Brian Nystrom said:
If you actually tried snows on one of them, you'd be amazed at the
difference in traction, control and ease of driving in slippery
conditions. There is absolutely no comparison. You may not think you
need them, but when you do and you don't have them, you'll regret it.
Living where you do, it's mind boggling to me that you won't even
consider snow tires. Getting by is not the same as being confident,
comfortable and in control.
That's the whole point Bryan - most people around here do not use snows.
ASR's work so well that snows aren't really needed. Like I said - we drive
through harsh winter conditions. And like I said - I've used snows before
so I do appreciate what they do. The last set of snows I put on a car had
to have been somewhere around 20 years ago or so, so I have a pretty good
handle on how much confidence to put in my ASR's in the winter. As do most
of the cars around here.
One thing I should probably be a little more clear about that came to mind
last night. A lot of cars today have low profile, wide tires and many of
those up until very recently did not have aggressive tread and sipe
configurations. It wasn't stylish or something. Around here we refer to
those as skis. Absolutely useless in the snow and little better on wet
roads. All of my cars have a more conventional 70 or 75 series tire on
them. In the case of my daughter's '98 Malibu I took a full inch off of the
width of the tire by changing the series, and still maintained the proper
tire height. It was completely undriveable in the snow before I put the
70's on it. Now it cuts through and bites the way you want a tire to. I
used her car the other day to go deer hunting because my truck wasn't
available. Actually - I snuck out of the house with it before she was even
awake and had it back before she ever woke up, so she technically does not
know I "borrowed" it - but that's a side story. Anyway - I drove out into a
farmer's field a distance of 1/8 of a mile or so in snow that I was plowing
with the bumper. Never spun a tire. Parked the car in the snow, went out
into the woods, froze my butt off for the sake of seeing nothing, and then
got back in the car and proceeded to turn it around in the field and head
right back out. Not a single problem in doing so.
No - we don't just get by with our tires here - they perform as a tire
should. If I were on the edge or just getting by, I'd go the route of
snows. But - I've had snows and they just never offered any significant
margin over what I get with good ASR's. After 20-ish years to test the
theory, I have that confidence, comfort and control that you speak of. And
like I say - this is snow country and you don't often see a snow tire on
cars.
Good tires is the secret. No ultra wide, low profile, "cool" tires. Good
sipe design in the tread. Tread in good condition.
BTW Bryan - what part of the world are you in?
