Snow tires in DC: Yay or nay?

[chickensevil]

Yes, it is important to clarify that I was deathly afraid while driving, but it was largely because I was afraid of others on the road... and less myself and my ability to drive.

The minor slips and traction control lighting up timings was more reassurance that the car does know how to handle itself and the real conditions of the road.

What happens in the case of those SUV's is that many people get them and they are actually just RWD vehicles... this is worthless... especially with an SUV because you then end up with an extremely top heavy vehicle that won't stick to the road to save its life... They are only slightly better than the tiny light cars like Civics and such.

But yes, weather started off fine for me as I headed north and progressively got worse and worse. I started off going comfortably the speed limit and by the time I got off the interstate I was only doing 30-35... It was awful. Anyway, glad to get a real test for how the car handles the snow since that was one area that I had remained unaware of what would happen. So one of life's great mysteries was solved.

 

[achaar]

I have the summer performance 21s and today was awful. I got up a hill ok, but couldn't get the car moving after stopping at a light. Flat road, the car would only go sideways. I eventually got it far enough off the road to be safe, but sat there for about 10 minutes rocking it back and forth, but could not get it moving. Finally, I turned OFF traction control, and like magic, I was moving again. I keep hearing about this great traction control system in the car, but I think it was kicking in too soon, and not letting the car move. I left it off all the way home. The odd thing was that the car seemed to continuously pitch left while driving, with T/C on or off. Got me thinking of selling my + for a D.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Dump the 21s with the sport tires and get 19s with All seasons and you will fine. I had no issues today in NW Fairfax County. Granted my rear tires only have 100 miles on them due to recent service visit at 28,000 miles and one year old - decided to play it safe and replace them. I thought about getting two more rims and get snow rears just to test out... if this keeps up i might..

 

[JST]

Approximately 26 hours after ordering them, a new set of Rial Luganos with Dunlop 3Ds just showed up at my door. That's great service from Tire Rack.

 

[jaguar36]

Drove yesterday in the light snow, very impressed with it with the 19s with all-seasons. It handled very well no issues at all. I was on the fence baout getting snow tires, but the all-seasons are quite capable and I'm not going to bother with snows.

If you're on 21" summer tires, the solution is not all wheel drive, its snow tires. Summer tires shouldn't be driven in the winter regardless of RWD/AWD/FWD, they suck even if its just cold out with no precipitation.

 

[Ven Rala]

I finally got good use out my 19" Rial Luganos with Michelin x-ice I ordered from tire rack a couple of months ago. They did amazingly well in the slippery snow yesterday. Very rare slipping and traction control would only be on for 1-2 seconds. Much much better than the OEM Goodyear all-seasons in my opinion. Very happy with the purchase.

 

[DFibRL8R]

Similar experience for me but on 19 inch all season Michelins. During the storm I had multiple points of lost traction on the Dulles Greenway Westbound despite very slow speeds (max 30mph, mostly stayed in the teens!). Lots of drifts and a general feeling that the car was in a constant slight drift. At one point I lost all traction on a slight incline, had to stop, back up and start again. Painful.

I have the summer performance 21s and today was awful. I got up a hill ok, but couldn't get the car moving after stopping at a light. Flat road, the car would only go sideways. I eventually got it far enough off the road to be safe, but sat there for about 10 minutes rocking it back and forth, but could not get it moving. Finally, I turned OFF traction control, and like magic, I was moving again. I keep hearing about this great traction control system in the car, but I think it was kicking in too soon, and not letting the car move. I left it off all the way home. The odd thing was that the car seemed to continuously pitch left while driving, with T/C on or off. Got me thinking of selling my + for a D.

 

[AmpedUP]

chickensevil...I totally agree that the limiting factor in bad conditions is the idiot drivers around us...mostly because they have some AWD vehicle and want to prove something to everyone. A couple of years ago I almost got side swiped by a Mercedes AWD driver that got tired of being in a line of cars driving in an orderly fashion in the one plowed lane of a two lane road...and jumped out into the unplowed area, lost control, and almost took some of us out in the process. I grew up in this area, and am TIRED of the new breed of AGGRESSIVE nut cases on the road today.