hey guys-

So the winter is here and after being defeated by the combination of deep snow and a hill, I think I need new tires. Currently My car has 17" aftermarket wheels with tires that have the M + S stamp on them but the fronts are pretty much done and they don't have the 'look' (or feel) of an M + S tire. however, the back tires are still good for while. so here is my question:

Do i get black steelies and put dedicated winter tires (non-studded) on them and just use that setup for the next few months? then just get 2 front tires for the summer?

or..

buy 4 all-season performance tires for my current wheels and just use those?


I guess my main question is, are all-season tires good enough for solid traction in the snow?

what are you guys running that have a similar type of car?

any info is much appreciated, need to make a decision this week.

-peter

Click to view attachment

(i dont live in Tahoe, but this was my car on tuesday)... and yes the skiing was effing amazing.

Ok don't laugh my DD is a prius. I have basic all weather tires. Ask T.C. about this area. I can say that I have never gotten any of my other cars stuck. I am not a big fan of " Snow Tires"

Yea I mean, I live in chico, and I drive to tahoe pretty much every weekend for the next 4 months. So i think that all-season tires will probably be my best bet.

I am the opposite. I AM a big fan of snowtires, they stop way better on ice.
I just ordered a set of Blizzack DM-V1's for my Grand Cherokee, and put General Altimax Artic's on my wife's Lexus.

My Jeep gets around well with the AT tires but nothing like with snowitires.

I am also a big believer in snow tires. Its not an apples-to-apples comparison, but I've driven though all kinds of weather with my 914 on Blizzaks. Like Chappy said, snow tires really shine when you are trying to stop or go on ice.

My brother has some all weather tires on his AWD Escape and they work pretty well, but in bad weather I prefer my 2WD cars with snow tires.

In any event, it seems to be a personal thing, but if I was in your shoes and planning to drive in snowy mountains for the next few months I would spring for a set of steelies and some narrow snow tires. If you can get them in your size I highly recommend the Blizzaks.

thanks for the input guys. the only thing im worried about is the 1:15 drive before i hit the snow.. and any other traveling i might have to do. is it going to just ruin the tread?

Call the Tire Rack and tell them what you're looking for. I have Blizzaks on my son's Jetta GLI as the summer Goodyears would not do well in the snow, and I also have a set on my Scion xB daily driver. They seem to do fine in the warmer weather and dry pavement, but I do not try to get overly aggressive with my driving in the winter (way too many flakes on the roads around here in the city).

Get a set of steel wheels and the snow tires, and save the nice ones for the good weather. The M&S tires are a compromise that do everything OK, but nothing great.

I lived in the mountains of Utah for nine years, and then in Tahoe City for five. We used studded tires in Tahoe on our Suby Legacy and Syncro Westy; we lived on a very steep street and an even steeper driveway. In Utah, we studded only one car in case we HAD to go somewhere in case of an emergency.

IMHO, if you're going to buy good quality snow tires, they're only going to last one season -- especially if you go off the mountain for that many miles. Now that I live in the flatlands near Sacramento, we only use M+S tires -- we figure the CHP will close the roads before we get truly stranded. It only backfired once, when we got an uber storm that shut us in the cabin until the plows cleaned out the subdivision. My $0.02.

Blizzaks.

We have had Blizzaks on all four corners of our Subaru GT for two seasons (replacing studded tires). Studded tires are very inferior when driving in any but all-ice conditions and only *marginally* better at that (if at all)...

Blizzaks ride a lot quieter too.

I have Nokian WS on my Audi S/4.. Ya I too love the white stuff and figure that it's more cost effective ( safety wise ) for a complete set of Nokian for the winter. I live in LA and currently have a summer set too. Sounds crazy.. then I'm not normal dealing with 914's all my life too.

I have a 2006 WRX wagon and run all season tires up to Tahoe. The sierra's don't really call for hard-core winter tires.

If I lived close to Tahoe, I would have my stock wheels with Blizzak LM-60's, and summer tires on my aftermarket wheels.

I really like the 2-sets concept, especially with AWD. Even in the summer, if you have some tire-destroying event, you have a full matched set you can swap back on.

We have a set of Winterforce on our Subie wagon's stock wheels, and Yokohama ES-100's on slightly wider aftermarket wheels. This year, the Winterforce are being replaced with Nokian Hakkapellitta R.

The Titan gets Conti UHP CrossContact in the summer, and Blizzak's in the winter, even with 4WD available. I hate getting stuck, and there's enough twisty bits and elevation changes in our commutes to make it worthwhile in peace of mind.

Got the Winterforce as a package from TireRack and they were quite reasonable. They have adequate performance in the dry and have not shown excessive wear, although they're typically on the car only from December through March.

Both vehicles get their snowshoes this coming weekend. Traditionally I do it Thanksgiving, but the weather has been holding and we had other projects...

hmmm... well, like i said, i am about 2 hours from tahoe. with the first hour always on dry pavement and then the second hour on a twisty road (hwy 20) that can or cannot have snow on it, depending on conditions. It is just hard because I know that I am going to have to replace my summer tires too (at least 2 of them) and am trying to see if i have to bite the bullet for two sets of tires... and one set of cheap rims or just get the all-season and sacrifice some winter traction and some summer traction.

-p

BTDT - Lived 8 years on the east side of Tahoe (Douglas County, NV).

I do not believe in buying 2 tires for an AWD car. IMO, you'll never match the diameters exactly like you would with a matched set, and you'll make the center diff unhappy.

The stock Subaru aluminum sheels are plentiful and cheap. Lots of guys in no-sno areas have them in take-off condition from uprating. Especially if you drop to 16's (check to make sure your brake parts will fit)... You'll lose 1/2" from the wheel size but get it back with high-profile snows.

I hate compromise.

Bad traction in winter is life-threatening. Bad traction in summer is just no fun. This is why I have really good performance tires for the summer, and why the Titan can outcorner many 'sporty' cars. They have good wet-weather performance as well, which is important here.

The road crews here (and in the Sierra, for that matter...) do a pretty good job of keeping the roads clear (the downside of which, here, is tons of salt...) and we're on dry pavement more than actual snow. I figure it'll cut a year off the life - but IMO tires time-out at 6 yrs anyway no matter what the tread looks like. The WinterForce would be going into their 6th winter and have 10/32"

But I have a place to store two sets for two cars year-round. That could be a factor for you.

Ok, take my $0.02 with a grain of salt:

I was born in Aspen and have lived my entire life in Colorado.

I have NEVER bought dedicated snow tires.
My solara (TRACTION CONTROL) has Goodyear Assurances and my Suburban has Yokohamas.

I have been stuck in the snow exactly twice in my entire life and that was back in High School (25 years ago). Now I have been snowed IN, but never ran off the road and got stuck.

A few years ago, Denver got hit a with a nasty snow/ice storm on the night of my company's x-mas party.

I was driving up an icy hill and I was behind a jeep cherokee.
He was spinning all four wheels and could not go forward.
I drove right around him and accelerated up the hill in my Solara.

Stu

I may be overly cautious.
Last winter (known here in the east variously as 'Snomageddon' and 'SNOMG') there were two days we were snowed in at home, but as the jobsite was closed, I had nowhere to go anyway. Joy overnighted at work. With snow up to the tops of the tires, it's less about traction than ground clearance...

So the reality is that although I have 4WD in the truck, I only needed it to get out of the driveway, and only a couple of times. (And one day it was -really- icy, when I engaged it out of caution.)

So if I didn't need the 4WD, did I need the snows? If I'd had all-seasons, would that have been good enough if I'd used the front drive? Probably.

But because I _do_ have snows, it means I can have really good summer performance tires for the other 3 seasons without compromise.