Winter Driving and Tires

I got to try out the new Michelin Ice Xi2's this morning.

We had freezing rain this morning here in Pittsburgh. Ice is bad enough but water sitting on top of the ice is even worse.

I saw a fire truck spin out, an Ambulance spin out, along with two Explorer four wheel drive police vehicles. The best was the salt truck with full load at no more than 5-7 mph lost it on the ice.

There were roads all around my house closed off due to the dangerous icing conditions

And there I am with my little Prius creeping along at lower than posted speeds with no problems. :cheer2:
If I still had the Yokohama's on I would have had problems this morning getting around.

I love these Michelin's.

 

Me too out here in the Portland, OR area! After Costco put the Michelins on Saturday morning, I drove home in the rain to find my Thule CS-10 self-tensioning tire chains had just arrived from Amazon Prime with an almost overnight Saturday delivery (jeebus they 're fast!!!). It continued to sprinkle in Portland all day as we shopped. I hadn't even had the tires and chains 12 hours yet when leaving a Christmas party that night we found all that rain had frozen into a thin sheet of near glare ice. It was so bad that the hired bartender had to stay overnight. Her car had a set of nice all-season tires on yet was still slipping and sliding all over the street. She panicked, stopped in the middle of the road, and got came back to have me drive it to a safe parking spot. We live in a hilly area but with the brand new X-Ice tires my wife and I decided to make the attempt to get home. We passed several stuck cars and 4-wheel drive vehicles. About a half mile from home we came to a steep downhill incline where we started sliding. Very freaky! Fortunately, I was able to pull over angled into a curb and put the chains on...a relatively easy process considering it was dark, we were faced headfirst down an icy incline (I kept sliding away as I was putting the chains on), and I was unfamiliar with the chains. Once the chains were on we were able to backup off the curb and crawl down the hill (still scary!). We didn't slip at all though and made it easily through the last hilly section home. Big recommendation for the Thule CS-10 chains...they cut through that ice well and self-tensioned and self-centered perfectly.

It was kind of a funny, strange feeling seeing 4x4 drivers trying to pull each other out of ditches stop and stare as they watched a Prius with nothing but snow tires go by and drive right up the hills and around the corners they were unable to make themselves. Thank God for the PriusChat recommendations, Costco, and esp Amazon Primes superfast shipping!!!!

As the Portland, Oregon area has relatively mild winters my wife (and even myself) was questioning the financial wisdom of buying expensive winter tires and chains in an area that gets very little snow and only ices over a couple times a season for a few days. But after experiencing last night we both feel very differently...and I can tell you the difference between the all-seasons on the bartenders car and the winter tires on ours was night-and-day!

 

I have no doubt

The worst offenders around here are the lifted 4x4's with off-road tires. Those tires are *dangerous* on glare ice.

I always enjoyed winter driving in the city, when there was a nice sheet of glare ice at the intersections. A 4x4 would be sitting there spinning and I jackrabbit away, thanks to the studded tires I had on