Winter tires for Denver (schools, live in, shop)

[EscapeCalifornia]

What kind of tires do you run in the winter there? Do good all-season tires suffice year round or do you need snow tires? This would be on a front wheel drive car.

[Micktooth]

All season tires on a front wheel drive car should be just fine. Believe it or not, Denver usually does not get much snow.(Except for this past winter). The roads are generally well maintained and unless you are going way up in the mountains, you should be fine.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Micktooth

All season tires on a front wheel drive car should be just fine. Believe it or not, Denver usually does not get much snow.(Except for this past winter). The roads are generally well maintained and unless you are going way up in the mountains, you should be fine.

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I know lots of people in real snow country keep a set of snow tires on steel wheels for use in the winter. But I didn't think Denver's snow was constant enough to warrant that.

[jazzlover]

For most of the time, all-season tires work pretty well. True snow tires do give you a traction edge over all-seasons on snowy roads, and if they are "siped," that may help some on ice.

As important as tires is the skill of the driver. I learned snow driving skills from my father, who lived in "snow country" and drove in bad winter conditions from the time he was about 14. He could drive a rear-wheel drive car with highway tires on roads where most everyone else had to chain up. He lived in metro Denver for over 30 years, and--to my knowledge--never owned a set of snow tires for his car. There are a couple of good winter driving schools in Colorado--maybe you should check one of them out, too. And, yes, there are plenty of LOUSY winter drivers in Colorado--both native and transplant. Here in my adopted state of Wyoming, if there is a car off the road in the ditch alongside a slick road, more than half the time it's a Colorado car.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

There are a couple of good winter driving schools in Colorado--maybe you should check one of them out, too.

I'll be sure to check them out when I get there.

[McGowdog]

I like M/S (mud and snow) tires myself.

[High Altitude]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

What kind of tires do you run in the winter there? Do good all-season tires suffice year round or do you need snow tires? This would be on a front wheel drive car.

Snow tires are not needed in Denver. If you are planning on spending a lot of time in the mountains during the winter, you might want an AWD/4wd vehicle but you could probably count on one hand the number of days where it was absolutely needed.

[xxman777]

Front wheel drive with all season tires are what my family always went with. In the many decades my family has been in Colorado we have only had two cars stuck. Once during the blizzard of '82 and once during the blizzard of '03. Probably the two worst blizzards in recent years.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Is it safe to say that as long as you live in a populated area like Denver metro, the only times that 4WD or snow tires are really needed are those days when the city's pretty much shut down anyway?

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Is it safe to say that as long as you live in a populated area like Denver metro, the only times that 4WD or snow tires are really needed are those days when the city's pretty much shut down anyway?

Yes, then you get out the ski's and glide over to the coffee shoppe.