Anyone replaced their OEM tires that has a decent grip on the snow/ice? Its probably time for me to replace the tires. I hate the OEMs, they don't have good traction on snow/ice but don't want to replace it with tires that kills my mileage.

 

well, it's sorta summer now, but hey, if concern is about ice and snow...

here's a frugal suggestion. it's a front drive. go to any Mexican tire place, plenty of those around, get yourself a pair of steelies and mount studdies on them. stow them somewhere until snow and ice comes and put them on. I paid $102 total for this setup here. used them for 2 days, and that was it. we do not have much winter around here.

be honest with you, you may want to reconsider your driving techniques for snow and ice. front wheel drive is hard to skid if you drive right for those conditions, on regular tires.

 

Pay attention to rolling resistance. It's hard to get actual numbers on that, but it is important.

Michelin makes several tires with good rolling resistance, and they have experience in German winters. I have been happy with mine -- but, of course, I live in Florida. Lots of snow, here ;-)

 

I just bought cheap rims and Blizzak snowtires from Tire Rack and put them on in winter. Spring they come off! The OEM tires just don't provide the traction you need on real slick roads.

John

 

Having a different set of tires for winter is my second option due to the tire pressure monitors (kind of annoying of having to reset it everytime). Nice if there's like an all-season tire that has a decent grip. I have to drive my lincoln continental instead of TCH because the tires are useless when it gets slick outside. I almost got a heart attack when this car just rolled down in a downhill street.
The closest alternative I have is the Continental VancoWinter tires from tirerack.com, but there's no reviews for it.

 

I have very hard time believing Lincoln Continental would have better traction in winter than TCH, is it with 4 wheel drive or something? Anyhow I never owned one, so who knows. My TCH wasn't that bad in winter, but not impressive either. Last yr I put Altimax tires on mine, much better traction on wet/snow/ice, but I lost about 2-3 MPG in the process, so can't win it all. Altimax has much higher max pressure than OEM michelins, so I was thinking to compensate MPG with higher tire pressure, but I'm too lazy and ride could become too harsh, also shocks could go faster that way, so haven't done it yet. If the snow/ice is not everyday hazard and roads are cleaned quickly I would probably go with emergency snow chains, just in case to get out of jam. It all depends where you live: If I was in Colorado or Alaska I would probably get all wheel drive, in my area snow and ice is not as much problem as the traffic it creates is. Even little rain doubles the traffic and when you crawl 5 mph, who needs good traction tires.

 

My tire pressure monitors don't need to be moved. My snow tires don't have the tire pressure monitors. Sometimes the light comes on but that is all. After a period of time it goes out again. I've never had to reset it or anything.

John

 

I think it's the weight of the lincoln continental that provided the traction (it has a cheap falken performance tires) They're also front wheel drive (the town cars are rear wheel drive) The TCH is just too light otherwise I have to carry sandbags just like pickups do.

So the TPM will just quit the warning light if there's none present?

 

The warning light comes on. It may stay on awhile but mostly it doesn't. Just an orange low pressure light. No buzzer or anything just a light. Some times it comes on but it mostly stays off.

John

 

Decided to go with Hankook Optimo H727 all season, got our first below freezing temp today and what a difference on slick roads. The Yokohama Avid TRZ (OEM) is not ideal in snow/ice (it was 7/32" last winter).

I still haven't figured out if I lose mileage with this tire, mileage drops during winter (33/34). I'll know this coming spring.