Snow driving

Well, today was the first day that I really got to see what this car was like in the snow. We had a good storm come through last night and into the morning. 10 degrees and blowing snow, about 6-8 inches on the ground. Roads were only slightly cleared for the morning commute.

I have been watching craigslist for some winter tires, but haven't really found a decent deal, so I am still rolling my all-seasons. I gotta say, I was fairly happy with them. The ASC and Winter Mode worked well for me, except for one time when I was taking off from a stop, and had an SUV tailgating me... the car did it's job, but not as quickly as I or the driver behind me would have liked. The other thing I noticed, was a bit of hydroplaning in the turn lane, where the snow was thicker and sloppier. I might continue to look for dedicated winters, but I am pretty happy with how it went today, and this was about as nasty as it gets around here.

when on cl dont look for just bmw winter tires. search the size and type of tire you wanted. thats how i found my blizzaks.

Originally Posted by Eight Thirty

when on cl dont look for just bmw winter tires. search the size and type of tire you wanted. thats how i found my blizzaks.

What size do you suggest?

whatever your wheels will fit.

for me i was looking for something that would fit on 8.5's and clear my fenders (low ness)

so i found a set of 4 brand new blizzaks in 235 45 17's

i was looking anything from 195/40-17 to 245/50-17's

Hey ZeGerman, since you seem to such an expert on all snow tires I guess mine were blessed by a magical Unicorn since I haven't slid off the dry pavement yet while keeping up a fairly good pace. If you think about it soft rubber does not mean slippery tires. With proper design a soft tire will have a better coefficient of friction than hard rubber. Do you think they do burn outs at the drags or to warm up the tires so that the the rubber gets harder? Yes, snow tires can be a bit less "stable" and tread designs to grip snow & ice are not ideal for dry pavement but there are some really decent tires out there that may just out perform the one or two models you have tried. I think if you lived in the snow belt, you might have a different perspective.

Karl grew up in Michigan.

He also said that soft rubber grips better on snow and ice, not that it is more slippery.

Just sayin'...

Originally Posted by john kaminski

Hey ZeGerman, since you seem to such an expert on all snow tires I guess mine were blessed by a magical Unicorn since I haven't slid off the dry pavement yet while keeping up a fairly good pace. If you think about it soft rubber does not mean slippery tires. With proper design a soft tire will have a better coefficient of friction than hard rubber. Do you think they do burn outs at the drags or to warm up the tires so that the the rubber gets harder? Yes, snow tires can be a bit less "stable" and tread designs to grip snow & ice are not ideal for dry pavement but there are some really decent tires out there that may just out perform the one or two models you have tried. I think if you lived in the snow belt, you might have a different perspective.

A bit? Snow tires have SO much less contact patch on the road compared to summer tires. It's like comparing a dirt bike tire to a street bike tire.... you have a much lower coefficient of friction from the tall spaced out knobbies.
Snow tires also generally have taller softer sidewalls and that means a much loser feel around corners in the dry.

Also my right rear quarter panel and rim can attest to all-seasons being extremely poor in the snow. Get summer tires and winter tires.

I agree that snow tires are not the equal of summer tires in the dry and I specifically went to 15'' for my snows ( I have 17 for summers) for the taller side walls which work better in deeper snow. However there are snow tires and there are snow tires - some definitely better than others. Before buying mine I did a bit of research at the Tire Rack site and found a lot of very positive comments for dry performance as well as just wet for the General Arctic line. So this is what I purchased and I couldn't be more pleased. Stopping and control in snow and on ice is great and at least for me the dry performance is quite adequate. For anything but balls to the wall driving I don't see any problems - stopping / hydroplaning not an issue but again I do drive "spiritly" but not bonkers with the winter tires. I guess it's all a matter of personal opinion as to what degree of lessor performance is a hazard or unacceptable. I just feel that a "good" snow tire is not something to be afraid of and such a buzz kill as to discourage using them when the amount of adverse weather is significant. I think the odds of them saving your as- far out weigh the reduced dry performence and you do get some thing back as you can have a lot more fun in the snow/ice. Just saying.

Toss my opinion in the "It's a great winter car... IF you put snows on it" column.

I live on a section of dirt road (beach house on the Ottawa River... it's worth it!) that gets ploughed about last in town. I also make plenty of long highway trips to Ottawa and back (~500km round trip) in ALL kinds of winter weather. 2 round trips each alternate weekend to pick up and drop off my daughter plus any time I want to do something you can't in a tiny town ...like BUY anything!

Seperate winter tires are absolutely the best thing you can do... When I lived in a city I had all seasons on most cars, but if you get outside of a city in a place that actually has winter... forget it. I've got Blizzak WS6s on my 318iS and Cooper winters on the M3... Very different tires. If it's icy the Blizzaks are much better, they're similar in snow. Best winters I had for ice or slush were Yokohama X-ice, but that was also on a (yuck) Intrepid.

Right now I've got 16 tires and rims for 2 cars, so the initial outlay is a bit higher... but once you're there it is no more expensive than a single set... each set sees that much less mileage per year.

I've always preferred RWD even in snow because it's way more predictible. When it's slippery you can throttle steer and just clutch if you get too much spin (or start in a higher gear)... you can also use gearing down as rear breaking without losing steering.

That said, everything was ploughed very smooth two days ago and we had freezing rain last night that turned into regular rain this morning... WOW was that smooth and shiny!
I have a very slight incline from my home to the road that may as well have been a mountain, and once I got on the actual road neither steering, nor brakes had ANY noticible effect on the car ZERO friction... slightly fun in a terrifying sort of way. ;-)
With really big banks on either side of the road to keep me out of the forest I might have turned around and tried it again and again if I didn't have to go to work. LOL