This might be the first time I get winter tires

Bobzilla wrote:

dean1484 wrote: @ the OP: 6-7/32 left??? on all seasons???? That made me laugh. You might as well be running summer tires. What did you expect? My take on all season tires is they suck in all seasons.

These tires started at 9/32. This isn't a truck tire that starts at 12.I've used all seasons in all seasons for 25 years without an issue. This car is just terrible.

They start at 9???? I did not know that there were any tires that started that low. Ok some street legal race tires do but all seasons? Here in MA 3/32 is a Mass DOT fail. I was looking at it as if you only had 3-4mm to really play with and that is just not enough.

Bobzilla wrote: I've used all seasons in all seasons for 25 years without an issue.

All season tires vary widely in terms of snow traction. Perhaps it's just this set that sucks?

Yep. I measure all our tires for wear. Check them all at new. THese came in to me at a tick over 9/32 (just covering the line). The tires I had before as well, as well as just about every michelin, continental and bridgestone we installed for 10 years at the dealership. There were a few (Yokohama) that came in at 10, but not many.

Now SUV and truck tires? Yes, those came in at 10-12/32 on the norm, depending on the tire and size. The Firestones on the truck came in at 11/32 new

and done.

Picked these up last night. A little large for the car (215/60/16) and hte offset is a little shallow on the 16x7 at +40 (stock wheels are 17x7 +50). But for $200 who can argue? The tires are at 9/32 and still squishy at 20*. I look at this and think "Rally?"

In reply to Bobzilla:

Add ikea mudflaps, then it's rally :)

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: Add ikea mudflaps, then it's rally :)

Mudflaps trap snow in your wheel well = bad for winter. REMOVE ALL OF YOUR FENDER LINING INSTEAD! DO IT!

Out of curiosity, what are the tires?

Blizzack WS70's. I do have a question though... these sound like a squeegee when driving over ice. Is that normal?

In reply to Bobzilla: Turn up your radio. We got our first snow last weekend with some ice and snow mixed in. We took the Fiat out to see Christmas lights and had about and 65 mile ride home. We zipped right along on our snow tires while everyone else seemed to be fighting for traction. The only thing I worry about now is being hit by someone speeding along in a 4x4 because I don't believe she'll take much of a hit.

Snow tires remind me of the first time I put upgraded brakes on my Miata. The new brakes (aggressive Hawks) seemed to stop sooo quickly compared to what I had. My greatest fear was now my Miata would get rear ended by some average car on crappy brakes.

Hmm, this reminds me I need to get serious about putting new tires on the Ranger of elderliness. I mean, it has Florida all-seasons that are only 12 years old, They should be ok still, right?

I had snow tires on my Forte koup and never got stuck. I live in one of the snowiest cities in the US.

Out of curiosity, what model are the all seasons that were on the car?

Related: I have 2 sets of snow tires and live in NC

The All seasons are a setr of Kumho PA31's in 205/50/17. Been a great tire and was not bad last winter. But these blizzaks the tread blocks I can sqish with my fingers and the ones on the Kumohs are hard as rocks. that probably has a little something to do with the lack of traction.

temperature has some effect on traction. warm weather aka: all seasons get harder below around 40F.

winter/snow tires are designed to be softer at low temps, so even on pavement you have better traction

In reply to Bobzilla:

In case you missed it, the Blizzak tread has an uber squishy compound on top of a much harder all-seasony compound. Once the Hero Grip layer has worn off (~ half way down IIRC) they become little better than all-seasons, still OK-but-not-great for snow but have a major loss of ice grip at that point.

The lower layer in the Blizzaks is not an all-season compound. It's a winter compound, just more like the ones in most studdable winter tires (harder than a studless ice tire).

so, came back from lunch and parked next to a forester. Same ground clearance.

Time to go off-roadin'!

Some cars do seem worse in snow than others. My old '91 Integra was not fun. Fortunately, I also had a 4x4 truck, so I never thought much about snow tires for it. My TDI is fine with all-seasons. It's better with snow tires, but I've survived fine with all-seasons as well. My Grand Caravan also seems acceptable on all-seasons.

Granted, in my old age I've felt less need to prove I can spend 2 hrs driving the 50 miles to the office in a snow storm (and then 3 hrs home). So I take work home with me the night before and watch the snow from the comfort of my kitchen.

We took the wife's Rio in for new tires on Sunday morning. it had 3 bald tires and was better than the Forte was.

The top layer of the Blizzak durometers at 35.

When down to 6/32 and several years old the durometer reads 45.

it took close to 30K miles to get there.

Out of curiosity.

The Humho PA 31 is a high performance A/S and has a tread depth of 10.5/32" According the TR.

Could be the cold affects traction more.

My General Altimax warm weather tires read 70 on the durometer at 28F.

Bought my first set of snow tires about 10 years ago, never looked back.

Bobzilla wrote: Blizzack WS70's. I do have a question though... these sound like a squeegee when driving over ice. Is that normal?

Yes and also you may find that simply driving through a fast food drive up window will cause them to screech and squeal at speeds of 1-5 MPH. Also braking or accelerating in any way over a paint stripe will sometimes result in a loud screech. I just changed lanes once going steady speed and they let off a squeal as I went over a paint marking.

Got a ticket for "spinning tires" due to this and had video for the judge to show that sometimes at slow and steady speed they will sometimes just make noise but the officer didn't show so dismissed.

The noise making changes as they wear. I have had it go to zero noise and on other sets get more noisy. IDK why.

Also be aware that if you are in a state that has speed limits of 70mph or more you can sometimes end up destroying the center of the tread on dry pavement if you go that fast. This only happened on one of my cars but I found others that had this issue. Somehow the center section of tread gets eaten up on just normal driving down a highway. All four tires. So I usually stay below 60 on dry pavement with my winter tires.

That is really odd. If they couldn't do 75 mph in the dry they would be worthless to me.

When I have a set that is no good in snow any more I'll leave them on until they become unpleasant in the rain in summer. Never had anything like that happen. But Generals will sort of taper every tread block uniformly due to the squirm. And a set of Blizzaks @ 70 mph for a few hours at 80*...they get a little gooey. :D