For driving in snow one option is to reduce tire width to shape the tire contact patch. A narrower tire will have a longer tire patch (contact with road) which is better for cutting through and gripping in snow vs. a wide tire.
https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-gar...-contact-patch
Where are you getting that studded tires are illegal in Washington?Originally Posted by Borderland
There is a season for them, but they are legal. When chains are required, studded tires have to put chains on -- unless four wheel drive.
https://wsdot.com/travel/real-time/m...tiresandchains
Edited to add --- I do think that some SUV's really do handle better in the snow and ice due to weight distribution. Both my xterra and 4runner were/are pretty stable. An Xterra might be a good snow rig -- if you can find one.
What winter tires and how old are they? Modern winter tires really have closed the gap with studded tires especially in very cold temperatures, but their rubber compounds do lose effectiveness as they age (might notice a fall off after 3 years and most manufacturers consider the tires "expired" after 5 years).
Steep hills with temperatures bouncing above & below freezing are really where studded tires shine, especially if you have a section where people keep sliding and polishing the ice.We live on a bench with a fairly steep and twisty road out of the neighborhood. With snow on the ground and temps fluctuating from above to below freezing we sometimes have ice problems.
In that circumstance, you driving studded tires also helps your neighbors by roughing up the polished ice, giving them more traction...
ABS can sometimes fail to work properly when you're going really really slowly (like 1-3 mph). The car can see your wheelspeed go from 1mph to 0mph in a normal timeframe for dry pavement and think you've come to a normal stop, keeping your brakes locked as you slide into a mailbox.I was able to get out, sliding in a couple of spots and almost taking out somebody's mailbox along the way. I was literally going 1-3 mph. Both of our cars are small SUVs, AWD, ABS
You'd be more likely to have directional control if your tires were still rolling, so you might need to let off the brakes for a moment and ease back on them.
Contrast the panicked & sliding Tacoma at ~5:30 with the red jeep behind him gently throttling out of his skid:
Note that the white 4runner at 6:00 & grey tundra at 6:20 both had chains on their rear tires and were still sliding (the tundra slid so far it broke a couple cross links on his chains). Chains are a traction aid, not a miracle solution...
Last edited by 0ddl0t; 01-19-2024 at 04:08 AM.
When this road gets sanded are you and the neighbors able to drive on it safely?
If so, besides or in addition to advice offered previously in thread, you could consider paying private contractor (perhaps with neighbors chipping in) to come by early during bad days/nights and plow and sand it.
Or get a beater truck similar to what some suggested with sander attachment &/or snow blade and do it yourself.
Or nowadays might have sander attachments for ATV's & lawn tractors? So you or other neighbors might already have ATV that could be used.
Other thing, IDK if it was mentioned explicitly but getting really high end snow tires (like Nokian Hakkapeliitta) + AWD (is the RAV AWD or front wheel?) and only running them 2 years at most might make difference as well.
Decades ago when I did Pizza delivery as one of my jobs, and put in many 14 hours days on Friday/Saturday durning snowstorms & Blizzards, and with good but not the best snow tires and Ford Tempo & Chevy Corsica (this was even better had heaver 6 cylinder engine than the Tempo which made a difference with the front wheel drive) I could keep up with my buddy that I worked with and he borrowed his Dad's 4x4 farm truck for the bad days. Though the farm truck just had typical farm truck tires on it.
Have to realize that in good weather my buddy was faster/more efficient than me, we were both in our 30s and he and his wife had run that pizza joint before they had kids and they had grown up in the area so they knew it lot better than me. But in bad winter conditions running good, like step or two down from the Nokian tires, snow tires on front wheel drive cars negated his higher speed/skills vs the 4x4 truck with non snow tires.
Putting snow chains on lot of newer or average cars can be real PITA if you don't have lot of clearance. It's also worth practicing when the weather is nice because cold & wet hands don't help. So beater/spare care that is more chain friendly with generous wheel well clearance would be helpful.
One sort of trick I learned from my dad when I was still driving RWD cars (Dodge Aspen w 318 & 71 Impala with 350) was to keep pair of spare tires in trunk with snow chains already mounted so you could just swap rear tires. That was helpful if driving between unplowed roads and major highway/intersates that were mostly snowfree since driving much past 30 with chains isn't fun. Don't think highway speeds with normal chains is good idea even if possible.
But in your situation you probably need chains on all 4 tires.
I know with the Impala once I put Pirelli Scorpion All terrain tires on it, I never had to bother with snow chains again with driving I did here in midwest. Was even able to get rid of the tube sand in the trunk. With Pirelli tires weight of my tools and 2 spare tires was more than enough.
Last edited by Dov; 01-19-2024 at 06:09 AM.
It would be some work but I would much rather use a floor jack and lug wrench to swap to another set of tires w/ studs than screw w/ chains. Tire Rack usually has deals on snow ties mounted on relatively inexpensive steel wheels. Even starting w/ nothing, a jack, a real lug wrench, and 4 wheels w/ studded snows will be much cheaper than another vehicle.
If its in a neighborhood why not collect and get someone to clear/dand the road
ETA: It also increases the PSI pressure pushing down on the road.
I agree with this. On my Focus ST I have a mounted set of Blizzaks that are narrower, and have smaller wheels for larger sidewalls. My sales territory includes MN, and I used to keep snowmobiles in northern MI, and I got to utilize them many times in pretty good snow.
As far as ice, one time we were up there in a nasty ice storm, this time in my old Suburban. We got off of I-75 early to be off the high speed road when the inevitable wreck happened. The next morning we drove to get the sleds from storage and it was so icy we encountered a plow truck going backwards, so it could throw the salt down in front of its path. In this case I thought later (and this might apply to you) that I should have aired down my tires. At low speeds you can go way down, and this might help with your short term hill problem. And a little pancake compressor for the garage costs less than a case of ammo and is a handy thing for many reasons.
Where is a good place to buy tire chains, and is there a preferred brand (you know, the Glock 19 of tire chains)
When I lived in Portland, I drove a 94 Civic with studs on all four wheels. Worked for me. Now in NYS, have standard snows on all four of a Forester - not too many steep roads here.
Funny story. When we first got to Portland, I drove a 69 Pontiac Custom S with a 350 CC engine. Big old rusty car by then. We wanted to go up to Timberline on Mt. Hood. You needed chains. I found that when I try myself - I always got to the place where there was a half an inch needed to latch and I couldn't do it with the car on the ground. Thus, on the way up - there were guys with jacks who would do it for $10 or so. Lots of folks used them and they would take them off. Even with studded tires, the road required chains. Of course there was a DAD who put them on himself. So on the way up, we saw a couple of card on the side with the chains wrapped up the axles with DAD, MOM and the kids all running around the car, screaming at each other. Same paradigm as a family we saw with a UHaul through the Rockies with the trailer on its side and everyone screaming.
There should be better human friendly DAD proof chains.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Sounds like justification for a SxS
#RESIST
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