Yes You Need Snow Tires

[wonderpony]

My snows are already on. I live on a back road with hills. I count on good tires and a standard transmission to get me up and down the hills.

As much as I love my Fit, I sure do miss my Suzuki SX4. It had better clearance and on demand 4wd. However, the only times I have had problems with my Fit were in my unplowed driveway with lots of snow over ice.

 

[Brownski]

Mandatory in certain areas out West. They have special pull off areas with time limits.

I lived right next to one of the pullouts on highway 80 in Truckee for a short time. Some local guys would hang out when the chains were mandated and make extra money putting the chains on for people who didn't know how.

 

[Ripitz]

American boats

A longtime friend and old ski buddy owns a local tire shop. I was headed out west and since he spent time in Wyoming he laughed at my broken down Ford Taurus saying, “You can’t go out there in that”. So he set me up with this ‘79 Lincoln Continental, put studded snows on it, and said, “This is what they call a cattle crusher”. What a trip. It took a while to get it going but once you did, the Crusher could not be stopped.

 

[Brownski]

That is a boat for sure. Great pics.

 

[TheGreatAbyss]

In the East Coast I've only seen them on MTA buses. This was from that late 2010 Snowpocalypse. A whole lot of good it did.

 

[Tjf1967]

Anyone can drive without snow tires. I did it for years and drive in lots of snow. Just like you can ski one ski in any conditions.
What I noticed is that snow tires just drive better in cold weather. Doesn't have to be snow on ground. When it cold out the tires just ride better. When you going across from Minerva to newcomb at 5 in the morning and it's wet and snowing... Or your not sure the pavement is wet or ice its much more comfortable with tires designed for the conditions. Tires wear out. What's the difference if it's a snow or anything else. I get 80k out of two sets of tires. I spend a could hundred bucks a years to have them switched out. I find that a good value to me to have a better ride and handling depending on the season.
My nordica 84 hard condition ski works in the slides but I do much better on my 106 and it's a lot more fun.

 

[witch hobble]

Snow Tires: a Fast Pass for the interstate and access road

 

[Campgottagopee]

My plow guy doesn't use chains because he says it hammers his suspension.

Speaking from experience, he's right. This was trailside on the way up to A18 Headquarters.

 

[tirolski]

I'm only going with one set of tires. Just thinking of cheating more towards snow.

Didya have snows on yer vehicle when the tire shredded last February?

Tales from The Road

Well, I haven’t seen any alien crafted monoliths but there’s plenty of strange shit throughout the four corners! An often-seen road sign from our New Mexico trip last year:

nyskiblog.com

If not, would snows have helped?

 

[Harvey]

I suspected you would raise that Tski.

I've thought about it a lot. It's certainly possible it would have helped. If I was alternating between two sets of tires, maybe the set I had on would have been newer, with more tread. If that tire lasted longer before blowing up, I might have been off the interstate by then, and that would have been a good thing. At the time I assumed it was the sidewall that was compromised by the ice, in that case it might not have mattered.