Snow tires, your favorites?

[sledhaulingmedic]

Well, I go the "All terrain" route for winter tires on my PU, then switch to all Season for summer (as I still need some tread, but want to improve the mileage). Winter sneakers are All terrain TA KO's. Needless to say, great for a light duty truck, not so good for a smaller car or even a Subie-Doo

What's your preference for winter treads?

[WoodCore]

I scored a free set of used (1 season) Bridgestone Blizzaks for last winter and was truly impressed with the difference as compared to an all-season tire. The traction and control in winter driving situations has always been great in my Outback even with regular all-season treads but the addition of these "snowshoes" added a tremendous amount of traction especially during braking. Glad I had had em during my seven hour hell ride back from Smuggs during that April blizzard, they came in handy for sure.

[Talisman]

Last winter I switched to Winter Force tires for my Cherokee and was really impressed with the control on ice. I had two opportunities to but the tires through their paces once in 4 x 4 and once in RWD. The RWD was on black ice on I-91 when most vehicles in front of me spun into the guard rails. I'm a believer in ice and snow rated tires and driving at reasonable speeds.

[Hawkshot99]

I have all season BFG's on my Honda CRV. Only time I have struggled for traction was playing in a field with over 2 feet of snow. Even then it was a result of ground clearance mostly.

At this point I am a poor college kid who doesnt want to buy winter tires.

[bigbog]

Nice ideas guys.. I'm in the mode for picking up a dedicated snow tire for my Nissan X as my Cepak Mud Countrys with 1yr of pavement wear show quite a bit of flat rubber....that isn't sitting well with my frame of mind, having grown up in upstate NY's snow belt. Deepness in tread is still there....but in all honesty I'm going to give em' just one chance at the first snow/crud/ice. If they can't handle the main road 2" they're not going to give me a calm drive to the Loaf early in the AMs. They have another tire with a thinner tread profile...which is looking pretty good, but I'm eyeing some of the less radical-tread snow tires as well.
Sled, you make it through the winds over the weekend alright?

Steve up in Bangor

[TwinTips21]

I'm just going to stick with my Cooper Discoverer ATRs.

[MrMagic]

Nokia's on my volvo for the winter. snow tires are a big help in control and driving during the "big one"

[tirolerpeter]

I have used Pirelli SnowSports, Dunlop Winter M-3's, and currently have a full set of Hankook IceBears (I think that is what they are named. I am not at home (traveling) and don't have the tires mounted on the car at the moment). I also have not used the Hankooks in snow as yet. The first two have been terrific in all conditions. I also have had great results from Bridgestone Blizzaks in the past, but I wanted some tires that had better high speed dry road handling and moved away from those.

Virtually any "dedicated" snow tire mounted on all four wheels beat any of the "all season" (or as I call them, "NO season") tires in snow.

[Marc]

I had great results with my Dunlop Wintersport M3's on my Audi. They had fantastic traction in light snow, wet snow, packed snow, whatever, but I also saw their advantage over Blizzak's in that they have a long treadwear life, don't make a lot of road noise on dry road and don't handle like crap (Blizzak's are plagued with the dry traction cornering 'squirm'). Long tread life and dry handling are important in a winter tire to me since I only really utilize the ability of the tire in snow maybe 10 times in a winter. The rest is either just wet pavement or dry roads.

[Marc]

And as a clarification, a lot of tire companies differentiate between "snow tires" and "winter tires."

For anyone leaving their tires on all winter, I'd recommend winter tires. If you have a spare set of rims and only put them on when you suspect you'll be driving in snow, then a snow tire like the Blizzaks are the way to go, IMHO.