Snow Tires

If your car has the traction control system, it's pretty much never going to spin the wheels. The TCS limits traction motor (MG2?) output power to eliminate wheelspin. If the wheel speed it will allow doesn't create enough motion, you probably need snow tires. Good thing you're getting them.

Beyond that, you need a light touch on the go pedal. The old strategy of gunning it on snow won't work on this car.

 

I'd add another vote for the Blizzaks. I recently put them on my Silverado and they've done very well. I don't have any firsthand experience with them on a Prius but I can only assume they would do just as well in that application.

 

I bought 4 Hankook Winter iPike 409's. What I have read they are a great tire. They are supposed to be a close copy of the Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi's. Unfortunately I cannot tell of my experience with them as I have yet to have them mounted. I purchased 4 steel rims to mount them on. They were $69 each. I'll be getting them mounted on Monday.

 

I'm running Nokian WR-G2s year round. We have had some pretty good snow and ice here and I think they do quite well. Oh... and I do not seem to have a problem with the car going up a steep icy incline and shutting down power. That has never happened to me.

Mike

 

I'm having decent performance with studded Kelly Magna Grips.

Is there a way to temporarily disable traction control? Not often but, I feel there are times "driver knows best".

I'd have to agree the Prius is not much of a snow vehicle however I find it does much, much better than the Honda Civic hybrid I previously owned. That car was totally worthless in snow and downright scary on ice.

 

"Traction control" on the Prius is also a protection for the drivetrain/motors. The electric motor has so much torque at low RPM that without "traction control" it could spin too fast and damage some components.
There is a hack to disable the traction control, but most of the knowledgeable people on this site will discourage its use.

 

I mounted four 195/60R-15 GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC (no studs) snows from Tirerack.com. No local dealer could beat their price of $277.90 w/ UPS shipping. I am sure that the more expensive Nokians or Blizzaks are great tires, but I can't afford them right now.

As we just had our first few snow storms here on the MA/NH border I have only driven in the snow on them a couple times but find that they are doing a great job. Nice straight controlled "panic" stops. I have tried to get the traction control to leave me without power as I have heard some complain about but haven't been able to get it to react that way yet. Keep in mind one thing, you still only have four tiny patches of rubber between you and the road.

I just bought the Pri so my OEM tires are pretty new but I was very concerned about leaving them on in the snow as they would throw the traction control into a fit when accelerating on wet pavement, I can't imagine what they would have done in the snow!

The larger than OEM size also helps improve handling. I no longer get blown into the next lane when there is a cross wind. They are not that noisy nor does the ride seem to be that much rougher.

Gas mileage takes a hit, but it is cold out so it is going to take a hit anyway. Plus, I have still doubled my mileage compared to my Subaru OB wagon. With my limited experience thus far, I would say that the Pri with four snows handles about as good as the OB wagon did with all season GY Triple Treads. Of course, deep snow would be the limiting factor, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the tires.

This is the first FWD car I have put snows on and I would never drive a FWD car again without snows in the winter. And you definitely have to do all four.

 

I don't mind being protected from myself, but I thought only certain package levels come with traction control? Assuming that's a good assumption, it seems reasonable to have a way to disengage it on ones that do.

 

All packages have traction control. Without it, the drivetrain could suffer serious damage.
Might be different on "series" hybrid, but "parallel" hybrid such as the current gen Prius needs a traction control for drivetrain protection.

 

X-ice 2 are great. They just grab and grab. Winter tires were well worth the investment, this year.

 

Thanks Stefx, I thought the pkg 1,2 came without traction control.

That said, I had to do a 60 mile trip today in the aftermath of our NW snowstorm, it was nasty. Anyway, I decided to try an old trick I use with my Honda Rancher ATV which has 4WD but is really more like 3WD (it's not uncommon to get stuck watching the front wheel with no traction spinning away while the one with traction is not being used). The trick is to tap gently the front brake which fools the bike into thinking the free wheel now has traction which then makes it go back to real 4WD and pops you out of the hole.

Once the Prius entered the state of being unable to find traction and quit applying power, I gently feathered the brake pedal with my left foot and bammo, the power became available and let me crawl out. I kept very light throttle. It's not something I'd use all the time but it's handy for certain tight situations where just a little throttle could get me moving again.

What's the drivetrain warranty again?

 

If that really works, you should make a sticky out of this.:cheer2:

 

I'll try it a few more times as we still have lots of snow everywhere. I can say with certainty it got me out of my veterinarian's parking lot today when my only other choice was to take a run at it. Since we are talking a driveway which T's to a busy road with blind corners in both directions, I deemed the latter an unsafe move.

 

Good tip, lexi. I'll give it a shot tonight, and see what results i'll get.

 

Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSi's (2007). A+

 

I'm not sure about US option packages, but is it possible you had VSC in mind (Vehicle Stability Control) and confused with Traction Control?
They're not the same.

 

I am a European guy. For my Prius I bought Dunlop SP WINTER SPORT 3D. They are good all round winter tires.
Dunlop Tires | Catalog | SP Winter Sport 3D

 

We went with the Michelin X-Radial all-season tires installed by Costco in October and it's gotten us through all the snow storms in Minneapolis so far. It doesn't do all that well gripping ice but I doubt very few tires do. We just didn't have the storage room to buy winter tires and switch them out in the summer so these fit the bill year-round.

 

What size steel wheels did you guys buy? Where did you guys buy them from? I can't find any for the Prius on Tirerack.com.