Winter tires - what are you running?

Only our second winter with a "C" but sticking with OE tires that seem to do well enough in northern Michigan winter (mostly city) weather. Previously our "regular" 2006 Prius, in what I would call formidable driveway conditions also had enough traction without resorting to winter tires, though the traction control (happy to be able to easily turn that off now) caused some issues at times. Our experience is colored, I expect, by the little wimpy lightweight econoboxes we had before we started driving a Prius...

 

TC

 

I have Michelin X-Ice XI3's mounted on my front wheels. I chose them because they were Consumer Report's top-rated tire, and I've been very happy with them. Last winter I was going up and down some icy roads with grades of something like 6% or so and I didn't have any problems at all. I'm not saying you can whip around corners on ice (maybe you can, but I haven't tried it) - but with cautious application of power I had no problems with traction in pretty challenging conditions.

 

Isn't having snows on fronts-only a no-no now? I did that with our first car, '81 I think, and noticed the back end trying to come around on a snowy downhill. Next car, in '82, the tire shop recommended all four should be snows, and we went with that.

 

+1 for the Michelin X-Ice XI3 but
+4 for using them on all 4 wheels.

 

Yeah we've had X-Ice2 since purchase with our low mileage 2010, the're still around 8~9 32'ths inch all around; I get them off promptly in spring. They are great on bare roads, very quiet/smooth for a snow tire. Our winters are mostly bare roads with rain, periodic ice, snow just once in a while.

 

I have the more base 15 inch wheels, its a prius C two. I am on my second set of tires. The first set was the factory low rolling all season. My current ones are cheap all weather tires. I live near Chicago, 2 winters ago lots of snow. The last winter for me snow only a few times, not justify winter tires.

I might be moving from near Chicago, Illinois to Anchorage, Alaska (waiting to hear about a job). Should I change tires? the tires I got now have about 15K miles on them.

 

Do winter/other tires other then low rolling, affect your MPG?

 

Any snow tire will be not so good for rolling resistance. The X-Ice have minimum impact though, Michelin gives it the GreenX logo. They're not in same league as an all-season LRR tire, but not bad.

 

St. Ignace is a big city. Do you cross the Mackinac Bridge in winter?

 

Yeah, I've had this discussion in another forum. Given the number of drivers who don't even bother putting any snow tires on at all, it still seems a bit incongruous to me that I get criticized for putting on two of them.

First of all, the BC Motor Vehicle act requires you to have snow tires on at least the primary drive axle on roads where snow tires are designated as mandatory. So legally speaking, snow tires on just the front wheels are fine (which is my primary concern). Secondly, since I don't commute by car I have the option of not driving on those relatively rare occasions in Vancouver where conditions are very bad. And thirdly, in well over 4 decades of driving front wheel drive cars with snows on only the front wheels, I've never had a loss of control, despite watching people ahead and behind me spinning out of control on a couple of occasions.

That having been said, I have great respect for slippery conditions and I am extremely cautious in them. For people who don't have the temperament to drive slow enough or leave enough space ahead of you to avoid potential accidents, two snow tires might not be enough. Actually, my personal opinion is that such people probably shouldn't be out in those kinds of conditions in the first place.

 

I read through that a bit, and it seems like even their definition of "winter tire" is nebulous, encompasses both tires with mountain/snowflake AND tires that merely say M+S. The latter designation is on pretty much every all-season these days, so that seems a near completely toothless tiger.

I was just quickly googling, not sure if I found the definitive definitions:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/driving-and-transportation/driving/winter/pdfs/wintertiresinbc_handout.pdf

 

Yeah, M+S are counted as "winter" tires for the purposes of enforcing roads that require them. My main point is that the legislators chose to make them optional on the non-drive wheels.

 

Currently running on Hercules avalanche R G2 winter tires on steel rims. Got it for cheap on Kijiji from a guy who totaled his yaris. So far so good

 

Past 3 winters: Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2s https://www.consumersearch.com/snow-tires

 

4x Michelin Xi3s in 175/70R14 on a dedicated set of 14" steel wheels. No hubcaps. I can run over potholes with impunity.

 

Was using Michelin X Ice Xi3, and they were a fantastic performer in snow. Much better than the appearance of their tread would imply. Had an 80 mile round trip commute at the time and even changing tires by season, the X Ice didn't last very long. So I got a set of General RT 43 all season and they are pretty good in snow, but the trade off is that they are only fair in rainy wet conditions.

Change of job and commute is now only 8 miles, so reconsidering the X Ice again for next set.