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Can I drive the M3 RWD without winter tires through the snowy mountains?

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The sign on my way through Eisenhower tunnel last weekend said $1150 fine.

The idea of driving in snowy mountains in a RWD car with all season tires is ridiculous. I've got lots of time driving in snowy mountain conditions with many types of vehicles but RWD + all season tires + icy conditions is a recipe for disaster.
I agree 100% with this post. Buy some chains and use them when you get to snow and ice.
 
LR RWD drive here with stock 18” all seasons. During the pre-Thanksgiving storm in NJ (about 5 inches, nothing major - but everyone was caught off guard and no roads were plowed) I couldn’t get up any hills. Car would get stuck and I’d have to back up. I wouldn’t want to be going up into the mountains and snow with these tires.

On flat surfaces or downhill, car handled without problems and never felt unsafe. But Mountains usually aren’t so flat.
 
I'd avoid it if at all possible. Back when my old 98 Z28 with Heads/Cam was my daily driver, it got around fine with up to ~4" of snow...except on hills. Even with snow tires, 220lbs of extra weight in the hatch, and careful modulation of the throttle, large hills weren't happening (which of course I live on). I would never think of driving through the mountains without snow tires or chains.

At the very least, get the chains. If you get caught in a storm, you'll be stressing big time...at least I would. Good luck!
 
Ya have airbags bro go for it
Hah! Even air bags won't help much if sliding off the road on US 550, the "Million Dollar Highway," between Ouray and Red Mountain Pass. No guard rails — so avalanches can flow over the road — and a looong way down to the bottom of the gorge! Once an entire van of people survived the plunge — they happened to go over the edge in a cleft where the snow was so deep that it slowed the plunge, although the van flipped several times. Wouldn't have been a fun ride though! These pictures of the road were taken in spring with almost no snow:

US 550 Million Dollar Hwy1614edsf 3-19-16.jpg

^ US 550, north of Red Mountain Pass, looking south.

US 550 Million Dollar Hwy1621edsf 3-19-16.jpg

^ One of the few places with a shoulder wide enough to stop for a picture. The slope is fairly gentle here. Looking north.


However, I presume that the OP will stick to the freeways and wider highways, as opposed to the more interesting and scenic routes through the mountains. Highly recommended in the summer, though!
 
Thanks for all the tidbits guys, we can close the thread now - not going to take my car. hahahaha. I don't have the money just to buy winter tires for a week trip nor get snow chains to use one time. We will just have to rent an SUV.
 
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Hah! Even air bags won't help much if sliding off the road on US 550, the "Million Dollar Highway," between Ouray and Red Mountain Pass. No guard rails — so avalanches can flow over the road — and a looong way down to the bottom of the gorge! Once an entire van of people survived the plunge — they happened to go over the edge in a cleft where the snow was so deep that it slowed the plunge, although the van flipped several times. Wouldn't have been a fun ride though! These pictures of the road were taken in spring with almost no snow:

View attachment 364509
^ US 550, north of Red Mountain Pass, looking south.

View attachment 364508
^ One of the few places with a shoulder wide enough to stop for a picture. The slope is fairly gentle here. Looking north.


However, I presume that the OP will stick to the freeways and wider highways, as opposed to the more interesting and scenic routes through the mountains. Highly recommended in the summer, though!
Why is it call the million dollar highway
 
Last rental I had I had to stop and buy wipers for, I would not count on a rental to have good tires and an unfamiliar car with crappy tires will be stressful if the roads are compromised.

Rwd in snow is fine depending on the exact tires and I do not mean all season vs snows, there are a range of options within those categories, and local conditions vary dramatically. If it is snow and 30f and the area presalts roads will be nothing but wet.
If it is 15f then even salt may not do enough, or maybe they don't salt atall.

I am happy with a P85 on all seasons near Green Bay but it is flat and I have owned a lot of RWD cars.

For someone not comfortable with snow and in the mountains I would not recommend rwd and all seasons, but chains on the vehicle you are familiar with may be a great solution, that isn't the big commitment of dedicated snows.
 
For someone not comfortable with snow and in the mountains I would not recommend rwd and all seasons, but chains on the vehicle you are familiar with may be a great solution, that isn't the big commitment of dedicated snows.
I bought inexpensive wheels and Micheline X-ice for ~ $1000 all in. OP is talking about $500 just for a week rental of a crappy SUV that will probably cost 15 cents a mile just for fuel. He seems hell bent on renting an SUV even though reason suggests that is the the poorer choice by far. <<shrug>> Like so many other threads seeking "advice," he really only seeks affirmation.

My suggestion to prefer chains over winter tyres in his case was mostly based on the thought that most of his road trip will not require a winter solution.
 
Why is it call the million dollar highway
There are several versions of how the road got its name. One is that it was surfaced with mine tailings that still had gold and silver in them. The one I believe is historical: The road was built as a toll road to serve the mines in the 1880s. It was paved in the 1920s when a million dollars was a lot of money for a road and a few years later, during a discussion about the road, someone referred to it as "this 'million dollar highway' of yours." The name stuck.

For those afraid of heights, southbound is scarier than northbound. Driving the road during rain is not recommended because it tends to wash rocks down on northbound cars. Here's a take on the road from the cab of a snowplow:

Keep Your Hands on the Wheel and Don't Look Down

The San Juan Mountains average 349 inches of snow annually, and much of it falls twice: first from the sky, then from the crests and headwalls where it tries, and fails, to cling. Seventy named avalanche paths intersect Highway 550 in the 23 miles between Ouray and Silverton, the town on the south side of the pass that serves as a base for another of CDOT’s 200 patrols across the state. The infamous East Riverside slide can dump 50 feet of concrete-thick debris and has taken the lives of three plowmen—in 1970, 1978, and 1992—as well as a preacher and his two daughters in 1963, and two men and most of their team of mules in 1883. Since 1935, when the first attempts to keep the road open through winter were made, dozens of people have perished trying to get across, though an exact number is impossible to tally.

Another take on the road: Million Dollar Highway
 
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Thanks for all the tidbits guys, we can close the thread now - not going to take my car. hahahaha. I don't have the money just to buy winter tires for a week trip nor get snow chains to use one time. We will just have to rent an SUV.

Just remember, an SUV is not a get-out of jail free card. A lot of the advice you got on this thread still applies. Make sure you check out the tires on the SUV you rent (make sure they are at least M+S rate and have decent tread depth). I used to have a Jeep before we got our Model X and I still keep a set of chains in the back when heading up to Tahoe in the winter.
 
Unless the tires are severe-service all-season tires (e.g. Nokian WR-4g) I'd recommend against it (RWD or AWD). Regular all-season tires are barely acceptable on non-mountainous roads when they are brand new. Wear them down a little bit and they're dangerous (IMHO). If you live in the mountains or where there is a real winter, get real snow tires--snow tires are not the place to cheap out. Use high quality snow tires such as Michelin X-Ice or Nokian R3. Where winter is short, the severe-service all-seasons work fine. If you mount them on a separate set of wheels, it's much more convenient. Remember that it's the stopping that you really care about, not the starting. RWD and AWD stop just the same.
 
SSIA. So I know EVs have better traction than ICEs on icy roads/snow, but what about without winter tires? I live in Texas (and don't need winter tires) and was wondering if I could drive up to Colorado/Utah and be ok.......My wife's family is planning a trip to ski somewhere for next year and I'm trying to figure out if we'll have to rent an SUV instead of using my car.

Thanks in advance for helpful tips/feedback.
It all depends on the tires. Some all season tires work okay on snow and ice, although nothing like true winter tires. If you have the Primacy MXM tires that come on the 18" wheels on a Model 3, they do NOT work okay on snow and ice. I tried driving my AWD Model 3 a couple of times on snow and ice with the stock tires, and it was very hazardous. RWD with the stock tires would be laughable on snow and ice.
 
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Unless you are mixing with stupidity, RWD and snow mix just fine. I see more people get in trouble with SUVs as they think they can drive like it is sunny since they have 4wd.
I drive an old (1998) rwd car and it is by far the worst winter car I've ever taken over mountain passes. With non studded snow tires it still slides a fair amount but it is predictable until you get on to ice driving up a hill, in which case even with snow tires you could easily go off the road or into someone else in black ice. With studded tires it has been manageable even in the ice, but the you have to drive around with noisy road damaging studs for ? months a year.

@ggies07 Without snow tires you might be fine considering how sophisticated Tesla's are. But that said, especially if you are not used to driving in snow, it would be easy to overestimate your car and ice driving experience. It's pretty easy to miss-judge a patch of black ice here or there, and they don't always tell you to put on your chains BEFORE you need to use them. Plus in some places it is illegal to go over mountain passes without either snow tires or chains. So carrying a set of chains is a bare minimum. My 2 cents is just rent an suv, I wouldn't want to have to put chains on a 3 in the middle of a snow storm anyway.
 
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