For those with snow experience...

[spartanv7]

About a year ago, I was on this forum asking what I should do the upcoming winter for my wife's SHO and some very helpful people told me to get Continental DWS tires. I can't thank them enough for that info. Those tires have been the best investment I've made for that car and for my wife and my 6 mo. old daughter's safety. They grip terrific in the snow and in wet conditions. After we received about 8 inches of wet, sticky snow (probably 3-4 inches on the road at the time), I went out on the first night I had those tires on the car and was able to do a 3/4 WOT pull while barely slipping the tires. That's how good they hook.

I still wish I had bought a set of winter rims and tires just because driving with the 20" rims in the winter, they've now been scraped up pretty badly, but oh well.

 

[SHOdded]

DWS treating you right, awesome Sucks about the wheels though, they need to become your winter set if you decide to go that route.

 

[mval]

good to hear you had good luck with the DWS's, i have them on my sho as well & when I did use them they were great, sho is now retired from dd, new dd needs some winter tires but trying to make it through this year but it's new hoffs will be DWS's & then they'll get a real test as dd is rear wheel drive. sucks that's not the other way around but have my daughter front wheel drive available when weather gets real bad.

 

[vforrest]

Just enough snow 1-2 inches the other day to feel the rear wheels kick in and the traction control light to pop on. Does that light pop on every time my rear wheels are needed and kick in? Does the braking system kick in too to slow the spin rate down...kind of feels like that. My Infiniti traction control also used the ABS to slow the spin and I could hit a button to let my wheels spin be controlled by my right foot. I'll be testing it with and without the traction control on when we get a big pile of snow. I wish that would come in about March for a day and a half but I left the house this morning and it was 6 and today's high was 18....and it's freakin November!!! I got to hope we have a weather break so I can hang the Christmas lights....and winter starts December 21st right!!!!

 

[SHOdded]

Correct, the traction light should only come on when wheel slippage is detected and power is being moved around. ABS is used to modulate the slippage as needed. Was the light on continuously or intermittently? Intermittent, I hope.

 

[vforrest]

Correct, the traction light should only come on when wheel slippage is detected and power is being moved around. ABS is used to modulate the slippage as needed. Was the light on continuously or intermittently? Intermittent, I hope.

Yes...intermittently....:thankyou:

 

[TDS-MN]

We just had our SHO slide into a curb last week. OEM Michelins have felt fairly grippy, along with all of the various technology the car uses to try and stay in control. But the glare ice was too much for it to recover much.

Rim made contact with the curb. Knocked alignment off, and messed up the wheel bearing. Was STUNNED by the list price for the 20" 'flower' rim. Decided that an insurance claim was goinna be prudent to get us back to normal.

Are seriously considering a set of dedicated winter tires on some 18" rims, just to get a little more ubber and sidewall to help protect against this same type of damage again down the road.

Feeling that curve control system trying to stop a slide is really odd, but impressive. I have been very impressed with the AWD system so far. That was one of the big selling points for us. Unfortunately my wife was driving when our 'accident' occurred, and she's now a little leary of the car's ability in the slippery stuff. Hoping that winter tires, even if only marginally better, will give her a little of the confidence back.

 

[vforrest]

We just had our SHO slide into a curb last week. OEM Michelins have felt fairly grippy, along with all of the various technology the car uses to try and stay in control. But the glare ice was too much for it to recover much.

Rim made contact with the curb. Knocked alignment off, and messed up the wheel bearing. Was STUNNED by the list price for the 20" 'flower' rim. Decided that an insurance claim was goinna be prudent to get us back to normal.

Are seriously considering a set of dedicated winter tires on some 18" rims, just to get a little more ubber and sidewall to help protect against this same type of damage again down the road.

Feeling that curve control system trying to stop a slide is really odd, but impressive. I have been very impressed with the AWD system so far. That was one of the big selling points for us. Unfortunately my wife was driving when our 'accident' occurred, and she's now a little leary of the car's ability in the slippery stuff. Hoping that winter tires, even if only marginally better, will give her a little of the confidence back.

Snow tires are going to be better in some situations but if she hit black ice unexpectedly, short of studded tires (are they legal anymore?) the tire wouldn't matter she was going to slide straight into the curb.

If she is feeling really bad about it tell her it's just a car and can be fixed....and you can comfort her by maybe suggesting she can make up for it some other really special way.........:woo-hoo:

 

[14SHOWP]

We just had our SHO slide into a curb last week. OEM Michelins have felt fairly grippy, along with all of the various technology the car uses to try and stay in control. But the glare ice was too much for it to recover much.

Rim made contact with the curb. Knocked alignment off, and messed up the wheel bearing. Was STUNNED by the list price for the 20" 'flower' rim. Decided that an insurance claim was goinna be prudent to get us back to normal.

Are seriously considering a set of dedicated winter tires on some 18" rims, just to get a little more ubber and sidewall to help protect against this same type of damage again down the road.

Feeling that curve control system trying to stop a slide is really odd, but impressive. I have been very impressed with the AWD system so far. That was one of the big selling points for us. Unfortunately my wife was driving when our 'accident' occurred, and she's now a little leary of the car's ability in the slippery stuff. Hoping that winter tires, even if only marginally better, will give her a little of the confidence back.:

Same thing happened to me last year. Ran the factory 20s with michelins, did ok but one day when when there was snow on the road I slipped out of no where and scared the sh** out of me. This year I bought a set of 18" mustang gt wheels with sensors already and then just got tires the same size as a regular Taurus would use that way I could re-calibrate my speedo to a factory tire size.

 

[14SHOWP]

We just had our SHO slide into a curb last week. OEM Michelins have felt fairly grippy, along with all of the various technology the car uses to try and stay in control. But the glare ice was too much for it to recover much.

Rim made contact with the curb. Knocked alignment off, and messed up the wheel bearing. Was STUNNED by the list price for the 20" 'flower' rim. Decided that an insurance claim was goinna be prudent to get us back to normal.

Are seriously considering a set of dedicated winter tires on some 18" rims, just to get a little more ubber and sidewall to help protect against this same type of damage again down the road.

Feeling that curve control system trying to stop a slide is really odd, but impressive. I have been very impressed with the AWD system so far. That was one of the big selling points for us. Unfortunately my wife was driving when our 'accident' occurred, and she's now a little leary of the car's ability in the slippery stuff. Hoping that winter tires, even if only marginally better, will give her a little of the confidence back.

Same thing happened to me last year. Ran the factory 20s with michelins, did ok but one day when when there was snow on the road I slipped out of no where and scared the sh** out of me. This year I bought a set of 18" mustang gt wheels with sensors already and then just got tires the same size as a regular Taurus would use that way I could re-calibrate my speedo to a factory tire size.

 

[husho]

Awesome question! To set your mind at rest, the SHO is a 70/30 AWD system. So, it is actually completely different than both systems. With a good set of snow tires you'll be just fine in the snow!

The Haldex system is nominally set to a torque split of 55 percent front/45 percent rear, but it can shift 100 percent to the front or rear wheels as necessary.

http://www.edmunds.com/ford/taurus/2010/road-test3.html

 

[Crash712us]

The Haldex system is nominally set to a torque split of 55 percent front/45 percent rear, but it can shift 100 percent to the front or rear wheels as necessary.

http://www.edmunds.com/ford/taurus/2010/road-test3.html

Don't believe everything you read. Simply not possible, when PTU gets its power from passenger side drive axle.

 

[Gord.R]

Snow SHO

I live in Canada Edmonton Alberta area to be specific. We have about 18" of snow maybe more in some areas. Yesterday I thought I would test the SHO and venture out in the fields around my place . I was a little nervous about getting stuck but knowing my wife was soon to be home with the FX4 she could pull me out if nessesary. So away I went ,i could not believe how this car went through the snow , I was going through snow like a hot knife through butter. I couldn't get stuck no matter how hard I tried I even came to a complete stop in about 18" of snow and it just launched out of it like nothing . I am totally impressed with this car . This SHO is a absolute Beast this my be the best all around car Ford has ever built.
P.S I am running full winter tires from Pirelli ,Scorpion winter to be specific.

 

[vforrest]

I live in Canada Edmonton Alberta area to be specific. We have about 18" of snow maybe more in some areas. Yesterday I thought I would test the SHO and venture out in the fields around my place . I was a little nervous about getting stuck but knowing my wife was soon to be home with the FX4 she could pull me out if nessesary. So away I went ,i could not believe how this car went through the snow , I was going through snow like a hot knife through butter. I couldn't get stuck no matter how hard I tried I even came to a complete stop in about 18" of snow and it just launched out of it like nothing . I am totally impressed with this car . This SHO is a absolute Beast this my be the best all around car Ford has ever built.
P.S I am running full winter tires from Pirelli ,Scorpion winter to be specific.

Great story....thanks!