Snow Tires for S85 necessary in the Philadelphia Suburbs?

[CaryS]

I suppose this question may not be answerable, but I would appreciate any and all thoughts, comments etc regarding the necessity of snow tires for the suburbs of Philadelphia. Any comments from Tesla owners in this region who have gone through a winter with the S85 would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jerry33]

If you have frequent snow where you live and drive in it, then you need snow tires, or at a minimum severe service all seasons like Nokian WR-g3. This would go for any car, not just the Model S. Ideally you want a separate set of wheels so that your good summer wheels don't get all dinged up during the winter. It's also better for the tires not to mount and unmount them each season because every time they are mounted and unmounted there is a risk of damaging them. Also most folks who change the tires on the wheels all do so the same day (e.g. the morning after it snows) so there's a big inconvenience factor.

 

[SamGarber]

I got my S85 in October last year with the Cyclone rims and the upgraded all-season Michelin MXM4 Primacy. After the first big snowfall, I was not able to get up a very small grade hill that leads to the main road near my house. It was sliding all over and backwards and fishtailing. Had to reverse all the way back to the garage and grab the ICE SUV. After that I immediately ordered snow tires (first tried for Hakka R2s, but they were sold out everywhere, then settled on Blizzak LM-32 from TireRack and installed by Firestone locally). The snow tires made all the difference. I had traction, stability and felt great while driving the whole season, practically until April when temperatures went up. With the amount of snow we had, I felt the investment was worthwhile. These were my very first snow tires. I saw SUVs get stuck and fishtail where the Tesla went through with no problems.

 

[CaryS]

Did you get rims as well or did you just change tires?

 

[SamGarber]

I bought a set of 21's from a gentleman from Houston on here...at a great price! I sold my MXM4 tires with 2K miles on them to recover half the cost of the 21s to gentleman from Allentown. The 21s were in great shape and still had the tires on them. I got about 5K miles off the rear set this summer before I had to replace and now probably about 6-7K on the front set (will replace next week probably during the 12K mile service).

 

[dsm363]

Did you get rims as well or did you just change tires?

As jerry33 said best to have separate rims for your winter tires if that is possible. Check out the 'winter tires' sticky in driving dynamics Model S section.