Monting brand new snow tires on a 45 degree rainy day ...

... is not the recipe for "The Ultimate Driving Experience".

hehe.

OTOH you'll be laughing in January.

Should have waiting until tomorrow when it will be sunny and closer to 50!

Zooks, so far this Winter is tracking like last Winter. Right down to the Halloween storm which if it had been 10 degrees colder... You can thank me for buying a new Ariens last year to twin up with my Toro 1132. Scared the snow gods right out of New England. One other thing, I have scraped my Saab's windows (it lives outside) only twice this season before leaving for work. I'm loving it.
I keep detailing the E92 and 'putting it away for the Winter', and then taking it out the next day. At least I have learned to stop putting the car cover on it each time.

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

Zooks, so far this Winter is tracking like last Winter. Right down to the Halloween storm which if it had been 10 degrees colder... You can thank me for buying a new Ariens last year to twin up with my Toro 1132. Scared the snow gods right out of New England. One other thing, I have scraped my Saab's windows (it lives outside) only twice this season before leaving for work. I'm loving it.

You and a buddy of mine in RI. Finally bought a snowblower after 27 years of shoveling by hand. Started it once, for 3/4 of an inch!

Originally Posted by Zooks527

... is not the recipe for "The Ultimate Driving Experience".

It's so frustrating. I put them on Saturday before Thanksgiving and there was only ONE day with temps below 38 (snowflake).

This morning it was raining and 54 degrees, my Wintersports are not new, but I still aborted my drive after 2 miles, returned home and parked the car in the garage. This stuff really sucks, I'm sick of it. Driving on dry surface with these temps is just passable, you can still push a little bit although all that tire squirming and front plowing significantly reduces the fun, but you can forget about driving in rain. Yes, you can roll from A to B without causing major disaster like everybody else around you without problems, but I would hardly call that "driving".

If this winter ends up being a copy of the last one, I will have to make a decision whether to throw away winter performance tires, buy a set of all seasons and park BMW if it snows - which will then suck for all other reasons.

I bet AWD is starting to sound better and better right about now

Originally Posted by The X Men

I bet AWD is starting to sound better and better right about now

I have AWD on mine, plus Conti DWS A/S tires. On wet ice in the early season storm we had the first week of November, they were just unworkable, AWD or no. Going at a dead walk creeping at a light, I slid 15 feet with no control at all.

Snows only in the white stuff, but they bite (not in a good way) in the warm wet.

Originally Posted by Mark K

It's so frustrating. I put them on Saturday before Thanksgiving and there was only ONE day with temps below 38 (snowflake).

This morning it was raining and 54 degrees, my Wintersports are not new, but I still aborted my drive after 2 miles, returned home and parked the car in the garage. This stuff really sucks, I'm sick of it. Driving on dry surface with these temps is just passable, you can still push a little bit although all that tire squirming and front plowing significantly reduces the fun, but you can forget about driving in rain. Yes, you can roll from A to B without causing major disaster like everybody else around you without problems, but I would hardly call that "driving".

If this winter ends up being a copy of the last one, I will have to make a decision whether to throw away winter performance tires, buy a set of all seasons and park BMW if it snows - which will then suck for all other reasons.

For your own psychological well being you need to get a mounted set of snows! Sitting here and looking at the ten day weather forecast I can see there's not a flake coming. If you had a set of performance ASRs you could put them on the car and go out and have a ball. When the forecast changes on go the winters. Simple.
With a floor jack and a battery powered impact gun (perfect for the hobbyist!) you can do the swap in half an hour.
Here's a gnarly professional model, you can buy a Craftsman for a hundred bucks which will suit your purposes.
http://www.factoryauthorizedoutlet.c...FYuZ4AodOHgASw
Naturally you should not be tightening down the lug bolts with an impactgun so you'll need a goot torque wrench, too, or a set of these.
http://www.torquestick.com/cart/
If you don't want to buy the set then just get one for 90ft lbs. For the non-believers: I have torqued down lugs with various torque sticks, and on the same car with a torque wrench. The back-off torque was then measured on each lug. They were well within acceptable tolerances.

Originally Posted by Zooks527

I have AWD on mine, plus Conti DWS A/S tires. On wet ice in the early season storm we had the first week of November, they were just unworkable, AWD or no. Going at a dead walk creeping at a light, I slid 15 feet with no control at all.

Snows only in the white stuff, but they bite (not in a good way) in the warm wet.

I drove in the same storm with the Conti procontact just outside of Boston with no problem, maybe it was worst in Mansfield. The roads was pretty well sanded down here in Boston. I alway try to stay off the road on winter nights after a big storm, there are ice patches everyhere. Snow tires can help but it is still pretty dangerious when you try to stop on a patch of ice. Some snow tires are not as aggressive and performs in the milder weather a bit better.

Originally Posted by The X Men

I drove in the same storm with the Conti procontact just outside of Boston with no problem, maybe it was worst in Mansfield. The roads was pretty well sanded down here in Boston. I alway try to stay off the road on winter nights after a big storm, there are ice patches everyhere. Snow tires can help but it is still pretty dangerious when you try to stop on a patch of ice. Some snow tires are not as aggressive and performs in the milder weather a bit better.

Mansfield was good (nothing ever stuck on the roads), but 10 miles away in Attleboro it was nasty - ice under wet slush on untreated surfaces. Zero traction on a level street at a "no kidding" dead crawl (<3 mph).

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

For your own psychological well being you need to get a mounted set of snows!

Thanks, but I don't get "snows" reference. Right now I have OEM wheels with Michelin PSS mounted on them stacked up in the corner of the garage and I have NO intention changing those to all-seasons. On the car (since Nov 19th) I have Rial Salernos with Dunlop Wintersports 3D - I was talking about changing those to all-season rubber.

I own torque wrench already and I borrowed a floor jack and to do a swap once (this spring), but it really sucks to do it in my garage because I have to drive the car out, get to the street, turn around and reverse into garage in order to change passenger side wheels. My driveway is very steep all the way to the street. So ... unless I rent a storage space (and I've been thinking about it for a third car), I have to find twice-a-year-swap solution. One more winter with one snow event and only two weeks of below freezing temps (but bone dry) will make a decision to go with all season rubber much easier to make.

My snow set (17" Dunlop Wintersports 3M on Rial Salernos) went on the week before Thanksgiving. Once the average day temp reaches 45F they go on, regardless of snow.

Originally Posted by Zooks527

... is not the recipe for "The Ultimate Driving Experience".

Yet, once mounted, there is no equal to good snow tires.

Some like oversized units for add'l traction:

With global warming, there will be no need for snow tires soon

Originally Posted by The X Men

With global warming, there will be no need for snow tires soon

Oh, I was sitting in a meeting with a client and representatives from another engineering firm about a month ago when one of their (senior!) people started claiming that "we're not going to get as many freezing days in Boston from now on because of global warming". After the meeting was over, I told the client's PM I wanted extra credit for not reaching across the table and dope-smacking him.

I was putting off swapping to snows on my 325xi because I know how to drive in snow (it had Conti DWS) and snows on dry pavement sucks. Then I sold it, and got a 328xi, which had low end max performance summers. Kept those on a bit longer, and just swapped this weekend, which was nice for the icy slush we had this morning. The irritating bit now is going to be more 45* and dry pavement, and the WS 70 Blizzaks float quite a bit, but the 325 didn't use active TPMS, and I'm stubbornly not buying sensors to install in perfectly good tires, so I get several months of staring at the bright (_!_)

I delayed the changeover by another week, since the salt and crap of four Vermont winters started corroding the Sport Edition brand wheels. Not really the strongest paint. A bit of time with a wire brush and some Simple Green prepped it for black plasti dip. They look less crummy, so we'll see how long it lasts.

I did the winter oil change on the 325 in November, and the 328 hadn't been done recently, so I did that as well. If someone buys a Japanrot 325xi with 106k miles in New England about now, it has fresh oil! (And it's been tuned with a manifold to a 330. Shhhh.)

All winter here it's 45 degrees (at sometime during the day) & likely raining or soon will be. Thankfully I don't have to think about switching out tires.

Originally Posted by Zooks527

Oh, I was sitting in a meeting with a client and representatives from another engineering firm about a month ago when one of their (senior!) people started claiming that "we're not going to get as many freezing days in Boston from now on because of global warming". After the meeting was over, I told the client's PM I wanted extra credit for not reaching across the table and dope-smacking him.

I empathize. I was in Norton, MA visiting friends just about a week ago. Plenty cold for me, although I noted that the Norton Reservoir is not frozen over yet. Glad to back here.

I'm on Summer tires and 25 degree weather at night.

Originally Posted by -=Hot|Ice=-

I'm on Summer tires and 25 degree weather at night.

One big advantage to RFT summer tires in cold weather's that if you hit a pothole, sidewall's so stiff that the rim and tire will not be damaged.

However, BMW felt that osteopathic negatives outweighed the performance edge.

Originally Posted by Zooks527

Oh, I was sitting in a meeting with a client and representatives from another engineering firm about a month ago when one of their (senior!) people started claiming that "we're not going to get as many freezing days in Boston from now on because of global warming". After the meeting was over, I told the client's PM I wanted extra credit for not reaching across the table and dope-smacking him.

In a hundred years or so, people will be retiring here in Boston instead of Florida due to the warm weather

Originally Posted by Zooks527

Oh, I was sitting in a meeting with a client and representatives from another engineering firm about a month ago when one of their (senior!) people started claiming that "we're not going to get as many freezing days in Boston from now on because of global warming". After the meeting was over, I told the client's PM I wanted extra credit for not reaching across the table and dope-smacking him.

They were right. The climate is warming. The debate is over why. Especially true in urban areas, which are subject to the urban heat island effect. Every year, Philly sets many record highs. But I can't remember the last time we set a record low.

I'm not a meteorologist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.