To snow or not to snow

[wetdawg]

OK......I live in nowhere Wisconsin, and the roads are not well scraped. My potenzas are ready to be replaced (2006 with 45,000) and am debating about my next tire purchase. In the tire sticky, pepole seem to be hot on the Goodyear Tripple Treads, and I think those are the treads that would work well for me........That being said, will I get significant snow/ice performace out of a snow tire like Blizzaks, or are the tripple treads good enough.


Chris

[Caaron]

I've had great snow and ice performance with Conti Extreme Contacts. Good price on them too from the tire rack...

Chuck

[wetdawg]

Do you run them year round??


Chris

[Caaron]

Yes, I do. They're great in the rain as well. I live in Maryland and we get everything from slushy snow to ice to hard pack. These tires perform so well that I keep them on all my cars year 'round. I've used them on a Volvo wagon, a VW Passat and my Baja. Very good performers, handle well, good traction in all conditions, and relatively cheap!

Chuck

[Zooom]

to snow or not to snow , IMHO, depends on the car and the driver...as much as good snow tires are a benefit...sometimes, the car and driver can't help but override that difference made by them....I have been in situations with vehicles that most wouldn't have been doing what I was, and I had just regular all season radials...so it comes down to you and just having good general tires to begin with....but I'll get off my pedastal now on this subject.

[BajaCanuck]

Big proponent of snow tires here, and studs if you can get 'em. Sure, all-seasons may get you from A to B, but as with anything, using a good, specialized tool produces superior results. Currently dredging through an 18" dump of the white stuff quite happily on my Goodyear Nordics. That said, I live in snow country and expect to spend more time in it than on pavement straight through to March. If snow were an occasional thing, I might think differently...

[FromTheKing]

well I seen 1st snow today....
feel like posting my porennzas on craigslist.... right off the side of the road ....
thinking allterains.....they are great on my truck(chevy 2500hd)

[beekaybee555]

I highly recommend snows for the winter,,I bought a set of alloy rims from aftermarket company so i just swap out all seasons for snows when it is time....all seasons are OK but snows are where it is at...baja rear ends are so light that they need some extra grip inthe rear end....don't be fooled by all whell drive stuff either...care and caution must be used when any snow or ice is on the road...AWD doesn't mean drive like nothing will happen...you will spin out in a second if you think you are invincible

I went with the Cooper snows and the Cooper CS4 for the summer tires

[bulwnkl]

I grew up in a place that didn't really get snow. What we got was freezing rain. Nearly all winter. It could get super-ugly super quick. I've lived in a colder place for ~6 years now, which rarely or never gets freezing rain. We just get snow and wind (drifts). Over the course of time, I've owned very expensive all-season tires, very cheap all-season tires, mid-priced all-season tires, dedicated summer tires that wouldn't even handle very small amounts of rain, low- and mid-priced dedicated snow/winter tires, studded snows, and very expensive studless snow/ice tires.

With that context in mind, here's been my experience and evaluation:
If you're going to have to deal with ice, either from freezing rain or because whatever snow you get is immediately packed down into super-hard ice but without sand or salt to help you, then the only kind of tires that will really work well are studded snows (or chains). A very high-quality studless 'snow' tire that's oriented heavily toward ice (like the former Nokian Hakkapeliitta Q) will be worlds better than any all-season or 'plain' snow/winter tire, but still they won't be as good as studs.

If you're dealing more with snow (deep, un-plowed snow or just snow but not packed down to super-hard ice), then a good all-season can be effective. Nevertheless, dedicated snow/winter tires will make a large difference in traction.

If you're dealing with occasional to moderate snow and slush, then a very good all-season tire is probably all you'll need, though dedicated winter tires are still nice if you have the money and the storage space for them.

Please understand this: If you have bare roads for much to most of the winter, snow/winter tires aren't going to last very long (up to a number of seasons, but not all that long in miles), and unfortunately, the better the tires are at dealing with super-nasty conditions, the shorter their life will be on bare pavement.

The Bridgestone Blizzaks are a case in point: They are reported to offer very good grip on ice and snow, and many report very long overall life. You should know, however, that the super-sticky tread compound they use for ice traction only comprises the first couple or 3 32nds of the tires' tread depth. After that, it's a traditional 'winter' rubber compound. Nothing wrong with that, but you won't have the outstanding ice traction any more, and bare pavement eats up that super-sticky compound very quickly. The good/honest dealers will tell you this up-front, and this is why I chose something else when I lived in freezing-rain-land.

Personally, I've had the best service and performance from Nokian tires. Haven't tried their all-seasons, though those are popular around here. All Nokians are _REALLY_ expensive, though.

Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do.

[Zooom]

Nokian's sound like Gislaved's on a lot of ways....

[Kev M]

Personally I've had fantastic luck with Blizzaks over the years - both on the Baja and on Jenn's old Mini Cooper S.

I guess I'm on my third season with the Blizzaks - drove a couple of hours through a huge blizzard early this season - 10-12 inches of unplowed snow, over 20-24 inches total fell that day. Baja was like it was on rails!

<--- no reason, I just like it.

[jsingh0072007]

I just bought the Goodyear Triple Treads in October and the are just awesome!!!!! But they are expensive at least to me. I spent $700 but I think they are def worth it!!!

[Kev M]

HOLY CRAP - $700 JUST for tires

and I used to bitch at Jenn for her $500 sets of runflats on the Mini (of course they only lasted 20k miles per set).

What type of mileage should one expect out of the triple-treads?

For that type of money it would have to be 1.5X the Potenzas to be worth it.

I'll probably continue to run seasonal tires on the Baja, but maybe I'll consider something like the triple-treads for Jenn's Impreza with the PIA TPMS that would simplify things.

[canuck37]

HOLY CRAP - $700 JUST for tires

and I used to bitch at Jenn for her $500 sets of runflats on the Mini (of course they only lasted 20k miles per set).

What type of mileage should one expect out of the triple-treads?

For that type of money it would have to be 1.5X the Potenzas to be worth it.

I'll probably continue to run seasonal tires on the Baja, but maybe I'll consider something like the triple-treads for Jenn's Impreza with the PIA TPMS that would simplify things.

Hmmm.........well, I spent just over $400 on my TripleTreds about a year ago from TireRack, then about $75 at the tire shop to get them balanced, installed and their lifetime free rotation policy. That was here in California. $700 is awful high......