Winter Tires

Rick 386 wrote:It really doesn't matter what tires you use,

the big issue is to get that summer air out of the tires and replace it with winter air !!!

9 out of 10 blondes agree. ...



Rick

I could try that one on the yuppies - and top off their blinker fluid too!


Soft tires = mega snow/ice traction. The softer the tire, the quicker it wears out, but the more traction you have on ice. Harder the tire (from age or construction), the more "OH *censored*!" moments your going to have in the snow. Can't get around the laws of physics. With that said, I have Blizzaks in DM-V1. Squishy tread that you can easily bend with your fingers. And after driving in warm weather, they get that "shredded" look like a tire fresh off a race track. I try to run them as little as possible because I am VERY tough on tires. If I get 30K out of a high mileage set I'm doing damn good. But as far as traction goes I agree with Chris on this one - if they made all those morons in Worcester in their ricer cars put these on, we'd never see gridlock in a snowstorm again. They are just AWESOME in the snow!! I tend not to slow down in bad weather, & these make me not crash. I recently told the story of driving back from Worcester in that October snowstorm with this guy that kept trying to pass me & almost hit me ... so I cut him off & proceeded to haul ass on untreated roads. We got to a point where I saw him completely lose control in my rearview mirror (guy was in a Blazer - I was in a full size extended cab truck - Blazers are better in snow to begin with) while I continued on with just a slight push in a corner that I came out of with a little throttle. Needless to say I got rid of a tailgater.

The wife's Blazer has Firestone Winterforce's on it. They're noticeably harder in compound than the Blizzaks, so they won't be as good on ice, but they will last longer. As with all dedicated snows, they're directional. So if you don't mount your own tires, make sure the kid at the chain store mounted them in the correct direction of rotation.

I've thought about getting winter tires, but if it gets bad I just take one of my other vehicles. Jeep on 36" irocs, or if it gets real bad I can take the Deuce 1/2 army truck! 6x6 with chains!

For the weather around here that usually works, but I do try to put a good A/T tire on for my truck and wifes Yukon. That usually gets the job done. Wife works at a school so if it's bad she doesn't have to go any way. And If it's gonna be bad I'll just plan to take the Jeep.

I spent years selling tires. I live in Alaska to boot!

I have found that the best tire I have ever put on my truck is the Yokohama AT/S. Bridgstone, Michelin and Good Year have each given me countless sets of tires to test out. But I Paid for the Yoko's. And I am on my third set. I sipe them, makes for great winter traction. They are available in a crud load of different sizes. I have LT245/75R16 on my truck in a LRE 10PLY. The first set lasted two years and 63K miles. This is on a '03 CCLB 3500SRW diesel GMC. I pull ALOT. The second set I got a tad over 50k out of them, I was heavy on the smoke peddle that summer. This set is at 30k miles. I have noticed a night and day difference. Even between these and the Michelin X-Ice I had on it before. I rarely use 4x4 (remember boys, I live in Alaska). So far I am VERY happy. My truck has 205k Miles on it. And so far, this is the finest tire I have come across.

A old timer years ago told me about "sawdust tires " Anyone heard of these ? I guess during the war ( not sure what war ) they were short on rubber so they put sawdust ( i've even heard they used ground walnut shells ) into the tire He said they were the best traction tire he ever had in the snow. They didnt get good milige wear thou.

The wifey and I use good all seasons. She has Dayton Timerline HT's on her Trailblazer and I have Goodyear Wrangler AT/S on my GMC. Both vehicles being 4WD is the key.

This company sells re-thread tires with mixed walnut and glass.
https://www.treadwright.com/p-42-265-70 ... a-t-e.aspx

firestone winterforce gets my vote,wife has them on a kia sorento 4wd out performs my f250 4wd power stroke

Hankook Dynapro AT'm ... my opinion the best.. Got them on 07 Chevy silverado 4x4. 20,000 plus with 3/4 tread on them. Rotate them twice and no uneven wear.

Used to get recaps with sawdust in the rubber in the 60s & 70s, don't really see any recaps now except for big trucks. The sawdust tires didn't wear well but had traction you wouldn't believe but that was when everything had rear wheel drive, just put them on opposite sides the second year as most cars in my price range back then didn't have posi-traction.

samhill wrote:Used to get recaps with sawdust in the rubber in the 60s & 70s, don't really see any recaps now except for big trucks.

Same here. I don't know about the sawdust; but there was a local retreader that sold many sizes of passenger car tires. They were not too picky about the casings they used. Very often a tire would last a couple thousand miles then fail, either with tread separation or, more often, with a sidewall blowout. When I finally could afford some NEW tires, I was amazed that I stopped having flats every couple months, I thought it was normal!

My car has full time all wheel drive. I put studded snow treads on it every winter. It makes a huge difference. Cheap insurance as far as I am concerned. I bought a second set of wheels so I don't have to go to the tire shop for a remount and balance twice a year.

Used to run Blizzaks on the Neon when it was on the road. Then I went and messed with the engine and transmission with lower compression and a turbo and .91 transfer gears and a locker in the 3 speed and it no longer liked the snow so it got parked. It was like driving a sled on crack. Scary. But since then the car has been put on blocks, dismantled and sold off to kids for "go-fast" parts. I really need to get rid of what's left of it.

The Dakota has OEM's on it but its 4wd so it doesn't slide too much.

The wifey's Hyundai also has a set of OEM's. But its good in the snow.

Neon, ex had the 'bad head motor' dodge pissed me off so much on that one...
Every 12,000 miles needed a new head gasket...
Ditched the car at 32k...

CapeCoaler wrote:Neon, ex had the 'bad head motor' dodge *censored* me off so much on that one...
Every 12,000 miles needed a new head gasket...
Ditched the car at 32k...

There was no "bad head" design. There was a "poor" gasket design. If you didn't get the MLS gasket the first time then you got screwed. In the 11 years I owned my Neon I never had a head problem. It got the MLS gasket out the gate. Then when I tore into the car and started changing OEM parts out for high performance I still never had a problem because I always used the MLS gasket. Easiest way to tell if you had the MLS gasket was to look at the back of the engine (between the firewall and the exhaust manifold), in between exhaust runner 3 and 4 there should have been a "tab" sticking out from between the block and head. If you didn't have the "tab" you had the old style gasket which is what it sounds like to me. Seems the shop you took the car to was milking you. At the time I pulled the original motor out I had 150k on it. The new engine was fully built. Went from 9:1 compression on the stock motor to 8.6:1 .20 over forged rods, stainless pistons, 11 angle head job with oversized valves, ported and polished intake and exhaust ports, Garrett Super 16g turbo that had Stage 1 compressor wheel and housing. 38x40mm hybrid wastegate with an atmospheric dump pipe, front mounted intercooler, blow off valve. Modified A670 3 speed transmission with .91 transfer gears with a final drive of 2.60; welded planetary gears, upgraded clutch packs (4/5 as opposed to 3/4), kevlar bands, modified governor with new valves. Sorry, I'm rambling...I miss my Neon.

The Neon was actually a pretty well built car. It had some minor issues but once repaired it was hard to kill. I loved my Neon, started parting it out after I had my daughter. Didn't really see a reason to have a 375hp turbo charged 1st generation Neon around with my daughter.

My wife and I just went and looked at one today actually, it was a second gen. It'd be nice to have another Neon but money is never around.