Anti-Slip Technology

While I agree with you, I suspect if you feel strongly about this, the Prius is not the car for you. AFAIK, while you can temporarily disable this system (at least on the Gen III's), it resets each time you start the car and it is really only for emergency, get unstuck use, not for regular driving as it protects the drivetrain.

What sort of tires are you using?

 

A decent set of dedicated Winter tyres (with the snow symbol) will solve alot of your problems with the traction control kicking in

 

Would you prefer having an accident with possibility of body harm ? Or pay for proper tires? If proper tires are cost-prohibitive maybe you should not drive in winter.
- Alex

 

Since it means that you are only using each set of tires approximately 1/2 the year, the overall cost is quite similar, but you get a greatly increased margin for error by running dedicated tires. The standard tires that the Prius comes equipped with (or similar replacements) are dreadful winter tires.

 

That's exactly where winter tires help the most!

 

SailRacer, I feel you pain. These last few weeks in MN have been hell -- very cold and lots of snow. The traction of the Prius is terrible and I think this winter might prompt me to invest in some snow tires for the first time in my life.

BTW Alex, snow tires are NOT a necessity for snow driving, although I'm sure they help. Good driving skills are much more important. I've never owned snow tires, lived in snowy climes my whole life, have never gotten into an accident and have only been stuck once or twice. However, I can't count the number of times I've had to use evasive maneuvers to avoid people who drive like idiots, thinking their big tires and 4WD makes them invincible. It's incredible how many people don't understand that 4WD is useless when it comes to stopping -- all cars have 4-wheel-braking.

I also agree that the traction control system is way oversensitive for snow driving. Everyone I know who owns a Prius around here complains about it. I seem to remember reading somewhere about a method of disabling the TCS but can't remember where. It is something you have to do when you start up I think. If anyone else can help out with the method (and answer the OP's original question -- instead of sniping) that'd be great.

For people with snow tires -- do you buy a second set of rims? That seems like it'd be pretty expensive...

 

SailRacer, I found this thread. Note the warnings about damaging the electric motors, though. In a later post it also mentions that if you floor the gas pedal it supposedly does spin the wheels a little bit. Never tried that myself. Instinct is to feather the pedal to find the friction point on the road, but maybe with the Prius you just have to floor it and let the computer figure it out....

 

Some people just use one set of wheels and have the tires mounted every time. Those who have separate wheels usually get cheap steel wheels to mount the snow tires on, so not too expensive.

Unless you really hammer on it with traction control disabled, you shouldn't hurt anything. My Escape Hybrid, which uses a similar design to the Prius' drivetrain, had no traction control and could light up one or both of the tires on low traction surfaces. I haven't seen many (any?) transaxle failures in them.

 

The design is to protect the electric motors. And good intentions aside, I think disabling the traction control is like a trapeze artist removing the safety net because there are times when you want to land on the ground. - Just not a good idea.

I think simply know the strengths and weaknesses of your vehicle.

I'd buy the best snow tires I could and then wait for Spring.- (Which is almost here).

But you seem determined. Good Luck and let us know how the spinning goes....

 

I use Nokian WR g3 all year around. Great tires. Great in all seasons! H

 

A necessity? I guess not, but having lived in places where it snows heavily my entire life I just can't imagine why I'd not spend the nominal amount of money it takes to get tires that give me a huge extra safety margin, and allow winter driving to be fun (I winter rally whenever I have the time) as opposed to a white knuckle experience where I am relying on luck that I won't need the extra 50-100 feet of reaction time that winter tires often give me to avoid someone else who has no idea what they are doing.

Yes, I put them on dedicated wheels - usually steel so the wheel cost is about $200 for a set of 4 new ones. I buy the snow tires the first year I own the car so I get at least 4-5 years out of them. That means that both of my sets of tires last that entire time - so there is only the $200 extra cost of the wheels to account for because I'm not wearing out and replacing a set of all-season tires during that time period. So less than $50/year cost to turn winter driving into something tremendously safer and actually enjoyable? Yes please. Not to mention that I usually sell the set on craigslist at the time I sell the car, recouping at least $200...