Snow Tire help

[Fatfish]

Go studded if you are living in the mountains. Once you get studs, you will never go without for winter driving again. Where I live the temperature fluctuates so much ending in ice and deep snow. I have done the Nokian, BFG, Cooper and Michelin thing but believe it or not, I have had best results with General Grabber AT2's studded and custom sipped. Mind you this is used on a truck not a Subi. Blizzaks are okay but as others have said they wear fast. From my experiences on my Subi, blizzaks kinda blew in the deeper stuff.

[XXX-er]

every year there are snow tire threads and well educated successful people talk about cost while they are seemingly oblivious to the fact that snow tires are a safety item and a trip to the ditch will cost you more $$$ than what you paid for the tires or maybe even your life

At least buy a cheaper studded snow if you must but consider ... you wouldn't buy discount condoms ?

[stfu&gbtw]

Curious - What kind of studded tires?

Jeebus, 230 days? You live in Fairbanks or something?

Also curious about what brand & model tires you were running studded...

Live on a north-facing ridge at about 10K'... Work about 1,000' up from there, also north facing. The snow likes to stick around and the trails are usually snowpacked from the middle of october until the middle of june. I ran the Cooper Discoverer M&S studs. There was never enough glare ice to make the studs do anything - they'd just pull right through the softer snow. If I lived on the ice-coast somewhere it would be different. When I switched to the blizzaks on my plow truck, it was like a night and day difference. The Coopers were never that good, even right out of the box. I probably only chain up about 50% of the time that I used to. The blizzaks do wear fast, but I drive slow - and all those miles on the snow don't count.

[gramboh]

Question for fellow Canadians: how do you tell the manufacture date of tires? My new General Altimax Arctic don't have the longer DOT code as seen here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11 they just have DOT OPOF 3TE on them. Maybe it's somehow on the inner sidewall? My tires are installed in the correction direction.

[angrysasquatch]

I drove studs across canada last winter, IMO the actual grip (static grip, that is) is pretty much the same to a really good snow tire. However, once the tire slips a bit, the grip drops off dramatically without studs, and drops off at a much lower rate, and more predictably with studs.

[SkiBall]

I am going with studs for the first time this year. I put arctic claws on my OB with studs and in the 2 early storms so far they have been great. For the additional $50 it is piece of mind. I have to leave for work early in the morning and if the roads are not plowed yet I will take every lil benefit.

[chadeau]

Question for fellow Canadians: how do you tell the manufacture date of tires? My new General Altimax Arctic don't have the longer DOT code as seen here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11 they just have DOT OPOF 3TE on them. Maybe it's somehow on the inner sidewall? My tires are installed in the correction direction.

I just put Altimax Arctics on my Suby and I have the same issue as you. What is weird is I have an additional 4 numbers after my DOT code on 2 of the four tires? The number is something like 2873, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't correspond to a date.

[chadeau]

Actually, scratch that, the number on 2 of my 4 tires is 2809. So that makes the manufacturing date as the 28th week of 2009. I guess it was a combination of bad lighting in my parking garage and bad memory that led to that error.

So what does this mean? 2 of my 4 tires have dates accounted for and the other two don't? Did the numbering convention change somewhere between 2009 and now?

[farmer]

I went studless (living in vancouver), but decided on studded when I moved to MT. Quite a few places around here offered to stud for free before the snow started to fly last winter when I needed a new set of snows. Even places that didn't weren't much. Having driven with both, there isn't a chance that I would go back to non-studded.

That said, I agree with XXX_er. I had an auto teacher who always told us, "You've got about a square foot of stuff holding your life on the road. It's probably worth spending money on it"

[chadeau]

Turns out Google knows a thing or two. According to the link below, the date component of the DOT number is only stamped on one side of the tire. I'm gonna check tomorrow sometime.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4897078_tell...uck-tires.html

[timeo]

Blizzacks, end of discussion.

I am in Seattle and granted we don't get much snow but when we do the streets are hell since we have steep ass hills every where and about 1 plow for the whole city. I live at the top of a steep hill and drive a Landcruiser, before getting these I could never get home, I tried it a couple of times in 4L and never made it, would get stuck and have to shovel out a track. Put the Blizzacks on last year and I could drive straight up like there was nothing on the road, I could stop in the middle and start up w/ ease. I actually look forward to as much snow as possible in the city since my commute is way faster because no one else is out driving in the snow. Drove in 20" of unplowed new snow in the mountains with zero issues as well.

[gregL]

Blizzaks=2.5 seasons, Hakkapeliitta 2's=5 seasons. Traction is comparable, maybe even better with the Nokians.

OP is talking about living near Mt. Hood (I think), not the Wasatch, Front Range, Montana, or northern BC. That means a regular part of his driving is going to be on slush, mush, and bare wet asphalt, not just ice . . .

[powndnstein]

the main difference between studded and snow tires is that the purpose of the studs is to increase braking traction snow tires are the way to go unless you don't drive at slower speeds in snow and ice conditions and you use your brakes a lot.

[XXX-er]

I went studless (living in vancouver), but decided on studded when I moved to MT. Quite a few places around here offered to stud for free before the snow started to fly last winter when I needed a new set of snows. Even places that didn't weren't much. Having driven with both, there isn't a chance that I would go back to non-studded.

That said, I agree with XXX_er. I had an auto teacher who always told us, "You've got about a square foot of stuff holding your life on the road. It's probably worth spending money on it"

Vancover is the WORST place to drive when it not very often snows, there are lots of hills, lots of cars , a huge population of unexperianced drivers many of them now are immigrants from warm climates, little to no snow removal equipment, most people do not have snow tires and worst of all wet snow which is the most slippery SO just stay home OR if it starts to snow go home just wait for the boss to leave he will be the 1st one out the door ... buddy will have a meeting eh ?

Now if you go 800kms north to quesnel or PG, take that same immigrant put him in a car with 4 studded snowtires, half the population can run heavy equipment, buy lots of snow removal equipment, -20 temps and cold dry snow ... STOP for 5 months of the year and everything works no problem

I once partied with/met a Kitsault mining engineer who told me "we buy our liquor by the case and our pot by the lb ...do it right"

[shirk]

Vancover is the WORST place to drive when it not very often snows, there are lots of hills, lots of cars , a huge population of unexperianced drivers many of them now are immigrants from warm climates, little to no snow removal equipment, most people do not have snow tires and worst of all wet snow which is the most slippery SO just stay home OR if it starts to snow go home just wait for the boss to leave he will be the 1st one out the door ... buddy will have a meeting eh ?

Now if you go 800kms north to quesnel or PG, take that same immigrant put him in a car with 4 studded snowtires, half the population can run heavy equipment, buy lots of snow removal equipment, -20 temps and cold dry snow ... STOP for 5 months of the year and everything works no problem

I once partied with/met a Kitsault mining engineer who told me "we buy our liquor by the case and our pot by the lb ...do it right"

The awesome part about driving around in Vancouver when is snow it that it's like a real life video game. Take one guy that grew up driving in ugly nasty snowy conditions in Ontario + AWD + good snow tires + ability to turn off traction control = wicked fun. Because the city has next to zero snow removal equip it means every street is fun time of four wheel drifts. So many fun little hill climb challenges. Just gotta hit it when the snow is fresh, if it's an ice event then best to just hold up at home and watch the news of cars sliding down hill into huge pile ups.

[XXX-er]

when I was 16 I got my license and that very same night my buddy & I went up to the deserted SFU P-lot each in our own cars and had lotsa fun in 6-9" of untracked wet snow ... good way to learn snow driving

its funny how you can take an immigrant who has lived in a hot country all his life give him a 50-70K$ mill job in a place where it's -20 ... he figures out how to drive pretty quick

[PNWbrit]

What's with the Canucks and their tire dates?

[shirk]

What's with the Canucks and their tire dates?

No idea why these guys are checking dates on the tires. As far as I know there are no specific Canadian rules about the age of tires.

[gramboh]

Just good to know if a tire shop sold you old tires, even if there aren't laws I would bitch if they charged me full pop for 5 year old rubber, as from what I've read, you should not use tires that have been sitting for 6+ years without any use (that could be conservative, who knows). That's the only reason I wanted to figure out the dates on mine, since I just bought em.

I just sold my studded 195/70R14's from an old car on craigslist, guy seemed really happy to get em. I did not enjoy driving on those around the lower mainland on dry tarmac.

[shirk]

When Quebec implemented mandatory snow tires a couple years back it pretty much cleaned out all the inventory of winter tires across Canada so I wouldn't be too concerned about get old winter tires.

[gregL]

Vancover is the WORST place to drive when it not very often snows, there are lots of hills, lots of cars , a huge population of unexperianced drivers many of them now are immigrants from warm climates, little to no snow removal equipment, most people do not have snow tires and worst of all wet snow which is the most slippery

Portland and Seattle aren't much better - remember this vid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaksWCnHaDM

[XXX-er]

When Quebec implemented mandatory snow tires a couple years back it pretty much cleaned out all the inventory of winter tires across Canada so I wouldn't be too concerned about get old winter tires.

I remember that yr , I shredded a tire in the spring so i ordered new haks very early in the fall and was ok but everyone else was fucked

[ACH]

Really all the time? Or will you be going back and forth between Hood and PDX? Even if you're living at the mountain, studs are less effective in wet PNW conditions than hard, cold interior conditions - I went Nokian Hakkapeliitta R's this year - live in Seattle and drive to the mountains several times per week.

Greg, how well do those work going through the transition zone (rain/snow), and when it's slushy?
BTW where did you get yours?

[chadeau]

No idea why these guys are checking dates on the tires. As far as I know there are no specific Canadian rules about the age of tires.

Just good to know if a tire shop sold you old tires, even if there aren't laws I would bitch if they charged me full pop for 5 year old rubber, as from what I've read, you should not use tires that have been sitting for 6+ years without any use (that could be conservative, who knows). That's the only reason I wanted to figure out the dates on mine, since I just bought em.

This ^

and just because the rule doesn't apply to Canada doesn't mean it isn't a good rule of thumb to follow. As far as I'm concerned, after the breaks, tires are the most important thing on my vehicle.

They funny thing about snow tires in Vancouver is that when it snows here, the people WITH the snow tires stay OFF the roads because of shitty drivers without snow tires.

[gregL]

Greg, how well do those work going through the transition zone (rain/snow), and when it's slushy?
BTW where did you get yours?

Haven't tried them in anything more than a dusting last week at Paradise - we'll find out soon. Tread on the "R" isn't as aggressive as Hakka 5 or 7's (spacing is narrower, gas mileage supposedly better), but all I could find in my size was studded in those models. Discount Tire and Les Schwab told me their companies no longer deal in Nokian at all, I got mine through Tire Factory in Kirkland (cheapest was Tires-by-web, $15 less per tire but then I'd have to take them somewhere else to mount/balance, etc).