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I'm planning on driving cross-country from San Francisco to New York for a move at the beginning of January. My car is an AWD newer Subaru that currently has all-season tires. I know that snow tires will be needed for any driving that I'll be doing once I move to NY, but I'm not sure about the actual cross-country road trip. There will be parts of the drive that will be very warm and I'm afraid the snow tires will wear down too much during those portions. I also know that the roads are well-maintained in most (if not all?) portions of the interstate and I've personally done a drive mid-winter from LA to Salt Lake City on all-season tires with AWD that went just fine.
I'm planning on driving cross-country from San Francisco to New York for a move at the beginning of January. My car is an AWD newer Subaru that currently has all-season tires. I know that snow tires will be needed for any driving that I'll be doing once I move to NY, but I'm not sure about the actual cross-country road trip. There will be parts of the drive that will be very warm and I'm afraid the snow tires will wear down too much during those portions. I also know that the roads are well-maintained in most (if not all?) portions of the interstate and I've personally done a drive mid-winter from LA to Salt Lake City on all-season tires with AWD that went just fine.
The blizzaks work great. I use them all winter on my jeep.
Not only do they work so much better on cold pavement but they work very well on that slushy mess plows leave behind.
I always figure winter tires are cheaper than my deductable and the fact is they extend the life of your regular tires out so they can really be a no brainer.
Until you throw a good set set of winter tires on a vehicle you can't imagine the difference it makes.
Every one of my awd or 4x4's get a set.
You can see the vehicles and tires compared in action on tire racks website.
Not true at all. Every type of tire will be better suited for a certain vehicle under certain conditions. I have had many brands that performed far better on certain vehicles.
It is going to be tire model ,conditions and vehicle specific. The worst tires for winter are any of the all seasons. They do little right and a whole lot wrong once the weather gets below 40 degrees.
All season tires will be just fine. If you run into a major blizzard, be smart and find a nice motel with a good cable system.
Not such great advice from someone who doesn't even own a car.
I have seen rear wheel drive cars with winter tires out perform awd's with all seasons.
I suggest you pop over to watch the all season vs winter tire testing over at tire rack if you think winter tires are only for blizzards.
Like everything in life,nothing is a problem until its a problem. All seasons work fine ,that is until they don't. One foot stopping distance can make the difference between a wreck and a stop.
Not only do winter tires stop far better but they work well on icey spots too.
Cornering is a lot better as well when all 4 wheels are on a slick loose surface.
Anyone who thinks all seasons are good enough have not tried a good set of winter tires.
Winter tires today are not your fathers snow tires. I had 4 blizzak performance snows on my awd bmw. They had the car handling better at highway speed on dry cold pavement than any all season thats for sure.
Last edited by mathjak107; 10-16-2013 at 06:55 PM..
All seasons, but only ones with adequate snow performance. A huge portion of so-called all-season tires are absolutely inadequate in even the lightest of snow/slush conditions. And that includes pretty much all OEM tires - they're all-season only in name. However, there certainly are all-seasons which serviceable in light snow conditions - the conditions you're likely to encounter on I-80 and in New York, except maybe the once-in-a-season blizzard. Go to tirerack.com and read ratings on your current tires - they might be up for the job, or completely not.
And please, don't let the fact that you're driving a Subaru give you too much confidence - driving carefully, smoothly and according to the conditions will do much more for safe winter travel than AWD.
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