Snow Tires

[SolidState]

Hey guys...

I just drove about 60miles with the FireHawk SZ50 on the ATX in all that snow.

Scariest friggin drive of my life.

Anyways, I have a good set (read: Nearly New) tires on the front of the MTX that are Continental All Season tires that I was happy with in the snow.

I am going out to buy some snow tires tomorrow and was wondering if it would be alright or ill advised to buy a good set of snows for the front and use the all seasons on the rear, or if I should buy full out winter tires for all 4 corners.

TIA

 

[Dr. Tweak]

OK, here's the deal.

You can put just snows on the front, but yes, it is ill advised. When cornering in the snow it will give you terrible sudden oversteer.

Acually, I've heard from those in the business that it would be better to put the snow tires at the back! Of course no one does this because you would get no traction.

At any rate, I am doing this right now (2 snows at front, 2 summer at rear, there's no such thing as "all-season" IMHO) because I'm too poor to afford another set of snow tires, but if you can possibly swing it, you will not regret getting snows at all four corners. You WILL regret getting them just on the front, if not all of the time, at least when your rear end slams into a curb and your tire goes flat. (Happened to me two days ago.)

The only reason I'm doing this right now is because I took two of the snows off my SLO and put them on the front of my SHO, so at least for now I can drive it when I need to.

 

[Trojan Man]

Last year I ran 2 Wintergrips up front and the RE950s ("all-season", but a summer tire IMO) in the back. It got me around but the back end would swing out ALL the time. It took nothing more than going around a corner at 5mph in snow to swing the back end out. This year I put the Wintergrips in the back and put 2 new Blizzaks up front. This thing goes anywhere now, and I can hardly make the back end swing out even when I try.

So if you have the $$$, get 4, if you can only swing 2, it's better than none.

 

[GreenBird]

Keely wintermarks are almost as good as Blizzaks, and cost half as much.

 

[SHOSIG]

"Kelly" wintermarks are not comparable to Blizzaks, especially on ice. The technology in these(Blizzaks,Yokohama Guardex,Michelin Artic Alpins) snow tires is great. I had a set of Yokohama Guardex 600's last year that were "old school" and this year I have some Hankook non-studded snows. I would rather have the Yokohamas back or the same type of snow tire. You should be able to get a pretty good deal now considering "snow tire" season is almost over.
By the way, buy 4 snow tires.

 

[Trojan Man]

Ahh, Wintermarks, not Wintergrips. Those were what I was talking about. I have them on the back with the Blizzaks up front.

They are about as good as the Blizzaks, just perhaps not quite as good traction wise on hard pact snow. I paid $88 a piece for the Kelleys last year and $105 a piece for the Blizzaks this year.