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]

....Great topic sled..

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:sad: 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]

Snow Tires

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.

 

[wa-loaf]

Got some kind of Toyo winter tires for the subi. They work pretty good.

Doesn't this belong in gear and equipment....?:wink:

 

[Sky]

Seems I wrote about this in here somewhere last year...

I put some excellent tires on my wife's car years ago and she loves them, hates to take them off every spring.

V Redestien (sp?) Dutch tire, got them @ Direct Tire when no one else had tires for her rims. (Odd...since she drives a Chrysler Sebring rag top...NOT a rare auto!).

Anyway...yep, a bit noisy...but not overly so. Awesome traction in snow, wet, ice. Apparently not recommendd for temps above 15C (or they wear out fast or something).

Anyway...she swears by them and is in absolute fear of driving in the snow in anything else.

When the guy @ direct tire saw my jaw drop (when I saw the bill), he said they are slightly over-rated for the vehicle. I think by "slight"...he meant the tires are for Porsches etc.

 

[mlctvt]

I have experience with Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50, Blizzak LM-22 and Dunlop Wintersport M3. The Blizzak WS-50 was the best in deep snow but since the tread was so high and they had so many splines I couldn't stand them on dry roads when it wasn't snowing. The LM-22 (and newer LM-25 ) and the Dunlop Wintersport M3 are made for performance cars. The Dunlops are the better of the two and they're excellent tires on dry roads, very quiet and excellent in snow and ice. We have them on our Subaru WRX wagon and Subaru Legacy GT wagon now. Check out www.Tirerack.com for user reviews on all types of tires as well as tire tests.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

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:sad: 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

Thanks for thinkin' of us. We were hardly touched here, wind-wise. Cape and Is;amds took a bit of a beating though.

I guess a winter tire is like choosing a ski: Always a compremise of something. If it's really great in deep snow, how does it do on dry pavement the times that you're not heading North? I guess for me, handling isn't that big a deal beacuse I don't expect a 3/4 ton PU with an extra 1000lbs in the front from the Diesel to handle well.

Does anyone have a "Tire quiver" of more than two sets? (I might count chains as another set of tires.) For that matter, anyone use chains?

 

[twinplanx]

There is something quite comforting with the pitter-pat sound of snow tires. Kind of like that giddy feeling I get when snow flies

 

[koreshot]

I have experience with the WS-50, the M2, the M3 and a few others I can't remember anymore.

Marc is finally right about something - the WS-50 is not a great dry, wet tire. The tread squirm is pretty bad when new but gets better as they wear. Unfortunately, the opposite effect takes place for the snow traction of the tire. So as you start to like them more in the dry/wet, the snow traction starts to get worse. There is also hum on the road and a whine in rain at around 50mph.

That said, these tires are fantastic in the snow and leave the other more all-around winter tires in the dust. You immediately fall in love with those annoying squirmy deep tread blocks. My piece of crap awd Matrix can get through snow that will stop an SUV on regular all terrain tires. Acceleration in the snow is virtually as fast as in the dry, partly cause the traction is so amazing and partly cause my car is a dog in the dry anyway.

The other winter tires are better compromise tires for cars that will run winter tires year round, but since I have 6 sets of wheels sitting around my house for 2 cars, I have the luxury of picking the best tire for the job. Its kinda scary how much I love tires...

 

[koreshot]

Does anyone have a "Tire quiver" of more than two sets? (I might count chains as another set of tires.) For that matter, anyone use chains?

I have two cars and 6 sets of wheels/tires. Two sets for the beater family car and 4 sets for the fun car.

Family Car: UHP All Seasons for all around and Blizzak WS-50 for winter.
Fun Car: UHP All Seasons for all around, Dunlop M3 for winter, a set of Toyo RA-1 track/street-stupidity tires, a set of competition race compound Kumho V710 for competition use only

 

[catskills]

Front wheel drive Honda Accord. Was thinking of going trying only snows in the front with all seasons in the back. What do you think? Four snow tires or is two snow tires ok?

BTW I like Nokian snow tires.

 

[bobbutts]

Front wheel drive Honda Accord. Was thinking of going trying only snows in the front with all seasons in the back. What do you think? Four snow tires or is two snow tires ok?

BTW I like Nokian snow tires.

with snow tires all around is always suggested. I'd go with (non expert opinion) not ok.

Suggestion for everyone looking for a winter set. Check out tirerack.com and consider adding the full package with steel wheels so you can swap for your snows without remounting/balancing. I have the blizzak revos on steel wheels and the snow performance is the best I've had. These are my 1st dedicated snows so of course that's expected.

 

[nelsapbm]

With the accord, you 'll want snows on all 4. I had Continental IceGrips studded on my Accord and was happy with them.
I just had Blizzak's put on yesterday on my CRV. Have heard really good things about them, so we'll see.