Feel like I have - Guden Nacht (Morgen)!

 

Thanks, I shall have a delve....not been around that long yet, still learning the site....

 

You all made it more complicated than it really is. Why the narrower tire in the snow? Simple,....to "cut" through the layer of snow, and make a quicker contact with the hard suface (pavement). If there is no pavement under the "soft stuff", (and I don't care if it's the snow or sand!), the wider the tire, the better (my snowmobiles can prove it!).

And I lived for many years in the snow (Minnesota), and since 1995 in the Southwest (AZ and CA). When I go off road in my Hummer, I drop the tire pressure when in sand (easy to do with a push of a buton!). Gives me more traction, and get's me out of (even for the H1) sticky spots.

In MN on the pavement covered with snow, I want narrow, overinflated tires. On the frozen lake, the opposite,.....fat, underinflated tire (I don't want to cut through the snow on the top, and get my tires on the bare ice!).

And that's it! No philosophy, no nursing, no bull, ...just a real world experience in two adverse climate conditions that I drove in. I am driving for 42 years now, and I drove on all continents. Just an old man's experience here. Nothing more, nothing less.

But this thread went sideways LONG time ago!

 

Now .. there is practical guidance by example of what tires work best in winter weather.

Take a look at what professional rally teams use on their vehicles in the winter. Unless things have changed, it isn't wide gumballs. Ignore the use of studs where illegal.

These teams exist only to win and get paid to do it. They test everything as rigorously as any F1 team. They have dedicated factory engineers from both the vehicle manufacturer and tire manufacturer. The efforts these days can cost millions on an annual basis. Some privateers do well on somewhat less.

But, for all of them, you can only win if you can have best time over more stages than anyone else. If your tires don't work for the conditions, you cannot win. Every surface type calls for different tires, so for the purpose of winter driving, take a look at what they use in winter conditions and try to work out a compromise. Don't forget they can change all four wheels in the blink of an eye if they suspect that there is going to be more slush than hard pack or some other combination.

Bear in mind that even advanced regional rallies can present closed stage situations far beyond what a sane person should do on public roads. For example, diving down a country lane so narrow the frozen tree branches are beating on both sides of the car. At 80+ mph. That's pretty much par for the course.

 

Happy reading ... should keep you occupied for many tea breaks

 

I agree!

I think teenagers should be forced to read this thread as an example of what can happen when alcohol gets involved....

 

I think most teenagers would have fallen asleep after the first few paragraphs describing pressures & contact patch areas-unless it referred to pages in the Kama Sutra

 

:-)

As an aside and only slightly back on topic (not the original topic, but one of the spin offs....) - my heated mirrors now work, tried them this morning.

 

In California we have russian chills too:

 

good sign that it's not "DEAD MOPO3"

 

I thought about DEDMPO3 (California allows for 7 characters max on their plates). Didn't want to mix Latin and Cyrillic letters... My previous plate that disappeared off my 4Runner that was stolen a year ago read "HAXPEHA". Wouldn't be surprised to see it back in Moscow, the plate that is. The 4Runner was eventually recovered...

 

Yup, on icy surfaces they use something that looks more like studded motorcycle tires: http://cdn.epicski.com/a/a9/a9b58845...ubbiesnow.jpeg.