YASTT (Yet Another Snow Tire Thread)

[JCH13]

Just bought an AWD this past November with all-seasons on them. Car seems to be doing as well or better than my old car with Blizzaks and FWD. Since the blizzaks were studless, I kept them all year long. Didn't bother me too much with how the snow tires acted in the summer months, and I just didn't want to hassle with changing them over.

Figure I can get a couple years on the all-seasons before I need to buy the snow tires. This time around though, I may swap them when the seasons change.

AWD won't help with turning or stopping, so don't get too confident just because you can accelerate forwards better.

 

[Murdoc]

I'm on my second set of Firestone Winterforce which have been great on my Ranger. I'm guestimating that I got at least 40,000 miles on the first set. As long as I have a RWD vehicle, I'll never drive without snow tires in the winter.

You can always sell the tires on Craigslist if they don't work out for you. That's how I got my current set of Winterforce.

 

[Ferzerp]

AWD won't help with turning or stopping, so don't get too confident just because you can accelerate forwards better.

I disagree a bit on the turning part (at least compared to RWD), but yeah, doesn't help stopping at all.

 

[heymrdj]

Well I got quotes on tires and it seems I can get 4 of the LT265/70R/17 Michelin Latitude X-Ice2 installed/balanced/nitrogen filled for 760$ out the door (that includes taxes). I'm thinking of going and paying for them today. They said it would take about a day to arrive (they don't have that size in stock). It would be my local tire barn, they had the best price out of anybody and i really enjoy their service there.

Any final yay/nays? The X-Ice 2 seems to be the highest straight rated tire for heavy work SUV's. The winterforce I hear lots of complaints about bad corning when heavily loaded and the DM-V1 has a worse rep for ice handling compared to the X-Ice2. I need ice handling more than I need deep snow forging, as snow here rarely gets above 5" in a go. 2" a go is more like it.

 

[Doppel]

Snow tires work very well. Their tread life is absolute sh*t, though. Do not use them unless you're right in the middle of snow season or else you'll burn through them in no time.

 

[Plugers]

I disagree a bit on the turning part (at least compared to RWD), but yeah, doesn't help stopping at all.

X2. Maybe with turning coming to a stop, but when I start to slide in the snow I just give it more throttle and it pulls out of the slide. Obviously there is some type of limit to this I'm sure.

 

[z1ggy]

I didn't read all the responses (lazy sorry) but I just read an article in popular mechanics yesterday about your situation. It compared FWD to AWD both using snow tires and all season. In Summary, the winter tires actually made more of a difference than having AWD, and AWD with snow tires was MUCH better than fwd with all seasons. So in short, yes I think if you got a set of 4 snow tires and 4 wheels to match, it would be worth the money in the long run.

 

[JCH13]

X-ice will be a win, go for it.