Winter Driving

8) Mr. Nelson,

I drove my 04 with the OEM tires last winter here in Omaha, NE, without any problem. However, after I checked out http://www.tirerack.com I discovered that the original OEM tires were really not rated to good for rain, snow and or ice. I decided to put Goodyear Comfort Tires on my. They are rated number three by Tire Rack.

Ben

 

The OEM tires are fine for the basics, even snow here in Minnesota. But if you are going to push it, like in Colorado, it would be best to at least upgrade to high-traction all-season tires. Michelin HydroEdge and Goodyear TripleTread are the current favorites for that.

 

Re: Winter Driving and location of 2 new tires

The current AAA tips for winter driving include shifting into neutral when in a skid. I found the easiest/fastest way to do this in a hurry while traveling forwards is to toggle the gear shift up to reverse. The Genie in the control module puts it into neutral assuming you made a stupid mistake.

When I brought our Camry to Costco to relace the worn front tires, I told them to leave the pretty good rear tires alone and mount the new ones on the front, as any fool knows. They said they could not and would only put the new ones on the rear. I asked for the Manager and he said Michelin had done some research and said the best tires should be on the rear for safety and that was the only way they would do it. So I went home, Googled the question, and lo and behold the Michelin site showed significant improvement in skid avoidance and control as stated. You are never too old to learn.

 

Re: Winter Driving and location of 2 new tires

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I strongly disagree with that in a Prius, especially since I have 4 winters of experience now.

"B" mode provides a dramatic improvement over traditional vehicles in this same situation.

It's pretty sweet. And Toyota went out of their way to make it easy to enter to "B" mode when in a skid. All you have to do is paw the dashboard. Any downward motion making contact with the shifter will engage it. So you don't even have to take your eyes off the road.

Try it sometime.

You'll be delighted by how the engine braking provides additional deceleration without affecting the tires at all.

Prius. Gotta love it.

 

Re: Winter Driving and location of 2 new tires

The best way is to lift gas pedal and turn steering wheel into skid direction. For example if the rear end is turning left, then turn steering wheel to left.

When driving car with manual transmission push clutch first and after that turn steering.

When skid starts it is so fast that you don´t have time to shift into neutral.

 

In CO, don't you have a chain law? If it's anything like driving to ski resorts in Utah, the Utah Highway Patrol will set up roadblocks in poor conditions.

If you don't have proper winter tires (Studded and/or "snowflake" icon), and/or chains, they make you turn around. This way the UHP doesn't have to risk the lives of many officers just to rescue some dumb a** who tried driving in mountain snow on all-season or summer tires.

"But officer, they're all-season!" :roll:

With all-season tires on my Prius, it exhibited an alarming weaving at speeds greater than 60 km/h on snow/ice. Trying to accelerate on a green light on ice was almost impossible. Trying to drive up an icy parking ramp was also impossible, the car just stopped and sat there.

With my Dunlop Graspic DS-2 winter tires, I can drive at 70 km/h on snow/ice no problems, and can accelerate on ice from a dead stop without concern.

The only problem with studless tires is that they wear quickly if driven in warmer temps. Since a place like Denver can climb to +50 F, and you can have blizzard conditions at the Eisenhower Tunnel I-70 summit, it's a tradeoff you have to make.

I haven't driven in winter on "all-season" tires in over 20 years. Once you experience the much greater traction and safety of winter tires, you'll wonder just why the h*** you risked your life driving on snow/ice on some dinky all-season tire.