Winter Tire Recommendations

If you haven't done so already, I would check out the Consumer Reports November 2009 tests of all-season and winter tires. Here's a copy:

Consumer_Reports_Nov._2009_Tire_Tests-1.doc

Note that unlike previous years' tests, the individual ratings can be directly compared across all tire categories, e.g., the "Very Good" snow and ice ratings of the Hankook Optimo H727 all-season tires are indeed better than a "Good" snow and ice rating of other tires no matter what category of tire they may be (even if they're winter tires).

 

Expect complications with your new rims due to TPMS (or get ready to ignore the warning light all winter).

 

I have the Michelin X-Ice XLI 2 and they were great last season. Here is a pic.



Here is a pic of the car with the new rims and snow tires.



I did not go with the TPMS sensors. I ignore the blinking light. In Cleveland I mount them the first couple of weeks in Dec and take them off the end of February. That will change based on where you live.

 

I never tried the OEM tires in the snow so it is hard to compare. The Prius with the snow tires handles better then my 4X4 Toyota 4Runner in bad weather.

 

I think the front sides are 50% and the rest is 60% dark. The numbers are legal in Ohio.

 

Beautiful!

The Michelin X-Ice XLI 2 was the only tire tested by Consumer Reports to get an "Excellent" rating for both snow traction and ice braking.

 

Here in Upstate NY, we have used Goodyear Ultragrips in Winter for many years on our Camry sedan, and plan to put four of them on the new Prius. (On the Camry we use aggressive all-seasons in Summer, and put snows on just the front in Winter. That works fine but I want to play it safer with the Prius.)

 

@ Geeter: I ran the Continental ExtremeWinter Contacts last winter. They performed very well for me (I'm in Vernon Hills). Winter driving with no-seasons vs. winter driving with dedicated winter tires is like night-and-day. I truly had to try hard to get the ABS or the TRAC to kick in and honestly never saw the VSC activate once.

On another vehicle, both my roommate and I got "caught out" one winter storm (didn't make the cut-over soon enough). We both had no-season Michelin MXM4s or MXV4s on our cars. I really couldn't see how people could drive with those. I've run winter tires for seventeen years (even on four- or all-wheel drive vehicles) because AWD/4WD doesn't mean four-wheel steer or four-wheel stop and no alphabet-soup nursemaid can create traction where there is none.

As for cut-over time, typically snows go on around the second week of December and come off the first week in April -- we always get "one last one" sometime in March. And, if there's a chance of snow and I'm driving to Champaign for Thanksgiving, I'll put them on before the trip.

I also don't have TPMS sensors on the winter "steelies". I just tune out the light.

@Michael33: Only putting snow tires on the front wheels of a FWD car can potentially be a very dangerous proposition. For one thing, you have two different handling characteristics at either end of the car (you wouldn't go out in a storm with a penny-loafer on one foot and a Sorel on the other, would you?) and, secondly, since the higher traction is at the front, the rear end is much more prone to coming around and saying "Good Morning" the first time you have to brake heavily on a curve -- not good.

 

That's why I made sure to specify "aggressive" all-seasons. It's more like running two different brands of snow tires than summers on the rear and winters on the front. I'm not suggesting anyone do it, and we don't do it with the Camry wagon because of the extra rear weight (we just run the all-seasons all year round and it works ok), but if your car handles well in snow and has good balance it can work.

 

I second that. A very very dangerous proposition. Go to this site

Be Tire Smart – Play Your P.A.R.T. - Buying Tires

The demonstrations videos are here

Be Tire Smart – Play Your P.A.R.T. - Videos

They demonstrate with pickup trucks, rear wheel drive cars, and front wheel drive cars, just how dangerous the winter handling becomes when you mix "all season" and winter tires

My '04 Prius had the hyper-sensitive traction control. If I was caught by surprise with the Michelin Harmony tires on, when the light turned green the car would remain motionless. Studless winter tires helped, studded winter tires cured the problem

I run dedicated studded snow tires on everything, including my FJ Cruiser. Amazing how handy that extra traction is when some fool on "all season" tires slides through a red light or spins out in front of you







Of course, some have suggested here on the forum I'm a lousy winter driver. [Sarcasm Mode=On] Apparently, a Prius can charge through 3 ft drifts and climb 12% iced over grades on bald tires [Sarcasm Mode=Off]

 

I have a similar heater mounted in the same place in my garage. It help melt all that snow off the car at night.



Here is a panoramic shot -> New Page 1

 

I like that Reznor heater. Sure is nice at -40 to have a vehicle already up to temp, and is cheaper to run then a block heater 24x7. The garage has R-20 spray foam walls and R-50 in the attic

 

Two points: When I lived in CO, I ran a full set of studded snows on my Grand Cherokee. People thought I was wasting money until I was able to be a virtual mountain goat in the wintertime. And, I wish we were allowed to run studded snows in IL but, alas, they are verboten.

One other thing to note from a discussion in my Phaeton Forum. Running dedicated summer & winter tires is really no more expensive than one set of all-seasons (if additional wheels for the winter tires are factored out of the equation). Whether you run through two sets of tires concurrently (but only using each one half the time) or consecutively, it will still take about the same amount of time to run through two sets of tires.

And, lastly, the term "winter" tire as opposed to "snow" tire is appropriate as the winter compounds also improve performance on dry pavement at temperatures below freezing.

(As an aside, are studded snows not allowed in Lower Ontario? I didn't see it referenced on the first link you gave us.)

 

Very good points raised:

1. Two sets of tires/wheels is really no more expensive than just one set, as the wear is spread among 8 tires instead of 4

2. I always interchange snow vs winter tire. Virtually every modern snow tire has the special compound: the Nokians, the Goodyear Nordic, the General Altimax, etc. The studs really make a huge difference on ice. They claim studless tires are as good if not better, my real-world experience proves just the opposite

3. Studded tires were banned in Ontario for almost 3 decades. They really couldn't prove that road wear was the result of heavy traffic or just studs. After highly public and sensational news stories, and lawsuits, the MTO relented and finally allowed studded tires.

But only in Northern Ontario, eg Sault and north.

The Swedish road safety and testing authority, VTI, has done extensive testing on winter driving safety, and the perceived impact of studded tires on road wear and even air pollution

Modern studded tires perform much better than older ones, especially the factory studded ones like on my FJ - there is a special rubber cushion pad under the stud to absorb a lot of that impact that would otherwise chew up the roads.

VTI also concluded that cold winter temps, especially -25 C and colder, the difference in road wear is essentially nil with studded tires. Run a studded tire at +30 C in the hot sun, with the pavement hot, that is a different story

VTI concluded that the air pollution in urban areas, especially PM10, wasn't particularly caused by studded tires. In winter, on icy intersections and streets, road crews spread a lot of sand and salt. The sand can be ground up by passing vehicles

I know around here, on dry winter days, follow a semi and it's like driving in the desert with all that fine dust

Ironically, VTI discovered in their lab testing - they built a special indoor simulator with a variety of real road surfaces - that studless winter tires (They are called "friction" tires in Scandinavian countries) were best at grinding up the typical road safety sand into PM10.

It is thought a combination of the extra siping, the tread compound, and the tread density, all conspired to contribute to air quality issues. Their primary recommendation was to send out sweeping trucks to recover the sand once the roads were bare agin