In Quebec it is now illigal to not have winter tires comes December 15.
As noted in post #33.
UK resident, south-east to be precise. you may think that I’m hardly in the market for winter tyres but indeed I do.
We drive to the Austrian ski slopes every winter and German/Austrian laws dictate that you have to have winter tyres on otherwise be prepared for big fines and void insurance.
So when we bought the Yeti we put aside an extra £600 to get a separate set of steel wheels and quality winter tyres and now swap them on in December and off in early March.
They have more than paid for themselves already. I have trundled up sheet ice in my 2wd and winter tyres and stopped half way to talk to a Range Rover driver with his fancy-pants 4wd and all-season tyres. He thought they’d be good enough but the slope wasn’t that severe and yet he could make no headway at all.
Me and a couple of bystanders tried to get him going but he ended up slewing over into the shoulder and he left it there over night. I gave him a lift back to his apartment and he was astonished at the hill-starts that I could do in my little Skoda with winter tyres. No wheel slip at all, the traction light never flickered.
This scenario was repeated several times over the course of the week and every time the cause was the same. People thinking that 4wd and all-season tyres are some kind of magic wand.
Minor hijack, but it does involve wintery roads and tires.
Has anyone ever had their tires siped?
I had this done once to new all-season tires, while living in Colorado high country and my primary transportation was a RWD pick-up truck. I recall it significantly improving traction. I’ve never had it done since because as stated above, it reduces the overall life of the tire, and only lasts one season.
I’m in Michigan now and honestly don’t know anyone who changes tires for winter. The only time I ever did was when I owned a Saab Viggen with z-rated tires that was basically useless on bad roads. But after reading this thread I’m thinking it may be a decent investment for my appliance-minivan.
I take it that either you are not a Yooper, or you are one and therefore do not remove your snows in the summer. 
Good post, and it shows exactly how far winter tire technology has advanced.
No, no I’m not. SE Michigan troll here so plenty of cold but not the snow that the West and You Pee gets. 
I’m not a Yooper – I head south from the Great White North to ski the UP of the UP at Bohemia, where the average annual snowfall is 273 inches (which is well over six time what Detroit receives – only 43 inches).
I have an “in” at a tire store, I voted no, but I generally get new tires before the old ones even need replaced. Plus, I have an added advantage of not going anywhere if I don’t want to should the weather take a nasty turn. I discovered long ago that not leaving home or staying where I am is always an option.
Come to think of it, my drive to Bohemia (9 hours) and my drive to work at a satellite office (6 hours across the top of Gitcheegumi) are good examples of why snow tires are good to have when driving in winter conditions, as compared to all season tires. Yes, it is usually possible to get from A to B with all season tires, but it gets really tiring after a while. Snow tires, four wheel drive, high enough ground clearance to not bottom out on snow, and enough weight to not get bounced by ruts, combine to bring most winter driving back into the realm of safe and comfortable driving rather than leaving it out there at the pointy end of the scary stick, and combine to make winter storm driving possible rather than impossible. I realize that different places have different conditions where snow tires are not called for, but for areas where there is snow, they sure make driving safer and easier.
[Muffin’s rant]As far as the cost of snowtires goes, I wish that I was paid my hourly rate while waiting while the highway to my satellite office is closed, and that I was compensated for overall vehicle insurance rates, and medical insurance rates/income taxes, due to crashes by people who are unprepared (be it equipment, ability or attitude) for winter driving. I think that it is selfish for people who drive in my region not to use snow tires in the winter, for they put other drivers at risk, at inconvenience, and at expense.
That Tire Rack video shot on ice and cited by Krougat upthread, and Tire Rack’s similar video shot on snow, show the difference in performance between snow tires and all season tires (which really should be called three season tires), but what does not come out in the tire test videos is when an all season tire car takes too long to stop at an intersection in town and rear ends the vehicle in front of it, or when an all season tire car loses traction in a turn and takes out the vehicle heading in the other direction out on the highway. From a public safety/public health perspective, I applaud Québec for requiring snow tires in the winter, and hope that my province does the same for at least Northern Ontario.[/Muffin’s rant]
Hey, the neighbours who turned me on to both The Tire Rack and Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor snow tires just rolled in – on snow tires of course – from a 24 hour drive (they tag team) from skiing at Jackson Hole. I can’t see them taking such jaunts for skiing without snow tires.
The Blizzaks that I have on my Mustang essentially came pre-siped.
Exactly! The butt of the car gets a little loose sometimes (especially on right turns), but it immediately snaps back into control.
well, now you sort-of-know someone in SE Michigan who does 
I live in snow country, and my aggressive all seasons do just fine up here on my AWD…
You realize I’m translating both from Spanish and from regs written by folks who call anybody who can use a calculator a “technocrat”, right? I’m reasonably sure that what the cops would check for is studs, but in any case, the regs actually say “no winter tires” and this is a country where getting -10ºC one night a year is considered a national disaster. Winter tires just don’t make sense.
My flat is in the Pyrenees and in an area that’s officially considered “mountain” for purposes of sending in the snowplows; the lowest recorded temp last year was -4ºC.
Nope, I live in RI but can’t afford 'em right now. My all-seasons are almost due for replacement, and I considered getting a set of wheels with snow tires now, but in my back-of-the envelope calculations snow tires would cost me a lot in the long run. Winter tires don’t last very long, and switching wouldn’t save much wear-and-tear on the all season tires.
When I have the spare income, I’ll probably get snow tires.
I live in Oslo, so put me down for “Oh, hell, yes.”
Any winter weather that exists, we get it sooner or later.
You raise a good point-- the video is very controlled. The disparity is even greater, when you consider roads/environment have more irregularities and unpredictable circumstances, as opposed to a smooth ice rink. Couple this to the fact that people wear less-than-new tires (they were new, in the video).
Having driven all three in wintery conditions (absolutely stupid and stubborn on my part, though I was caught off-guard with summers), I can say the demo represented an ideal situation. Gusts of wind were enough to produce lateral movement on summers, which is very unsettling when you’re at a full stop, much less moving at any speed.:eek:
Two of us. Winter roads are pretty good most of the time, but once in a while we get hit with a ton of snow, and then snow tires are awesome.
Wife and I flew into DTW the day after Christmas, and driving on I-94 all the way to Ann Arbor was terrible; you couldn’t even see the lane markings. Snow tires made the trip home safe at reasonable speeds (35 MPH); it would have been a hatefully slow and precarious odyssey on all-season tires.
I’ve never owned snow tires in 40 years of driving in Michigan. All seasons work just fine for me. It’s all in knowing how to drive in snow. I’ve even driven an Astro for several winters, if that rear wheel drive dog can be driven without snow tires, anything can.