Re: Snow/dirt/fun/skinny tires (LONG)

[drew <drew@dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca>]

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Well, I get to spend 5 or six months of the year sliding around in
snow,slush and ice, and the rest of the time sliding around in gravel, so
I'll offer my $.02 CDN

Any snow tire which uses a special rubber compound and snow tread will not
necessarily be good in dirt/gravel.  Snow tire tread is usually designed
to have snow stick in it - which then sticks to the snow in the road.
This tread is not as helpful on dry gravel as a good open-tread all season
would be (and I know - our township doesn't have many paved roads).  The
best advantage in gravel comes from a narrow tire with a fairly open
tread.  The classic low-profile 60 series tire is akin to driving on
marbles, especially with the light A1 chassis when you're in loose gravel.
Even the 175/70 13's on my '83 slip and slide a bit, but nothing like the
195/60 14's that I used to run in the summer on my 84 GLI.

Snow tires usually don't have very good tread wear charcteristics on dry
warm surfaces - and are usually quite soft.  My experience has been with
Bridgestone Blizaaks, which are not bad performers in snow, quite good on
ice, but suck horribly on dry pavement.  The "ice compound" of the Blizaak
also wears off after a certain mileage, leaving you with a regular
all-season radials.  I've put about 35,000km on a pair that I've had (over
several cars and several winters) and there's less than 1/32" of "ice
compound" left on them.

If you do "serious winter" driving on poorly maintained roads or in wild
winter weather, I'd get good snows in a 155/80, but keep them shelved in
the summer.  What kind of stuff are you driving around in that a good set
of all seasons won't haul you through in the summertime?

Drew


On Fri, 22 Oct 1999, Chris Chemidlin wrote:

>
> Since these are  dual purpose- snow and dirt/gravel, do you think I should 
> run something a bit wider? Say a 175/70/13?
> 
> I'm interested to hear everyone's take on thisÖ
> 

Drew MacPherson, Network Analyst, University of Guelph

drew@dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca           |  visit the Massey-Harris page:
http://dyermaker.cs.uoguelph.ca/~drew   |  http://m-h.cs.uoguelph.ca


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