Snow Tires Without Studs Are Worthless.
- Thread starter Ws6
- Start date
Amen.
The people claiming that winter tires don’t make much difference are the ones who have never owned winter tires.
Those of us who lived where it snows frequently (Stowe, VT, for example) and had real winter tires know better.
It also makes me laugh that the post that started all this is comparing two all season tires, not even a real winter tire.
But even that, there is every few years since I know I exist, "new" technology that will make us drive the same tires in summer and winter.
We just had an absolute nightmare driving-wise (not snow-wise, we are opening slopes on Sunday) on I70 west of Denver. Bunch of people on all season, all-weather tires trying to negotiate 9% grade going up, or worse, down, at 9,000-10,000ft altitude during the snow storm. I mean the amount of chaos it happens bcs. tires is just ridiculous. And that route I could comfortably negotiate in the middle of a blizzard with my VW CC FWD vehicle on snow tires. Without sweat, while various AWD, 4WD would struggle on all seasons, all terrain etc. tires.
Studs don’t make any difference in snow but on ice they’re much better. Proper studless winter tires are still a very noticeable improvement over all seasons or m+s tires though.
Just to be picky. Russians did a test a few years back and they found that on “warm” ice (32F) studs are unbeatable but drop in temperature to single Farenheits causes studless tires chemistry to beat brute physical force of the studs.
Krzyś
Krzyś
It's pretty simple. You consider the driver, the vehicle, and the environment including temperature.
If all seasons can't get the job done you move to winter. If winter won't get the job done you move to studded, unless it is illegal to run them like it is here and in many other less northern areas.
If all seasons can't get the job done you move to winter. If winter won't get the job done you move to studded, unless it is illegal to run them like it is here and in many other less northern areas.
That is tricky proposition.
Many people here think all season is way to go. Why? More sunny days than Florida, high altitude. Unless it is -20, most snow is gone next day bcs. sun. But, and this is tricky one, night comes and all water turns into ice bcs. high altitude and cloudless sky means low temperatures during night. My wife is from Chicago, but as she said, here it is tricky bcs. one thinks it is really not bad, when actually roads change conditions between day and night and you really don’t expect bcs. there was no precipitation.
Every fall neighborhood Facbook page is lit with these questions: do I need snow tires or chains? Local “Karen’s “ are first to jump to say: nah no need whatsoever. Those are first to ask: why school is not canceled, we have an inch of snow on the road!
^ Doesn't seem that tricky to me, considering night temperatures should be obvious if one drives at night, and all the other things an aware person would consider, like that if it's below freezing and roads are salted, there may still be black ice on bridges which is where I see most people losing control.
Most people base their decision on snow accumulations not other factors.
Another factor they base it is moving forward, not braking. All three of my vehicles would be perfectly fine moving forward on all season tires.
I observe these comments on Facebook when this topic comes. Everything comes down to: if you have good AWD and tread etc.
That is why I am all up for that proposal that CO legislature had to mandate snow tires. But, “freedom,” rental car companies etc. came up with some diluted mandates.
But snow tires do come handy moving forward as quickly as possible when I see Subaru or JEEP’s in the mirror, as possibility of those having snow tires is equal to winning mega million.
Yep. My buddy drives tow truck part time and gets called up every time it snows. He said his most common snow call is middle aged ladies with a stuck Subaru or small SUV. They can get going fine which gives them unwarranted confidence which bites them when it's time to stop.
AWD just puts you further into the ditch.
Most common vehicles in the ditch when it snows:
1. Subaru and JEEP. Share first place.
2. Trucks (lifted with wide tires especially)
3. Other SUV’s.
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4. Everyone else.
Interesting how my CX5 goes up a 27% grade snowy slope just fine on its terrible all-seasons though, huh?
Going up a hill is one aspect, going down said hill in control is totally different.
It all depends on the snow and ice conditions, but yes, for going up a slope I would say new good all-seasons on a AWD vehicle are better than most 2wd with winter tires. But for stopping or turning the snow tires will win over all-seasons 99% of the time regardless of drivetrain.
If you get down to half tread depth on all-seasons, where almost all the siping is gone and they have hardened up a bit, then they get much worse than half worn winter tires.
We are beating this horse all the time here. But some people need to feel better about their purchase. Fine, as long as they are nit behind my vehicle.
It stops going down the hill, as well, and it's not as if my driveway is the only steep hill in the area.
