dry.  Days with zero snow on the roads in the winter with snow tires is awful.  It's a trade off I make to being able to get to work in the winter.

[Byteme]

Studded snow tires have virtually zero advantage over non-studded snow tires when it comes to driving in snow.  On ice, on the other hand studded tires have a significant advantage. 

[GoCougs]

Studded tires have a big advantage over studless in snow. The Accord was an absolute MACHINE with studded tires; studless were barely adequate.

[NomisR]

It's snowed once here over 60 years ago.  I don't expect it to snow again anytime soon, and even if it does, everything would be shut down anyways so i wouldn't be driving... Summer is enough.

Actually scratch that.. I had All Season for my RDX which I took to the mountains.. drifting in an SUV was fun!

[Raza]

It's snowed once here over 60 years ago.  I don't expect it to snow again anytime soon, and even if it does, everything would be shut down anyways so i wouldn't be driving... Summer is enough.

Actually scratch that.. I had All Season for my RDX which I took to the mountains.. drifting in an SUV was fun!

Drifting in an SUV is weird.  I did it in an X3 once.  Weird.

[veeman]

I've lived within a 50 mile radius of four areas, three of which are considered snow getting areas:  cleveland, chicago, baltimore, and new york city.  In the winter from november through february (about 120 days), you rarely get more than 30 days of snow covering the streets.  Most of the streets and all of the highways are plowed in big cities and surrounding suburbs (if the streets aren't plowed, people get pissed and politicians don't get reelected).  So basically its the first day or two of the snowstorm, before the streets and highways have been plowed, that I find having snow tires to be useful which comes out to about 5 or 6 days a year.  Not worth it for me.

This is with the caveat that I change my all-season radials at 50 - 60 thousand miles and i don't have rear wheel drive.

Real bad poor visibility snow storm on the highway with a lot of semi-truck traffic, much better to get off as quickly as possible and use local roads or find a motel.  Not worth getting killed or stuck on the highway for hours upon hours (not a super rare occurrence).  Even if you have snow tires you're not going to be able to climb the highway snowcovered embankment.  You're going to have to wait for an offramp. 

[mzziaz]

Just got a set of Pirelli Winter Carving Edge delivered today.

Only studded tires are god enough on ice.

[CJ]

Continental snow tires are, from what I understand, pretty good.

[mzziaz]

Continental snow tires are, from what I understand, pretty good.

they generally do very well in nordic tests

[2o6]

Ended up with a set of Firestone FR710's.

[J86]

My first winter in some time, after spending the last three in Louisiana.  I'll buy some snow tires after I do a slow-speed slide into a curb at some point.  Because I'm smart like that

[SVT666]

The G37 got these installed last week:

Hankook W409 Winter iPike


Far and away the best winter tires I have ever used and I had them on my SVT Focus and the Ford Freestyle we had before the Explorer.  They are amazing tires.  And I got them for $583 from Discount Tire Direct.  Can't beat that.

[S204STi]

they generally do very well in nordic tests

Mine are superb.

[S204STi]

I personally don't find snows to be dangerous in the dry; I have had a few panic stops which didn't end badly for me.  Certainly stopping distances are somewhat longer, but I haven't overcome the limits of these tires yet.  I'll take some loss in dry grip and wear for the best possible traction when I really need it.  I've already driving some icy-as-shit roads up in the mountains where it was worth it, even though this has been a relatively dry year.

[mzziaz]

Mine are superb.

Wanted contis or Nokian Hakka, but they were both too much $$$, so got Pirelli Winter Carving instead. They are good, too.

[S204STi]

My good friend put Pirelli Sottozero runflats on his wife's 135.  They seem like decent tires, for sure.

The Contis have been good to me for the last couple of weeks, in snow and on ice. 

[68_427]

I can't afford tires.  Bald all seasons on the rear...

[MrH]

Running blizak lm60s now on the stock wheels. Had a local motor sports place put them on. Cool guys from long island. I think I found my new shop to work with. They broke off a tpms sensor though so I'm waiting for them to order a new one to fix it.

[Rupert]

All-terrains (M+S, LT, sipes) on the Explorer, Porsche doesn't get driven when there's snow. It's done me well so far. If it's not icy and I'm in 4WD, I can accelerate faster than needed. They do OK on ice, for studless.

[S204STi]

Running blizak lm60s now on the stock wheels. Had a local motor sports place put them on. Cool guys from long island. I think I found my new shop to work with. They broke off a tpms sensor though so I'm waiting for them to order a new one to fix it.

Very cool. Mistakes happen.

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