Dedicated Snow Tires

Good idea. We use dedicated snow tires with studs every winter.

 

Different regions call for different routines.

We live along side a river, that routinely makes fog. Once the evening temps are consistently below freezing. Cold pavement will form a layer of ice from the fog. On a clear sunny day with 40F temps, there may be a thin layer of clear ice on the pavement. We call it 'black ice'. It is very hard to see if black ice if present. Most 'winter tires' will slide on black ice. Black ice 'season' passes directly into winter. So there is no break when it would be appropriate to remove the studs.

Once winter is here the rivers and ponds freeze and we begin driving on ice anyway. No need to drive up-river 20-miles to cross on a bridge, when you can simply drive straight across anywhere.

 

I run my winter tires at 35 psi. I remember reading advice somewhere about it being best not to heavily over-inflate winter tires.

 

Ice-fishing is very popular here. People have shacks that they tow onto the ice, behind their vehicle. Sometimes lakes can become parking lots. Between the fishing shacks and vehicles.

This state also has a massive sled-trail network that interconnects all towns. This offers much faster transportation between towns, because it avoids pavement. Sled trails offer high-speed travel going directly to towns that in summer might only be accessible via dirt road or that may only offer seasonal access. There is a sled trail that crosses my land.

 

Interested in hearing how this goes. We're due for snow Friday, too. I'm thinking of trading in my stock Bridgestones for all-weather Nokians. Did you mean 38/36?

p.s. I spent a summer in Spearfish at geology field camp a couple of decades ago. Beautiful country! Deadwood was pretty fun and exotic for this Ohio girl. I hear it's changed a lot.

 

Did 2 winters on Hankook iPikes and was very pleased. Wanted something a bit "smoother" and replaced them with a set of $$$ Nokian Hakka's which were really sensational last winter and definitely brought back a couple of MPG in the average vs. the deeper treaded iPikes'.

Luckily my other car uses the same size tires. I needed to get snows for it, so it got the still well-treaded iPike's and I got the new ones on the primary car, the Prius. Win-win.

 

24". Wow, that's a lot for early October. We were supposed to get snow, now they are saying we're really getting none. I feel a little robbed, but in reality I could go for no snow for a little while longer.

 

We've got the Michelin X-Ice2, in the 15" size. The two winters they've been through they saw very little snow, sound and drive fine on bare pavement. Mileage on par with our OEM 215/45R17 Michelin Pilots, fwiw.

 

Ouch. Just be careful if it gets really deep, ground clearance trumps traction: doesn't matter what your tread is if it's barely touching down

 

Boy! You sure must live right!

 

Holy smokes that's a lot of snow! We got the storm that hit you and thankfully it was just rain. Not ready for snow yet.