this year, i needed a new set of snows, so a couple weeks ago, i went to my mechanic and had him put on a set of 4 Kelly/Springfield “Magna-Grip” snow tires, your basic chunky, agressive, blocky tread snow tire, nothing overly sophisticated here (like the Michelin Arctic-Alpin, Dunlop Graspic or Bridgestone Blizzak), simple, chunky, open tread, looks very much like an off road truck tire
for the next few weeks, of course, it did not snow (murphy’s laws of snow tires)
today, we got dumped on, about a foot to 14 inches of champagne powder snow, so at the end of the day, i decided to perform a scientific experiment in the mostly unplowed empty parking lot next door, a little experiment called “lets see if i can get the car stuck in the snow”
first off, i started in the plowed sections locking up the handbrake to induce a skid, and proceeded to see how quickly i could recover and regain control, the tires gripped the snow , and i was able to recover extremely quickly, they had very stable, controlled handling, and gobs of grip, very safe handling, just like a proper snow tire should give you
then i spied an unplowed section, a foot of untouched snow, about 8 feet wide, no onstructions around it, no other vehicles or houses, fresh, untracked snow!
an evil grin crept over my face, i turned the windshield wipers to their highest setting, and drove into the untracked snow at a slight angle, taking the car trough about a 4 foot length of unplowed snow, a plume of snow flowed over the hood, cleared by the wipers…
…and the car continued along merrily… “snow,what snow, i didn’t see any snow…” completely unimpeded, yes i lost a little speed due to the increased drag, but the tires never lost their grip
the next test, i drove in about a 5 foot section of untracked snow, stopped the car, then started off from a standstill…
once again, the tires bit into the snow and i was underway again, no traction loss, no spinning, the tires grabbed and went…
so, i decided to line up for my final test, drive the length of the unplowed section (about 20 feet), remember, this unplowed section was about 12 inches deep, a little over the top of the wheel’s lugnuts, if i opened my door, it would push snow aside, it was to the bottom of the doorframe, and remember, this is a lowly Dodge Neon, not a performance car by any standards
i lined up for my final run…and plowed thru like there was nothing there, the tires would not lose their grip, when i got out of the car, i noticed the front of the air dam/splash guard below the front fender had been acting like a grader, i could see the car had leveled about a couple of inches off the top of the unplowed snow
on the drive home, i deliberatly drove in the sloppy stuff to see at what point the tires would lose grip, they didn’t lose grip at all, whether climing an icy hill, navigating a badly plowed hairpin corner (at safe and prudent speeds for the conditions), or driving thru slush bands, the tires held the road safely and securely
i’ve driven on a lot of snow tires, from the high-tech “Übertires” (Goodyear Ultra-Grip Ice) to the simplest chunky, agressive snows (Cooper WeatherMaster ST/2 and the Kelly Magna Grips), and i can’t tell the difference, i saw no performance difference between the ultraexpensive tech tires and the simple chunky ones, they both gripped well and helped keep the car under control during inclement weather, if i can’t feel the difference in the high-tech tires, why pay the extra money, when the blocky tires do the same thing for less?
if you spend a lot of time driving in the snow this season, invest in a set of 4 snow tires, they’re worth their weight in gold…