Performance Tires in Cold Weather

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05-21-10, 05:21 PM

#16

Kurtz

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Quote:

Originally Posted by sandwiches

Mikez, you have *****. I got caught in Tahoe with my Toyo T1Rs on. The sky was clear in the morning but it started to snow a bit in the afternoon. There was only mild accumulation of snow but I basically got stuck in the parking lot for a few minutes. Finally made it onto the road leading down to the highway from the ski resort parking lot. There was probably not even 1/8" of snow but my VSC was beeping like mad and I was wiggling my way down the road. Pretty sketchy.

Kurtz, I only head up to Tahoe a few times a season; do you think even a highly rated all season tire like the Continental Extreme Contact DWS is still bad?

Something like the DWS tires will be "pretty good" in dry and wet... and "ok" in snow.

Something like real summer performance tires will be "great" in dry and wet and about worthless in snow.

Something like real snow tires will be "ok" in dry and wet and "great" in snow.

If I lived someplace it gets snow at least a couple months of the year I'd prefer to swap wheels and have "great" virtually all the time rather than not swapping and having "pretty good" or "ok" all the time.

If I lived someplace where I'd only have snow on the ground a couple days a year and it's mostly above freezing all year (which I do) I'd use summer performance tires exclusively. If I'm unlucky enough for one of the 2 or 3 actual days of snow a year to fall on a work day I make other arrangements and leave the IS350 in the garage.

For you, assuming you also spend 350+ days a year someplace that summer performance tires are fine, I'd stick to those, and assuming you have no other vehicle in the family then on the couple days a year I was taking a trip someplace it might snow I'd rent a car :P (cheaper and easier than keeping spare wheels/tires around for like 5 days a year)