Anti-Slip Technology

I have WRg3 on both my Prius. Great all year around. You will love them. Hope to get 4 years out of them on each car. H

 

Yep, you're absolutely right. I ran that one through my head again while mopping floors. Add another to my "way-off-base" tally.

I'm starting to see why I had so much trouble on Math tests.

 

HaroldW, I did notice that you had them, and that you are in Canada. Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll go for it.

 

Purchased 4 steel wheels with Blizzaks for $150 off Craiglist. Rims perfect shape came off older prius, tires still decent tread. I have disabled the traction control once when stuck on ice on a small slope, it works. Now I wouldn't sit there and floor it spinning the tires either on the engine, or electric motor.

SPH-L710 ?

 

Yeah what he said.

SPH-L710 ?

 

Well, I just high-centered my car in my driveway. 45 minutes of shoveling and rocking, and it's back in the garage. Nokian tires are on the way to me. (Yes, I realize they won't help with clearance.) Today is the first day I miss my Subaru. I managed to get the car out with some deft (or at least I think it was deft) accelerator action, but I'm writing down the routine to disable traction control.

 

I would guess if you unbolted one of the wheel speed sensors or pulled the abs fuse, traction control would be off. You could instal a switch once you found the wire that best disables tc without disabling other essential systems.

 

I now have 3 prii. They are terrible in the snow. I have snow tires and swear by them. I have always run winter tires on my FWD cars and it makes all the difference. If you've never owned a brand new set of Blizzak tires you're missing out.

 

We had Toyo studless Observe G2S on an old Corolla several years ago and I loved that car in the snow. However, it really does not snow enough here to justify it, so now I rely on tire chains on the odd occassion. Chains work great, just have to get over the idea that they are a pain (not really so bad when you know what you are doing)>

 

Traction control is the one 'feature' I absolutely HATE on the Prius. In fact, I find it to be dangerous the way it's implemented. I'll be pulling out of my gravel driveway and must lft turn across traffic on a busy 2-way road. Occasionally the TC decides to cut all power and I just sit there blocking traffic, with a big HIT ME sign on my door. The TC is a definite hazard even when not on ice.

For me, upgrading my tires helped some but I have yet to try the hack to temporarily turn off TC. I live in Puget Sound where snow is quite rare so separate winter tires are not the answer, TC just kicks in at inopportune times on the frequently wet roads. I would use the disable hack if we had a snow storm, not to pull out of my driveway every morning.

One possible fix I'm considering is adding a throttle control. Then I could put it in the most aggressive sport mode when needed and easily readjust for improved mpg. Here is a thread that touches on the topic if anyone has experience ? It sounds as if the lag time is cut significantly.
TOM's throttle controller | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

I ran a season on balding all seasons and still made it up to all the ski resorts. Being in the Springs, I even take the highway 24 backroute through the passes. Since then I run on Michelin X-ICE2 and now X-ICE3 tires and they are awesome. I run them all year round since we still have snow in May/June and it comes back in September/August.

 

I'm in the Gatineau hills across from Ottawa Canada driving a 2012 Gen3. Snow was invented just north of here I think. Dirt road with slight incline by the driveway gives me problems on occasion when I back out and try to up hill. Usually it's when a powder snow is sitting on a freeze up ice layer. The only way out is sprinkling Aunt Hilda's ashes under the front tires and away we go! Michelin Ice X winter tires rock BTW Aunt Hilda resides in a container in the trunk and proves quite useful (ok I get ash from my wood stove but I need some fun)

I really would never risk over revving the generator tho.

 

I have Michelin X-Ice tires too...GREAT winter tires!!


I lucked out - the guy I bought my Prius from, just "threw them in" because he didnt want to bother selling them seperately. They had never been used!

The biggest difference here is, you have a Gen3 which has much much improved traction control than the Gen2's. You may not even have to think about disabling the TC in yours. However, for us Gen2'ers, we are screwed- the TC sucks.

 

I don't believe the Michelin ice radial are LRR tires if that means anything to you! H

 

Michelin X-Ice are a great snow and ice tire. Got four of them on the Rav4. The Prius runs with the Michelin X all season tires. I managed to "rock" the Prius out of a foot of snow with out the traction control coming on.

DBCassidy

 

The latest are X-Ice 3's and they are LRR.

 

I actually kept my X-Ice on through mid-April last year because of the great gas mileage I get on them, lol.

My "summer" tires are not LRR unfortunately. The last owner had just bought them, they are nice quiet smooth meaty tires so I dont want to just ditch them "yet". When they do need replacement, I think I would for sure go with Ecopias.

Im going out on a limb to say that on my observation, my X-Ice are the newer LRR ones. Im getting 48mpg avg right now and its 5f degrees out...lol.

 

Well that is good. Thanks., H

 

Michelin X-Ice are phenomenal tires on snow and ice. I also like Blizzak WS70 as well. Although the performance difference is marginal, I think X-Ice has slightly better traction on ice. For a more affordable solution, continental ExtremeWinterContact or Dunlop Winter Maxxs are pretty good. The price difference between X-Ice/Blizzak and the latter two are only around $50 for all for tires so I would go for X-Ice or Blizzak

 

One Thinge That works we'll is to be very gentle with the throttle. Build up the torque slowly. It will spin the wheels a bit and you make progress. Not using winter tyre a in the snow is plain silly. 90% off your issues go away on them.


iPhone ?