Let's talk Snow Tires (school, live, shop)

[OurNextAdventure]

My wife and I have a new 4Runner. I've never had a vehicle with such a short wheelbase AND rear wheel drive. It is 4WD, but I don't think my wife will want to be in 4WD all winter long.

What is everyone's choice for a non studded snow tire, and why that tire?

[jcp123]

Kinda following this.

Never lived in snow and will be moving to the thickest part of the snowbelt...someday. Bleagh.

[ketchikanite]

Originally Posted by OurNextAdventure

My wife and I have a new 4Runner. I've never had a vehicle with such a short wheelbase AND rear wheel drive. It is 4WD, but I don't think my wife will want to be in 4WD all winter long.

What is everyone's choice for a non studded snow tire, and why that tire?

If it’s rear wheel drive she’ll most likely need it in 4WD all day. You get used to it.

[Northrick]

We run studded tires, so no first hand experience with non-studded. However, a lot of people like the Bridgstone Blizzaks. They will wear quickly on dry roads though.

[Parnassia]

Ah, you know summer's waning when the inevitable discussion about winter tires kicks off. I've been using non-studded Nokians on my AWD Subaru for years. No complaints. They don't seem to wear overly fast but I don't put lots of miles on the car and I'm conservative about when I replace them due to tread wear. This is a different vehicle than a RWD 4runner. Load up the back!

[OurNextAdventure]

The good news is, I bought a 2nd set of wheels for the 4Runner so I don't have to deal with the change over fight. She doesn't drive much. We live under 1 mile from the school and 3 Bears.

As far as weight. It's actually very well balanced. I'll throw a few sandbags in it just to be safe.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by OurNextAdventure

The good news is, I bought a 2nd set of wheels for the 4Runner so I don't have to deal with the change over fight. She doesn't drive much. We live under 1 mile from the school and 3 Bears.

As far as weight. It's actually very well balanced. I'll throw a few sandbags in it just to be safe.

Blizzaks are very popular in the interior of Alaska. Like you, I have a set of wheels/winter tires (Blizzaks) for two vehicles, a Corolla, and RAV4. Sometime between September and November (before the heavy frost or snow), I remove the all-season tires, and replace with the winter tires. Some times I just take the RAV4 to a tire shop since they register the TPM sensors after replacing the tires.

Stud-less tires such as Blizzaks and others have s softer rubber compound that has an abrasive material is in the tread. These tires do wear faster if the vehicle is driven on dry pavement or if driven faster (tires get hotter if driven faster on dry pavement), but still can last several seasons if you replace them by the end of winter with the second set of tires/wheels. My wife drives the RAV4 maybe 3,000 to 4,000 miles per year, and the Blizzaks are still in great shape 10 seasons later (I bought them in 2011). The same for the all-season tires, since these get very little wear (maybe 2,000 miles or less).

[leadfoot4]

If you do see a 50/50 mix of clear roads as well as snowy roads, during your "winter" season, I'd suggest Nokian WRG3s....

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by leadfoot4

If you do see a 50/50 mix of clear roads as well as snowy roads, during your "winter" season, I'd suggest Nokian WRG3s....

In here the pavement is much colder during the winter, so even as said by you, "50/50" most stud-less tires do well. But in the interior of Alaska some snow is not the problem, but packed snow or ice.

[riceme]

I've had both, have always had RWD - one of which was a 4Runner - and have a strong preference for Blizzaks. There was a period of time when I had Blizzaks on my 4Runner and studs on my Silverado and I didn't like going from one to the other because they handled so differently.