Snow tires or what?

I have Michelin X-Ice or IceX on ours. Make a HUGE difference. I put them on Corolla steel wheels from a junk yard. Fit fine (with regular lug nuts).

 

Read my post (#38) in this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/32836-prius-in-snow.html

What tires are you currently running? If they are the stock Goodyear Integrities, it's no wonder you are experiencing issues. They are ok for getting good fuel economy I guess, but they have terrible traction.

 

Hey-

I bought the Bridgestone Blizzaks for my gen 3 Prius and were good with the last snow we had in Seattle. I ordered them from tire rack and had my local Toyota dealer put them on.

 

There are lots of winter tire treads on this site, check them out. There are a few tires that give great results in snow,ice and dry. Check them out and decide which is best for you.Much safer to have good tires for any event and accidents are not good! H

 

I recommend Nokian WRGII. They are all-season so you don't have to worry about changing them and they work very well in snow and heavy rain. They don't wear excessively in the summer. Note that if the snow is deeper than about 6" you can forget moving in it in a Prius. You will high-center.

 

We got 8" of heavy stick-to-your-shovel snow a couple days ago and the Prius had no problem plowing a trail across the driveway 200 feet and through the bank the county snow plow made on the main road into our driveway. For me, driving the Prius in snow is no different than any other vehicle or FWD car. I don't see any limitations just because it's a Prius or a hybrid. Mind you, 24" of snow and plowing with the front bumper through our driveway would be a different matter, but no FWD car would really be that good at it.

 

Yep, and if the road hadn't been plowed, you'd have driven just far enough to be dangerous before you finally built up enough snow underneath to kill traction. Don't do it! It's difficult enough to navigate snow covered roads without having Prius stuck all over the place!

 

I don't think so. We would have just kept on driving if the roads hadn't been plowed. Eight inches of snow is not really much of a news story here, but I do insist on good tires. I know how to drive in our weather. Been doing it for 20 years. There's a time to stay home and hunker down when it really snows, and there's a time to not worry about it. Eight inches isn't quite enough to bother me.

 

Lots of positives from owners here at the forum... my wife and I love them.

Nokian WRG2

 

+1 on the WRG2 tires, assuming you don't want to buy studded snow tires.

It depends on the type of snow. Eight inches of dry stuff is nothing. Eight inches of heavy wet snow over ice would stop my Jeep, let alone a Prius. Snow conditions very: one size doesn't fit all.

Tom

 

Again, 8" isn't going to stop us from going places in the Prius, and my Toyota pickup would laugh at 8" of any kind of snow. The only time an "average" of 8" of snow would stop me is if it were actually blowing and drifting snow with widely varying depths.

 

You obviously haven't experienced enough different kinds of snow.

8" of Colorado Champagne Powder is completely different than the same depth of Cascade Concrete or Sierra Cement. No Prius will get through the later, and I wouldn't bet any money on your truck either.

During certain Chinook conditions, 8" of snow on the road will stop an F250 with chains on all four. I had to help dad use the crawler tractor to tow it out several times.

 

I have Nokian Hakkapeliitta snow tires while are truly wonderful when they don't plow the streets (or at least before they get around to it).

Related: These people live on a hill. If you husband sells your Prius and you end up with a SUV/Truck and end up taking out 5 cars because you haven't realized that whatever fancy 4WD system the marketing people sold you doesn't actually work in a lot of conditions, the Internets will be laughing at you.

 

Hi canesfan (from about 3 hours south!).

I like Les Schwab too, great service and a NW legend. But I'm usually a little disappointed in their selection. Studded tires work well enough but they sound horrible and cause undue wear on the roads. These days good quality studless tires are fantastic.

The already mentioned Michelin X-Ice, Bridgestone Blizzak and the Nokian WRG2 are all great examples. The Blizzaks are a little cheaper than the X-Ice and both are available at Discount Tire / Americas Tire in Tualatin.

- D

 

Thank you for schooling me on snow. We just don't get any here in Minnesota.

 

Interesting how some early build Prius like mine had hyper-sensitive Traction Control and others just charge through snow with no problems. My '04 was helpless in 3 inches of snow/ice if I kept on the Michelin Harmony tires

Going through different studless winter tires, I finally cured the problem with an aggressive set of studded Goodyear Nordic winter tires from Canadian Tire

I completely agree.

Having also lived in Utah, even a couple years in Park City, the difference in snow, especially at higher elevations, is amazing. Valley snow and high elevation snow are completely different

Which is why chain laws exist I guess!

At the time I lived in Park City, I had a 4Runner with studded winter tires AND chains. I actually miss the climate, the winters were not as bone chilling cold as they are here

Even better is a 4WD with factory studded winter tires. I never ever drive on highways in 4H, the studded tires and a few sandbags in back for traction are fine even in drifted snow

These are the winter tires I used to run on my Prius



And on my FJ





Funnily enough, folks will pass me in a car in treacherous winter conditions. Almost without fail, I come across them spun out into the shoulder.

I agree the tread pattern of any aggressive winter tire will cause noise. Just like a mud tire will on dry pavement, there will be a resonance. The studless Toyo Open Country G-02 winter tires I used to have on my FJ also had resonance

Comparing the traction of the studless to a good factory studded winter tire is a day and night difference. Well worth any tradeoffs

As far as road wear, around 20 years ago the Swedes came very close to banning studded tires over road wear issues. Rather than ban them, the road research institute VTI simply re-engineered the studding system

Start : VTI

which resulted in not only negligble road wear but ironically much improved winter traction.

Even the Province of Ontario now allows studded tires for winter, at least north of the Sault.

 

Yes, that is strange. I was hesitant to upgrade from our 2002 to this 2004, but I just haven't seen any issues with Traction control. And even the LRR tires (Bridgestone Ecopia EP100) I bought for the 2004 this summer did ok in the slippery stuff (granted they are basically new). Regardless, I've had nothing but good luck with various Blizzaks and put them on anyway. I got a set of the newest model (WS70's). We can't use studded tires here in Minnesota..... When I put the WS70's on (I have a tire machine and balancer), I immediately drove out and "played" in the snow to see how they'd do. There weren't any reviews on the WS70 yet on tirerack.com when I bought them, but they look identicle to the WS60 and so far they seem to handle just as well. I've owned other sets, and probably the "worst" set of snow tires were the Dunlop Graspic DS-3. That being said, the Dunlops were still decent and certainly better than regular all seasons--but just didn't stick like the Blizzaks. In general, snow tires have come a LONG way in the last 15 years. Snow tires used to look like mini mud terrain tires.

 

Ironically, as a visitor to your fair state, I CAN use studded tires. And I frequently do so!

See subd 4

https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP_SEC&year=2006&section=169.72

Hehehehe

 

NOT fair! I'd have to be a rural postal carrier AND get permission to be able use studs here....