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I 've been reading these winter threads and I keep seeing snow tires mentioned.
My questions.
Do you buy a set of 4 and store them until winter?
If so, then when do you put them on?
At the first sight of heavy snow?
Or is it a procedure done by the calendar?
Sorry if the questions seem naive.
I'm just a clueless Floridian.
I even had to Google® snow tires to see what they look like.
For studded tires, there is a date when you can put them on and when you must take them off. For snow rated tires, you could leave them on all year, but they are soft and wear out quickly and they aren't cheap, so most people save them for bad weather.
Many of us have, not only winter tires, but also winter rims. That way, you just swap out wheels. If you have two set of tires and one set of rims, you have to go to the tire shop and have your tires mounted and balanced twice a year as you swap tires.
Snow rated tires work absolutely fine when you travel on snow (with extra care because you can't drive like a maniac on snow). If you live where there is a lot of ice, especially black ice, then studded tires are better for ice (again, driving with caution).
4WD helps on bad roads but it will not stop you on ice, so even with 4WD, you must adjust your driving to the conditions.
Does anyone leave on chains all winter? They have some that aren't actually chains, just wound wire cables and I was wondering if those would be a pain to drive on if the roads are clear. Or are they easy enough to put on and take off that you don't mind doing that a few times per winter?
I 've been reading these winter threads and I keep seeing snow tires mentioned.
My questions.
Do you buy a set of 4 and store them until winter?
If so, then when do you put them on?
At the first sight of heavy snow?
Or is it a procedure done by the calendar?
Sorry if the questions seem naive.
I'm just a clueless Floridian.
I even had to Google® snow tires to see what they look like.
Thanks.
I bought a set of 4 new tires. I store them in plastic bags that the tire store uses, and have them mounted every winter. I wait until there is a hard freeze before I put them on, and sometimes wait until I'm pretty sure snow is on the way before I change them.
The winter tires I own have a very soft rubber compound as part of their traction system. They are designed to operate on cold roadways, so taking them off in a timely fashion in the spring is as important as when they go on in the fall. If I wait too long in the spring before taking them off, they will wear out very quickly when the pavement warms up to summer temps.
But the tires wear very well as long as the pavement is cold. Typically, the tires go on sometime between Halloween to Thanksgiving. In the past, Halloween was most often colder than it has been lately for quite a while, but waiting until the snow falls always means most of a day spent waiting in the tire shop for a change, so I always try to beat the first snowfall. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don't.
The tires I bought are some of the new high-traction studless tires. Studded winter tires offered the most traction available except for chains for decades, but over the past 20 years, winter rubber compounds and siping systems have been developed for tires designed to be specifically driven on ice and snow, and are also excellent in rain. These tires have as much traction without studs as the studded tires.
The biggest problems with the studs are they are noisy, and the steel studs wear quickly on dry pavement. Even in winter, there is always a lot of completely dry pavement, especially on highways, and a long road trip can wear the studs substantially.
In the old days, the studs could be removed and replaced, but most new tires that can accept them now won't allow replacement. The new studs are harder than the old ones, but they all wear faster than the modern rubber compounds.
My present tires were purchased in early 2012, a particularly dry, warm winter, and they have been used every winter since. At their present wear rate, I expect to get at least 3-4 more winters out of them, and I've found their traction to be as good on ice as studs, and better than studs on a road with a snow floor. They are also exceptionally good in heavy rain.
If I owned a car with a common-sized wheels, I would have had the tires mounted on a set of used rims. But since a set of rims would cost as much as 2-3 sets of tires, I have changed the tires seasonally.
It's a matter of cost- removing the tires from the rims and replacing them is more expensive than mounting complete wheels, but since I'm driving on my winter tires about as much as the 4-season 'summer' tires I use in warm weather, I may not own my present car long enough to justify the cost of a set of off-sized, spend, high performance wheels.
Don't think a set of "4-season touring tires" will handle an Idaho winter as well as specifically designed winter tires. 4-Season tires are truly only high performers for 3 seasons here, especially when the temps drop to zero and stay there. The rubber compounds are much harder and stiffer in the 4-season tires.
There are many new cars now that come with run-flat high performance tires nowadays, and these tires do very well in 3 seasons, but I've found them next to useless on ice, despite their 4-season claims.
A lot of it depends on your vehicle, though. If you own a pickup or an SUV, there are high-traction tires made for both that are pretty good in deep winter. The tradeoff is they are most often not high speed tires, so they limit how fast you can drive them in the summer.
Siping is critical to all of them. Sipes are the thin cuts in the tread that give the tires their grip when the road is slick. No matter how rugged the tread pattern looks, once the siping is worn down, a gnarly looking tire with big lugs will be just as slippery as a slick high-speed tire on ice.
On streets and on shady spots on highways, snow always turns to ice after some time. When there is a heavy snowfall on dry pavement that's frozen, the tires with big lugs are good for traction, as the snow won't turn to ice as quickly, because it won't compact as quickly, but once the snow is scraped, the ice will form. That's when the winter tires really come into their own.
On roads that don't get much traffic, though, the snow may only have a few icy patches on it. Since ice evaporates as quickly as water during dry days, once scraped, most roads will dry even if the temperatures are at freezing or below. Winter sun also speeds the evaporation, so the shady spots are usually the most icy, and often the most dangerous, as most curves on highways, bridges, and overpasses will have ice on-under-around them.
I 've been reading these winter threads and I keep seeing snow tires mentioned.
My questions.
Do you buy a set of 4 and store them until winter?
If so, then when do you put them on?
At the first sight of heavy snow?
Or is it a procedure done by the calendar?
Sorry if the questions seem naive.
I'm just a clueless Floridian.
I even had to Google® snow tires to see what they look like.
Thanks.
If you live in Florida you wont need snow tires however if you live in a snow belt state its in your best interest to install your snow tires around mid November then change back to summer tires mid April.
Also chains are not widely used in urban environments and may even be illegal in some cities,IMO if the snow is such that you are contemplating chains perhaps its better to stay home till the roads are cleared. http://openroadautogroup.com/sites/d...nter-tires.jpg
Like I stated before. My brother was an ISP officer and spent many years on the road, rear wheel drive. The only tires he used on his patrol car was all season. Now of course he knew how to drive.
Also look at the local and country patrol cars, they do not run anything but all-season.
Like I stated before. My brother was an ISP officer and spent many years on the road, rear wheel drive. The only tires he used on his patrol car was all season. Now of course he knew how to drive.
Also look at the local and country patrol cars, they do not run anything but all-season.
Yup.
Therein lies the difference experience makes. A state policeman can drive on winter roads that would stop Parnelli Jones. On bald tires. Their driving skills are all exceptional, for sure.
I learned how to drive in Idaho winters as a kid, driving my Dad's pickup and whatever rubber it had on it. Pulling out of a skid is still ingrained, even though I'm driving a front-wheel drive car these days. I've been sideways more times than I can count, and have dug out almost as many times as that. I've driven Idaho roads for over 65 years now, and started when I was so young I could barely see over the top of the steering wheel.
For a Floridian newbie, though, its different. Ice is scary for everyone the first time it's encountered, so the better terror isn't part of the equation, the better any driver will become once they gain some experience.
For me, buying winter tires was as much an elimination of the pain-in-the-butt factor of winter driving as anything else. At 72, I just not as willing to spend a half-day shoveling a vehicle out of a snowbank after a slide-off as I once was, and my present car is one that is particularly difficult to shovel out.
The recent heavy snowstorm on Christmas day was enough to get it stuck for the first time in the 5 years I've owned the car, and it finally lost all traction 2 feet away from the open garage door in my driveway. I turned it off, let the snow turn into ice under the wheels overnight, and hauled out the snow shovel the next morning. Some ice melt and a couple of gunny sacks got me un-stuck the next morning after the digging was done.
It's spots like this- where speed can't be used- that most folks get stuck around town, and winter tires are especially good for pulling out into traffic without doing some cookie cutting before a driver gets the car straightened out in the right direction. They give better traction from a standing start than a 4-season tire anywhere.
They also stop shorter when the brakes are fully locked up than a 4-season tire, too. That's always important, especially when driving on the first snow of the season, when everyone hasn't yet adjusted to slowing down yet. There's nothing much a driver can do about getting hit from behind by a car that's skidding in your direction while you are stopped at a light or a stop sign, but with winter tires, you won't be skidding into that collision with a car in front of you.
At least at high speed- once a hill is glazed with black ice, gravity and inertia can take over anything. Any so-mo crash isn't good, but it's better than a slammer any day.
I used to live in Alabama and drove around in snow and ice once to view the rare snowfall.
More like creeped around turtle slow because i was scared of possibly losing control.
Another time I was driving back from Tallahassee and I-10 was icy.
I was driving super slow because I would see other drivers that had ran off the highway.
On the rare occasions that Southern cities receive significant snow, we are ill equipped to handle it.
Hmmm -- Other discussions on City-Data in Boise seemed to indicate snow tires were not necessary there. I'm getting ready to drive my Honda Civic that way later this week to rent for awhile. Not used to driving in snow/ice, but I work at home so will be able to avoid the worst weather.
I know you're having a particularly cold winter. Do I need snow tires?? If so, how do you get them installed as inexpensively as possible?
...Do I need snow tires?? If so, how do you get them installed as inexpensively as possible?
Thank you.
Until last winter, I hadn't used snow tires for 15+ years, and that was only on one (of 3) cars. But now I drive much more than ever before (25-30K per year), on all kinds of roads, from long, unimproved country lanes to interstates, and I also traded off my 4x4 for a Prius.
I'd planned to buy snow tires for the Prius, but since I bought it around Nov. 1, I figured the all-weather tires would work the first winter. Well, I got through the winter but wasn't happy AT ALL with the traction. The next winter I got 4 Blizzak winter tires, and I could not believe the difference. Now, with enough under carriage clearance, I can navigate about any roads. Last week, after an 8" snow storm, my neighbor returned home in his Subaru AWD, told me that he'd just gotten stuck and advised me against going out in my Prius. I went anyway. No problem what-so-ever.
So, do you need snow tires? Hard to say. Good ones will give you much more traction, but it's hard to say if you'll need it. If you almost avoid a collision with your all-season tires, you needed snow tires. If you almost got through some deep snow without getting stuck, you needed snow tires. We just never know ahead of time. If this is your only transportation and you'll be driving it in winter road conditions, it would be a good idea to get the best snow tires you can find.
As for getting them installed as cheaply as possible, just shop (or call) around a little. I got mine from the Toyota dealer who was offering 4 for the price of 3. Those kinds of sales are usually in the fall, to get people to buy early. Some might still be offering discounts.
I opted NOT to buy new wheels. I didn't/don't know how long I'll keep my car, so buying extra wheels for it didn't sound like a great idea, especially since new wheels wouldn't include tire pressure sensors, and to install them in the new wheels would more than double the cost of the wheels. I opted to just have the tires installed on my original wheels. IIRC, the Toyota dealer didn't charge me to make the switch this fall, and next spring I'll need new summer tires, so that'll be a wash as well. I think the regular charge for remounting and balancing is about $100, so $200 each year.
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If you almost got through some deep snow without getting stuck, you needed snow tires. We just never know ahead of time. If this is your only transportation and you'll be driving it in winter road conditions, it would be a good idea to get the best snow tires you can find. 
