A couple weeks ago I bought a spare set of rims and a set of Michelin X-Ice Xi3 tires. They are going on today as an early season snowstorm is predicted where I live in Spearfish/Deadwood area of the Black Hills, SD tonight with 6-15" total snow accumulation. I am excited to see how they will perform, but I won't get too crazy testing them. Going to put in 48/46 psi.
Because it is so early of a storm, I may take them off after the snow is gone and put them back on in a few weeks. I was thinking of not driving it for a few days, but it will be a lot of fun to test them out.
Different regions call for different routines. We live along side a river, that routinely makes fog. Once the evening temps are consistently below freezing. Cold pavement will form a layer of ice from the fog. On a clear sunny day with 40F temps, there may be a thin layer of clear ice on the pavement. We call it 'black ice'. It is very hard to see if black ice if present. Most 'winter tires' will slide on black ice. Black ice 'season' passes directly into winter. So there is no break when it would be appropriate to remove the studs. Once winter is here the rivers and ponds freeze and we begin driving on ice anyway. No need to drive up-river 20-miles to cross on a bridge, when you can simply drive straight across anywhere.
Wow. You actually do an River/Pond Crossing on your Prius? Neat. Sound like the show "Ice Road Truckers". I love that show!
I run my winter tires at 35 psi. I remember reading advice somewhere about it being best not to heavily over-inflate winter tires.
Ice-fishing is very popular here. People have shacks that they tow onto the ice, behind their vehicle. Sometimes lakes can become parking lots. Between the fishing shacks and vehicles. This state also has a massive sled-trail network that interconnects all towns. This offers much faster transportation between towns, because it avoids pavement. Sled trails offer high-speed travel going directly to towns that in summer might only be accessible via dirt road or that may only offer seasonal access. There is a sled trail that crosses my land.
Interested in hearing how this goes. We're due for snow Friday, too. I'm thinking of trading in my stock Bridgestones for all-weather Nokians. Did you mean 38/36? p.s. I spent a summer in Spearfish at geology field camp a couple of decades ago. Beautiful country! Deadwood was pretty fun and exotic for this Ohio girl. I hear it's changed a lot.
Nope, I meant 48/46. Michelin X-Ice Xi3 are rated 50 psi. I drove them home (70 miles)from the Toyota dealer in Rapid City to Deadwood to Spearfish and averaged more than I usually do for the trip, which I was very excited about! Temp was 49, roads were dry. Tires handled very well on interstate and excellent on the 3 miles of downwards mountain curves from Deadwood the last leg of the trip. Here is a picture of the last 16 miles from Deadwood to Spearfish. I usually average 77-88 mpg on this leg, so 86.2 was one of my best legs ever. I highly recommend the dedicated snow Michelins; not only that your mileage will not be affected adversely, but they also have a 40,000 mile warranty. Plus it will save your summer tires. Check out Tirerack.com for $50 rebate. Current price $402 for a set of 4, plus shipping, which cost me $68. Will post here in a day or 2 and let you know how they went on the snow. Current revision is up to 24 inches.
Did 2 winters on Hankook iPikes and was very pleased. Wanted something a bit "smoother" and replaced them with a set of $$$ Nokian Hakka's which were really sensational last winter and definitely brought back a couple of MPG in the average vs. the deeper treaded iPikes'. Luckily my other car uses the same size tires. I needed to get snows for it, so it got the still well-treaded iPike's and I got the new ones on the primary car, the Prius. Win-win.
24". Wow, that's a lot for early October. We were supposed to get snow, now they are saying we're really getting none. I feel a little robbed, but in reality I could go for no snow for a little while longer.
We've got the Michelin X-Ice2, in the 15" size. The two winters they've been through they saw very little snow, sound and drive fine on bare pavement. Mileage on par with our OEM 215/45R17 Michelin Pilots, fwiw.
18" so far. Power outage, tens of thousands of broken tree limbs. Have driven Prius in 8+ inches snowfall to get to inlaws. Not exactly sure how much was on road, but I would guess 4 or 5. Tires worked flawlessly for stopping and starting.
Ouch. Just be careful if it gets really deep, ground clearance trumps traction: doesn't matter what your tread is if it's barely touching down
Holy smokes that's a lot of snow! We got the storm that hit you and thankfully it was just rain. Not ready for snow yet.
