Yes You Need Snow Tires

[Peter Minde]

With the summer tires, someone needs to walk in front of my Miata with a broom to swipe every last snowflake from the road, but it's pretty good with the winter tires, way better than my Mom's Country Squire with retread snows on the back only.
A few years ago I used to see a Miata with Connecticut plates at Sugarbush and Mad River Glen almost every time I went up there. It looked like he drove with the top down too. I'll take my mine to Gore sometime this season.

mm

LOL... one of my friends has a Subie and a Mazda Miata. Susie was racked up at the mechanic and he need to go veto a ski race. Dude just put the Miata's top down, loaded his boards, and off he went.

 

[Warp daddy]

I have lived in The Northern most part of the state for 58 years . Drove thru the blizzards of 66, 77, 88 and everything since . Drove 35 miles everyday to work for 35 years never ever missed a day due to snow .


We have been skiing since the mid seventies all over the Dacks , The Laurentians , the Whites , The Greens and Have NOT had a snow tire on any of our vehicles since 1978 . I have driven at night when i am one of very few on the road in blizzards along the St Lawrence never ever spun out or had a snow related accident ..

Just sayin' ..maybe it comes down to driving style and Prudent speed and vehicular spacing l
Had Saabs during the 80s thru 2007 , then Outbacks since then In the 70's had fwd Vw's

 

[Tjf1967]

I have lived in The Northern most part of the state for 58 years . Drove thru the blizzards of 66, 77, 88 and everything since . Drove 35 miles everyday to work for 35 years never ever missed a day due to snow .


We have been skiing since the mid seventies all over the Dacks , The Laurentians , the Whites , The Greens and Have NOT had a snow tire on any of our vehicles since 1978 . I have driven at night when i am one of very few on the road in blizzards along the St Lawrence never ever spun out or had a snow related accident ..

Just sayin' ..maybe it comes down to driving style and Prudent speed and vehicular spacing l
Had Saabs during the 80s thru 2007 , then Outbacks since then In the 70's had fwd Vw's

Amen brother. Snows are a luxury not a necessity. That said I have snows. The increase in traction is awesome. The ride on 0 degree dry roads is softer and you can corner better. I still get 55k on each set so really it's a matter of swapping them out twice per year. No increase in overall tire cost.

 

[Harvey]

vehicular spacing

This is also a luxury, to have control of it.

Long live the snowtire thread!

 

[Milo Maltbie]

... Have NOT had a snow tire on any of our vehicles since 1978 .

!978 was the end of the retraed-snow-tires-on-the-rear-only-of-your-Impala era. Four Blizzaks have made winter driving a pleasure since the mid-80s. I never had to miss meetings in Massena or Syracuse or anywhere else once I had 4 winter tires, which was huge because people were always trying to blow my deadlines.

No one except skiers uses snow tires anymore. The biggest factor in winter driving around here is being stuck in traffic. I don't need winter tires for that. OTOH once every couple of years I need to get out to make the first chair for a powder day at Gore or in the Catskills and I need snow tires for that. Also, the board certified registered nurse/dominatrix that I live with needs to go to work regardless of weather and she's uncomfortable driving in snow unless she has good tires. I could drive her to work but I want to go skiing. So I end up buying 2 complete sets of winter tires hoping for new snow somewhere in driving distance. That's totally worth it to me. YMMV

mm

 

[Warp daddy]

!978 was the end of the retraed-snow-tires-on-the-rear-only-of-your-Impala era. Four Blizzaks have made winter driving a pleasure since the mid-80s. I never had to miss meetings in Massena or Syracuse or anywhere else once I had 4 winter tires, which was huge because people were always trying to blow my deadlines.

No one except skiers uses snow tires anymore. The biggest factor in winter driving around here is being stuck in traffic. I don't need winter tires for that. OTOH once every couple of years I need to get out to make the first chair for a powder day at Gore or in the Catskills and I need snow tires for that. Also, the board certified registered nurse/dominatrix that I live with needs to go to work regardless of weather and she's uncomfortable driving in snow unless she has good tires. I could drive her to work but I want to go skiing. So I end up buying 2 complete sets of winter tires hoping for new snow somewhere in driving distance. That's totally worth it to me. YMMV

mm

Chacun a son gout

 

[TheGreatAbyss]

My snow tires have been invaluable in getting me to first chair on pow day, but they have also been an endless PITA. Having to store and swap tires twice a year is not something I recommend. They also have a vibration issue at 70+ which forces me get them looked at every season. Everything is aftermarket so is it the wheels being slightly bent, the tires which came with an egg, the plastic hub centric spacers being shot, a balance coming off?

I dunno but if I didn't ski I would have long gotten rid of them.

 

[rebel1916]

No one except skiers uses snow tires anymore. Also, the board certified registered nurse/dominatrix that I live with needs to go to work regardless of weather and she's uncomfortable driving in snow unless she has good tires.

Well, skiers and essential workers. My buddy with a lift and a tire change machine has a decent side gig mounting snows, this time of year for COs, in the Catskills.

 

[MarzNC]

BUMP Another ski forum is in the midst of a discussion about tires so reminded me of this thread.

Bottom line is that my husband came to the conclusion . . . without any help from me . . . that the Michelin CrossClimate2 made sense for the 2022 RAV4 AWD that I was going to drive to Colorado during early season on an annual basis and in the southeastern mountains (NC, VA, WV) during Jan/Feb. First time I drove from North Carolina to ski Wolf Creek with friends was in December 2021 on stock tires.

Biggest test so far was when there was a dump in South Fork in December 2023. I drove in town in the late afternoon with a travelmate before the roads were plowed. Only a mile or so between the house and where we went to look for something she wanted to try to find to use the next day. We could have taken my ski buddy's SUV with snow tires, but my RAV4 fits in the garage and his doesn't because he has ski boxes on top. Besides I wanted to see how I would feel driving in unplowed snow because I was going solo to Vail for a few days after Wolf Creek.

Needless to say, living in the southeast it's not worth the effort to change to snow tires for 2-3 weeks of the year.

South Fork, December 2023
The "ski car" with snow tires that doesn't fit in the garage, picture taken at 7am the morning after the storm ended

Earlier posts about the CrossClimate 2 . . .

Check out the Michelin Crossclimate2. It's a high end touring tire, but when you look at the tread you'll see it's different. They bite into snow extremely well as long as the snow is softish and not solid ice. Driving on ice is when you actually "need" a real snow tire. Most all weather tires with the mountain snowflake symbol nowadays work just fine in snow but are not great on ice. Basically they are designed to trap snow in the tread so that your traction is actually snow on snow contact. The rubber compound itself is that of a touring tire providing a more stable ride on the highway.

Yeah, it's all about braking.

Here's the tire I'm going to buy. I really want to avoid snows because I live in a condo with no garage for storage, and, frankly, yeah, I dont want to drop about a thousand for another set of wheels and tires. Never switch tires on the same set of wheels. I learned that the hard way. Once those tires are on a wheel, leave them there. Also, most of my driving will be on dry pavement, even in winter. Even back and forth to upstate or Vermont. So, I'm going to put a set of these Michelin CrossClimate2 on the HRV. This review and others make the claim that they have finally developed a true all season tire, as good in winter as "winter" tires, but great in summer (if maybe a little loud) and claims that they will last 60,000 miles! We'll see. I had a Continental tire rated as all weather as my last set on the old Subaru that pretty much covered all bases, too, but lost effectiveness in the snow around 25,000 miles. Forget the name of them. Hope these work.

 

[TheGreatAbyss]

We drove both my Alltrack with winter tires and my Y with whatever the stock all seasons they come with up to the Cats last winter, and I could absolutely tell the difference, especially in braking. That being said the Y does weigh 1000 pounds more which gives it more inertia, but also more friction so i guess it cuts both ways

I'm debating whether to invest in a winter wheel + tire package with 18s. Supposed to give you more range too.