I did a brief search and did not see any references in regards to switching to winter tires on the Ford Escape during the winter months. Several posters have reported on superior traction properties with the AWD version and others stated no problem with the FWD Escape during Colorado's worst winter during the past 20 years. Did any of you mount winter tires on the Escape Hybrid? If so, what brand did you use? I understand the stock Continential tires are designed for low resistance but are they suitable for snow and ice conditions?

 

Check into the Nokian tires. They have a great LRR winter/almost summer tire --- the WR. It is called an all-weather tire, but is almost as good as most pure winter tires in the snow. They also make several interesting pure winter tires. as well as a good summer only tire (also LRR).

JeffD

 

I bought a set of wheels and mounted all season studded tires on them. I thought the Conti's did pretty good, and ours is an AWD. I'm sure it would have been fine most days. A lot of the weather here is dry during the winter, and driving on cold, dry snow is not really much of a trick.

But we do get accumulated ice on our roads and then get some warm winds......the ice stays but gets wet on top....it can happen a dozen times each winter, and on those days it is slick. Especially if you drive in the hilly part (and that's the part we live in), you need studs to know you're going to stay on the road and stop where you want.

I bought a nice set of wheels off of eBay(Ford, new in box), a set of used TPMS modules, and a set of the mounts. A set of fairly ordinary tires froms Sam's Club, and the whole thing was 8 or 900 dollars.

Mileage took a hit. Of course the cold did a lot of that....it was one of our colder winters with quite a bit of temps in the teens and lower....it stayed around 23 mpg. It's up some now, but the ski rack is still on the roof (and the bike rack is on the back ). I'm hoping for one more trip to the ski hill before it shuts down for the summer.

Even on wet ice and snow.......it was like it was on rails pretty much. If it wasn't for the occasional super-slick days that we get, I would probably go with regular tires......but the piece of mind and knowing you can go when you want to go makes it worthwhile.

 

So it sounds like you have two sets of tires with TPMS modules.... What procedure do you have to go through with the vehicle for it to recognize the new set when you change them? Does it just figure it out on it own or is there some programming sequence of flipping the ignition?

 

[quote=andyh;124494]I bought a set of wheels and mounted all season studded tires on them. I thought the Conti's did pretty good, and ours is an AWD.
quote]

Wow! I did not know one could studd "all season tires". However, I believe use of true winter tires would serve me better as there is more snow covered roads than ice covered roads in the region I live in. This is true for the weekly trips I made to the nordic ski area.

 

Not that I doubt your decision, but I was curious if tire chains are legal in your area? I've heard in some areas they are not.

On another related note, I have seen folks driving around in the summertime with studded tires..maybe they were preparing for mudslides

 

To hit several comments:

Really, you can stud anything. Several shops here drill the tires to install studs, which gives you a wider choice in tires. Studs really are about ice, and snow tires are really about snow....they're very different to drive in. With dry snow, a good all-season tire does fine.

The wear on the roads from studs is a serious issue. Literally, it creates ruts that turn your wheels through a curve. Still, here you can put them on afte September 15, and they don't have to be off untill May 15. Because it gets cold and tends to stay cold in the fall, I usually don't put mine on until late October, but I just took them off three weeks ago on the car. They're still on the truck as I used it to go snowmachining. It's a big ticket if they stop you in the summer with them.

Chains are legal, and there are a few places where people frequently have to use them to get the last bit to their houses a good part of the winter, but you can't drive very long on them, or very fast. They plow the main roads pretty quick, but there is still ice buildup on them. Side roads they don't always do a great job on, and there are places one could get stuck.

I wondered about the TPMS stuff, and bought the activation tool off of eBay when I bought the rims, but it wasn't needed. The first trip away I got a message......the 4 summer tires were in he back of the car also, so who knows what the system thought . After that, it gave a warning on the first trip, and never came back on. When I switched them back out a few weeks ago, I got no signal then either. The system is operational, as I had a mildly low tire 2 weeks before that, and got the warning. So it seems to work it all out with just a few ignition cycles.

It is nice to have the Conti's back on though.

 

Hi,

I put Michelin latitude X-Ice and found they worked well. I did not do skid tests to compare with the Contis, but I felt better having them on. Went through a few blizzards and the AWD FEH handled better than my previous Golf (which was tough to beat) with traction control and winters.

Cheers,

rcomeau

 

I used the stock tires all winter here in Colorado, including my 7 plus hour drive home from Denver to Longmont during the big pre-christmas storm. I found the handling to be pretty flawless, once I got used to it (which didn't take long at all). I'll also add that I drove on these same tires back from Louisiana to Denver and did the drive from Amarillo, Texas, through Raton on some smallish US Highways (many of the main roads were closed from the New Year's blizzard in southern CO, NM and TX), and despite the inability of Texas and NM to deal with the snow and ice, the Escape (AWD) with stock tires did fine.

I learned that the regenerative braking is your friend, if you learn how to use it to slow the vehicle down without actually applying the friction brakes (ie, as you cruise to a stop light, shift into Low to slow the vehicle down). I think that more than tires, this made a world of difference over any other car I've driven in snow.

One thing I did think was not all that great on the car was the stock wiper blades, which froze over and had in general more ice and coverage problems than I ever recall on a pair of wiper blades in the past. This year I'll replace them with something more winter-oriented (suggestions always welcome).