Would snow tires get me up my driveway?

Yes, any good winter tyre will help a lot.
Personally, on bad snow days I just park close to the road and walk the few feet home.

 

An the walk , it is for FREE !!

 

I'm a bit ashamed to say, it was only this winter that I realized that I should flip the wiper blades up off the glass. So much easier to clear snow in the AM

 

i used to have the same problem with my '72 dodge dart.

 

Snow tires will definitely help. This is my 1st year with my Prius v and the first time I've had snow tires on a car since 1974. I have the Michelin xIce3 tires and my housemate has the same on his Prius c. We've had more than 100" of snow in southern NH and I've only seen the traction light come on a couple of times and only because I forced it.

 

I've also used cable chains on my front tires when it's really bad out. They work wonderfully, but must be removed promptly once you're back on a clean road surface. Otherwise they'll be ruined.

 

My 13 pip with Hakepellitas is better than my wife's AWD 15 Venza with all seasons in the snow

 

The Venza has to be the worst-performing snow vehicle in the world. I had the unfortunate experience of getting one as a rental at ORD last winter, and to say that traction control was overly aggressive would be like saying Mt. Everest is a hill.

 

We did not get enough snow in Wisconsin to bother with this year, but I recall from my previous Prius experience to go up the driveway in reverse. I believe the traction control would not take over, allowing the drive wheel to spin down to the pavement. Last May I lost control and went off the road in 9 inches of snow in my PIP, so take my advice with caution. I do use studded snow tires on my bicycle, and find that it is a better winter driving machine.

 

With just snow tires it will still be problematic to start from a stop on ice, studded snow tires on the other hand will go anywhere anytime.

 

Can you post a pic of your driveway so we can see just how steep it is..

Is it possible for you get a run at it? prob not though if you said you've slid off it in the past...

 

Call Tire Rack and ask their advice. They are the experts.

 

Snow tires will make a big difference. They will not perform miracles, though: if your driveway is crazy steep, you made need to employ other tactics as well: keep it well cleared, sand it, and maybe let discretion be better part of valour: park on the street or leave the car home, on the really bad days.

 

Here's our driveway yesterday. Took our snows off the previous day, and our son's that morning. Getting ready to wash them. Notice daffodils in background?



Winter was a real non-event this year on west coast. Maybe becoming the norm? Snow tires were overkill.

 

Holy crap... so, I live in the Twin Cities, and we finally got a decent (although not amazing) snow storm, causing the morning commute to be challenging. So glad I decided on Sunday to get snow tires put on the car! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I had them on my previous car (the smart) and they were awesome on that as well... but I wasn't sure we'd be having a winter this year to make snow tires worth it... Well, all I can say is I was confidently passing everyone on the road...

When I picked the car up, it had new tires on it (Firestone Assurance Touring... awful) so I thought maybe they'd be ok for this year... slid into my first intersection on snow. Now with the Blizzaks? Stops as intended! TURNS as intended... GOES as in ended! I'm in love!

 

I only started using winter/snow tyre 4 years ago. I can't believe that I hadn't used them before. It's not that common here in Ireland to use winter tyres as most people are of the opinion that we don't get enough snow to justify having them. I don't mind having to change over to summers/winters twice a year so that I have safer driving for the time that we do have snow/ice. The Prius is find is not great at all in the snow and with the hills where I live when it does snow, the Prius cannot move with it's over sensitive TC!

In saying that we've had a crazy mild winter with the temps not going below 5oC (40ish F) at all. I am yet to fit the winters but will probably be a much shorter time with them this year as they'll be taken off again in March/April. Even still, I'm prolonging the life of my summers too as there's thousands of miles going on the winters every year.

Winter tyres are a win win for me and really should be considered by anyone that gets temps of lower than 5oC (40f) for any length of time during the winter. I bought steel rims for the winters too so I'm just swapping the full set (15" steels with the winters) rather than swopping tyres on my 16" summers

 

I had a separate set of wheel for the winter tires for the smart, but turns out Costco will swap them for $40... That's 10 swaps, or 5 years worth, compared to spending $400+ on a new set of wheels (I like fancy ones.. hehehe). So, I guess I'll just do that.

But yes, I agree... I encourage everyone I know to get winter tires... even with AWD/4x4... They are amazing.

 

It's hard on rims though, and just a lot of interactions with Costco. Having separate rims has a lot of advantages: the convenience of doing swaps whenever, protecting the nice alloy rims from winter, and so on.