Snow tire season starts this week
 

It's not that I hate my snow tires, I just really love my summer tires (OE Insight tires, still the lowest RR I know of). I figured I could ride out the first snow accumulation of the season on summer tires by just driving slowly, which I did this weekend. I hoped it would buy me a couple weeks, but now it's time to throw in the towel:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5290/...b5171bb8_b.jpg

Twelve inches of snow, with thunder, with a chance of more snow all week. The Insight is very sensitive to small changes in road load that other cars would just shrug off. I'll have to make a habit of running higher RPMs, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot less lean burn.

:(

The Nokian Hakkapeliitta R tires sound really nice, other then they don't make them in a size that would fit the insight, closest are the 155/65R14 but those re really short tires.

really short? its about 13mm smaller in diameter, and the 175's are about 13 mm larger in diameter. This is not a big size change either direction. going larger would be 20 or so less revs per mile, if mile figures are right (and this is using the theoretical dimensions of the tire, not actual)

You took off "SUMMER" tires and put on "SNOW" tires? Around here, we put on "WINTER" tires!

But seriously, some folks switched over 2 months ago. It's pretty much dependent on what the conditions are like where you live.

We usually don't get 12" of snow in a day around here, but I've switched to winter tyres as well.

I also put my snow/winter tires on last week. I went with 185/65R-15 Pirelli Winter 190 Snowcontrol Serie II tires. Despite the cold temperatures (which really hurts the Prius mileage) and high speed winds we've had lately, my mileage has not been effected as much as I had thought it would. So far, I'm quite happy with them.

I'm switching next weekend. I need to have them on by dec 15th, it's the law here.

I've heard about the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R LRR snow tires, and while they are the lowest RR tire in the Nokian catalog, they're not the lowest RR tire on the market. AFAIK, that's still the 11 year old Insight tire. Anyway, this might be the last season I get out of my MZ-02's, and if so, I'll get a set of LRR snow tires next October.

Most days, neither do we. ;) But this is what happens when you live on the leeward side of one of the Great Lakes. It's occasionally expensive and inconvenient, but if this is the closest we get to "extreme weather", I'll take it.

On my way in to work, it felt like I was driving with the brakes on. It felt like a "normal" car, as Basjoos might say. But I did some 4th gear lean burn where I would normally do 5th gear, drove slowly because of the weather, and managed to get the same mileage as I usually do on the commute.

I haven't put the Blizzaks on the Honda yet, but it has to happen soon. My summer tires are getting pretty bald. I'm not too far from Buffalo, but we only got about an inch here.

Robert, from the looks of the weather reports it's Snow Plow season up there around Buffalo. 24 inches east of Buffalo, WHEW!

70 degrees here yesterday ;).

regards
Mech

Yeah, and I live and work just east of Buffalo. :mad: Just over two feet of dense snow at the plant, and the piles of snow at the entrance to the parking lot are so large, it's like driving through a tunnel.

I wish I had brought my camera. I had to push snow out of the way with my car door at 5pm, and the car's footwell is about 4" lower than that. :) I didn't need to dig out of my parking spot, but I had to rock it five or six times.

There was one point on an unplowed side street where I had to use the tried and true snow driving technique: DON'T COME TO A STOP! If I had stopped, I might still be there right now.

9.8mi on my odometer, and I drove about 9.2mi. That's 0.6mi of wheelspin!

This is the worst driving weather I can remember offhand. I barely needed 3rd gear today, and I didn't touch 4th once. If I had known, I would have just called in today.

...All-Season tires for my cars, we don't visit to "Snow Bowl" at Flagstaff.

I left out the best part:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/...971ced1f_b.jpg
and 45.0mpg on the way in.

That's my worst ever, but it's actually really good mileage for the conditions! Aerodynamics didn't come in to play today, I only lean burned about half of the way, and I ran the "alternator" (i.e. background regen) a lot. I think my curb weight was the biggest factor in my mileage today.

...nah, it's gotta be your "...driving with the doors open..." that ruined your milage (ha,ha)!

...the little red door-adjar symbol!

My F-250 4X4 gets up to the Snow Bowl just fine on all-season tires. :)