It's snow tire time again!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As is traditional, it’s time for the yearly “MacTech tells you to put on your snows” thread…

I missed last year’s thread, as I didn’t have snows on, and was dealing with unexpected bills, but today, I’m fixing that discrepancy, and getting snow tires put on my car…
Car; 2007 VW Rabbit 2 door manual (basically a Golf Mk. V)
Tires; 4 Dunlop Winter Maxx winter tires, blocky tread with a massive amount of siping in the blocks

The Rabbit was incredibly good in the snow last year on it’s all seasons, a set of Yokohama Avid Ascends, and did okay in last week’s dusting, but I want to maximize traction and safety, so the snows go on this year

It also doesn’t hurt that I’m getting them done just in time for this next snowfall event, since they’re predicting accumulations of 10-15", and the more they hype up a storm, the less dramatic it is, I’m expecting a dusting to a couple inches, max, either way I’ll be able to test the tires out in snow conditions late tonight or tomorrow morning

If you can afford snow tires, or already have a set, put them on before the snow flies, they really do make a dramatic difference and are worth their weight in gold, no they won’t give you the ability to break the laws of physics, or do anything stupid, but they will give you exceptional grip on low adhesion surfaces like snow, and to a lesser extent, ice

Ice is the trickiest surface to drive on due to the low friction coefficient, snow actually isn’t all that bad as long as you have ground clearance, snow only gets iffy when it gets up to the bottom of the vehicle chassis, just drive slower, and give adequate distance to compensate for the lack of traction

And the biggest hint for snow driving?

Assume all other drivers are brain dead morons and are about to do the stupidest possible thing they can do** in the conditions you’re in, and plan your response/reaction/evasive maneuvers well in advance

** generally a good mindset to have when driving, period, assume the worst and you’ll never be disappointed

2

“Ma’am, you were driving the minivan with the bald tires in this weather… because…?”

So far we’ve gotten by with excellent ice & snow-rated all-seasons year-round; I bought a complete set of Blizzaks, mounted on OEM Volvo wheels, when I re-shod the XC-90, and they have yet to come off the wall rack.

I just acquired a 2003 Outback that has new Firestone 710’s on it, which are too good and have too much life in them to discard, but are rated a wee bit less on ice and snow than I’d like. I’m going to have to drive it a while in the slop to see if “good” (5-6 on TireRack.com) snow and ice traction plus the AWD is good enough. If not, it gets another set of TripleTreds like the Odyssey.

3

Dude, we put our tires on six weeks ago, before the big dumps of snow we got. :slight_smile:

4

Just got mine on yesterday. I still haven’t tried them out

5

I’ve got my blizzaks on my Accord and it really makes a difference.

6

My non-snow tires failed inspection in October so I got the snows on nice and early. :slight_smile:

7

No real need for snow tires in most of SEC country. If we get enough snow to matter…say 3-4 inches at once, our governor will declare a state of emergency, and we’ll just close the state until it melts.

8

We drive from the UK through France/Germany/Austria over new year to go skiing and it is a legal requirement to put on winter tyres.
Having seen the difference between my little 2wd yeti on “snows” and a Range Rover on all seasons…it is “snows” all the way people.

9

Snow comes early way up in the Colorado Rockies. It can and does happen any month. I leave 'em on year round. Winter started months ago. :slight_smile: .

10

Snow tires don’t get good enough gas mileage.

11

If it’s a trade off between fuel mileage and safety, I’ll take safety every time

Road report;
These tires are amazing, gobs of grip in loose snow, slush, and ice, to the point that I can’t easily do a handbrake turn, braking, both normal and panic stops (practiced panic stops and inducing skids in an empty parking lot), emergency maneuvers were particularly boring and predictable

Easily the best snows I’ve driven yet, 9.5 out of 10 in snowy conditions

12

I’ve got a Subaru BRZ sitting at home. I’m in Chile for another 5 weeks or so. I’m not looking forward to getting home and slapping on a set of winter tires. Maybe I can find a way to stay south until April?

13

Not necessarily the case, The exact same 1560 mile round trip on my usual tyres saw me average 54.4 mpg, with winter tyres it was 53.1 and possibly a lot of that difference may be winter diesel differences.

14

If that’s your reason for not leaving them on all year, I’ll agree. If that’s your excuse for not putting them on at all, then I hope you don’t live somewhere where it actually snows.