Snow tires anyone?

They make all the difference in the world. I have a dedicated set of wheels and tires for the car we use in Winter. It's a FWD MINI Cooper and I drive circles around all the SUVs and Crossovers on All Seasons.

Same. I have a FWD MINI Cooper S that I put on Pirelli run flat snow tires on last year. I avoid driving in the snow when I can help it (relatively easy because I WFH) but the few times I’ve gotten caught at the beginning of a storm before the sanders and plows come through, I’ve felt safer and more in control.

I live in the suburbs in New England and know many people who have snow tires.
 


Those seem to be the same as the asymmetric Nokian WR 3 series. Not sure what's up with the name though.
Nordman are made by Nokian. not sure about the name either but the definately handle the snow and ice better than the all season tires I used to have. We don't get lots of snow here but frequently have frost and ice on the roads and I live in a hilly area.
 
Nordman are made by Nokian. not sure about the name either but the definately handle the snow and ice better than the all season tires I used to have. We don't get lots of snow here but frequently have frost and ice on the roads and I live in a hilly area.

I'm kind of a car geek, so I remember that specific tire under a different name. Maybe just a different name in the Canadian market.

I remember hearing that they were part of Nokia before being spun off.
 
Same. I have a FWD MINI Cooper S that I put on Pirelli run flat snow tires on last year. I avoid driving in the snow when I can help it (relatively easy because I WFH) but the few times I’ve gotten caught at the beginning of a storm before the sanders and plows come through, I’ve felt safer and more in control.

I live in the suburbs in New England and know many people who have snow tires.

Ugh...run flats. They serve a purpose, I suppose, but from a driving perspective they're terrible.
 


Ugh...run flats. They serve a purpose, I suppose, but from a driving perspective they're terrible.

I knew someone who had a high performance car that had a small trunk and no spare. I saw the tires on it and they weren't run-flats like I knew came standard. I asked what he did with them and he said he had a can of Fix-A-Flat. If that failed he had a cell phone and a AAA membership.
 
Disclaimer: I know nothing about cars. And I try to avoid snow and cold as much as possible by hibernating indoors in the winter. We debated on snow tires (NH resident) but went with all season recently due to laziness of not wanting to have to change them out and store them. However, the best decision I ever made was to trade the FWD minivan for AWD. It made a huge difference. Wish I did it 20 years ago. That is what I drive in the winter while the Honda Accord sits under piles of snow.
 
Five years of North Dakota winters and never put snow tires on. Just all season. We were lucky if the city plowed the street.
 
I've always had snow tires on my vehicles - then I bought a new car with summer slicks on it last march in the biggest snow storm of the season and white knuckled it for an hour driving home and got super stuck on a side road. I still need to buy snows for it but haven't yet. Growing up in a rural area outside of the city driving an hour each way the only time I didn't make it out with my snow tires on was when the snow plow with the sanding trailer jackknifed and blocked the only road in/out of our neighborhood...
 
For one trip? Just this year? No, I would not go to the expense of buying a set of winter tires just for 1 trip. Assuming it's a new vehicle you bought in March, and has decent all weathers, you should be OK. If it's a blizzard, nothing is going to help much and you are safer waiting it out rather than being on the roads.

We use winter tires, put them on a couple of weeks ago and they'll stay on until sometime in March. I don't rotate, though I think the garage typically marks which tire comes off which location, and when they put them back on the tires will "rotate" then. Winter tires will usually last about 4 years or so; same with my summer tires. New all weathers are usually decent enough for a winter up here, maybe 2, but definitely not after that.

OP - enjoy your ski vacation!


No..not just one trip. Family has a condo in the White Moutains and we are planning to go quite frequently this winter. We also get a lot of snow where we live as well, so that was my reason for asking.
 
I've always had snow tires on my vehicles - then I bought a new car with summer slicks on it last march in the biggest snow storm of the season and white knuckled it for an hour driving home and got super stuck on a side road. I still need to buy snows for it but haven't yet. Growing up in a rural area outside of the city driving an hour each way the only time I didn't make it out with my snow tires on was when the snow plow with the sanding trailer jackknifed and blocked the only road in/out of our neighborhood...

It might be worth it to get chains. Maybe even two pairs. Not sure what the laws are in your area, but if you’re absolutely stuck somewhere there’s little chance of getting in trouble for it.
 
Five years of North Dakota winters and never put snow tires on. Just all season. We were lucky if the city plowed the street.

Sure. I get that those used to driving in the snow know their limit. They might be more useful for those who aren’t familiar with driving in winter conditions.

It’s certainly a preference for people who are used to it. However, winter tires give a greater margin of error.

As a general point, most dedicated winter tires are designed to stay flexible ar lower temps, even compared to all season. They generally have a higher proportion of grooves, which is supposed to help clear the tire of snow. Anyone who has seen a winter tire would notice all these little cuts called sipes, although their shape (straight, wavy, zig-zag) may vary. All season tires will have sipes, but usually not as much.

https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/tire-guide/winter-tires-vs-allseason-tires

Here’s a picture of a Michelin X-Ice XI3 tire. It’s got all those wiggly cuts. You can all see the edges cut out for the “snow platform”. Once it’s down to where that layer is gone, it’s a warning that the tread depth isn’t adequate for driving in deep snow. Other tires have other means. I’ve heard of some that have numbers that count down the tread depth in mm.

x-ice-xi3_zoom.png


This is the kind with numbers. It also has a snowflake symbol that wears away when the depth isn’t at the manufacturer’s recommended depth for driving in deep snow.

DSI-Nokian-WRSUV3-720px.png
 
Never have had snow tires and I live in Minnesota. Never found them necessary. Nor do we have 4 wheel drive vehicles. If you drive sensibly, you can get through winter just fine. We have a pair of Prius. Never gotten stuck. My husband has never failed to get to work, and he works 25 miles away in the middle of the night, often before roads have been adequately cleared. The expense and hassle of storing a whole other set of tires simply is not worth it.

We have high quality all season tires on all our vehicles. That's sufficient.

This. I don't know a single person that gets snow tires.
 
As a car geek this is an interesting discussion for me. I guess the marketing of all-season tires has gotten to the point where many are used to it. Certainly back in the early 1970s, it would have been crazy to drive summer tires during the winter. I remember the first all-season tire (the Goodyear Tiempo) that was heavily marketed, and they treated it as a total game changer. Firestone came out with their 721.

Of course there seem to be huge differences between how they handle this in Europe of Japan, where they don't seem to use all-season tires quite like in North America. And the law in Quebec makes winter specific tires (the snowflake on a mountain symbol) mandatory for 4 months out of the year.

https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-saf...le/maintenance-and-safety/winter-preparation/

Apparently it's possible to get up to 4 one-week exemptions for specific purposes.

https://www.caaquebec.com/en/on-the...inter-tire-exemption-practical-in-many-cases/
 
It might be worth it to get chains. Maybe even two pairs. Not sure what the laws are in your area, but if you’re absolutely stuck somewhere there’s little chance of getting in trouble for it.

If I still lived there I probably would. Living in Calgary now with much milder temps, Chinooks, and much, much less snow makes chains make less sense.
 
I bought Michelin Ice tires several years ago and they have been great, well worth the investment. You still have to be careful but I have WAY more traction than a regular tire and they cut through large amounts of snow quite well.
 
If I still lived there I probably would. Living in Calgary now with much milder temps, Chinooks, and much, much less snow makes chains make less sense.

I live in an oddball state when it comes to winter driving. Along the coast it almost never snows/freezes. If it does it's a 25 year event or it's gone within hours. I remember this from about 9 years ago:


But there are a lot of people who go up to the mountains where it does snow. I mean - it's only 80 miles from the edge of LA to Big Bear. That's pretty crazy because there are inevitably drivers who are experiencing winter conditions for the first time.

Last Christmas my family was in the Seattle area when it started snowing. We went home on Christmas Day and were worried about road conditions. There was definitely snow on the ground (my kid was very happy about it), but the main roads and freeways were absolutely clear on the way to the airport.

But then you worry about stuff like the infamous occasions when Portland, Oregon has been snowed in.


That was more ice than anything else. The conditions were such that chains or dedicated winter tires might have been the only safe way to go. However, most people figured it wasn't worth trying to drive, although there were a lot of parked cars that were damaged by others.
 

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