Festivas and snow

[Evil D]

Evil D ----- "You Canada guys probably see more snow in one season than i do in 10 LOL"

NOPE! (and thats Canadian guys, you America guy, :p)

In Cincinnati an average season will see just above 20 inches (51 cm) of snowfall.

In Vancouver average yearly snowfall is 48.2 centimetres (19.0 in) but typically does not remain on the ground for long.

Source ----- Wiki!

Wow that's interesting. We have had some pretty nasty shows in the past but i've always felt pretty good with regular tires. I've driven a lot of RWD cars with regular radials and never felt the need for snow tires. I used to drive a Ranger, and that thing was crazy in the snow...it was all over the place but still manageable. I also drove an '88 Mustang GT with Goodyear all seasons on it and it actually did pretty good as long as you kept the RPMs down and stayed off the gas in turns.

[Safety Guy]

A Festiva with B3 won't tend to spin tires like a much more powerful car would, so yes, it helps a bit with any abrupt pedal changes.

Karl

[Justin2129]

you could find some cheap steelies and put awesome snow tires on them just to have for the winter. should last years

[Evil D]

I've got my eye out for some small 13s but i'm not gonna go out of my way to get any. I drove my Merkur for 3 winters and it seemed like every time i put the Blizzacks on, it wouldn't snow for a month.

[iceracerdude]

...And either good all-season tires or actual snow tires...

There is no such thing as "good all season tires" for the snow. That is one of the biggest marketing catch phrase frauds of all time. In fact, It's right up there with whoever thought
of selling the idea that putting burning leaves and paper in your mouth would somehow make you cool. imo

Do yourself a favor and get 4 real snow tires and then you'll start to know what I know.
Real snow tires actually have an embossed designation on their sidewalls that look like an outline of a mountain with a snowflake in the center like this:

[TominMO]

There is no such thing as "good all season tires" for the snow. That is one of the biggest marketing catch phrase frauds of all time. In fact, It's right up there with whoever thought
of selling the idea that putting burning leaves and paper in your mouth would somehow make you cool. imo

Do yourself a favor and get 4 real snow tires and then you'll start to know what I know.
Real snow tires actually have an embossed designation on their sidewalls that look like an outline of a mountain with a snowflake in the center like this:

I agree that the best all-season tires are still not as good as dedicated snow tires for travel in deeper snow, i.e. over an inch or two. But I am happy with the performance of my all-season Kumho Solus KR21s for the relatively light and occasional snow we get in STL. When I had them on my 4WD Subaru Loyale, they worked great in 4" of snow. Subaru 4WDs are so awesome in fact that I used this same car to plow through 22" of snow, with all-season tires! It just depends on what you need and how often, to justify the expense of a complete separate set of mounted tires.

[iceracerdude]

Yes, I've got a 4 wheel drive truck I plow with also, and sure it takes a lot to stop it as well...bad tires are not one of those things. I have infact pulled so many cars with all season radials out of trouble, I'm thinking they should actually change the nickname to "do you feel lucky season radials". But my advice was specifically taylored to the guy/s driving a one wheel drive car, not subarus, or for that matter not corvettes, not motorcycles, not rickshaws...see where I'm going with this.
What's next, it's ok to use gear oil in the trans because you may happen to live in a Texas like climate?
We get a lot of that kind of advice around here too, and for the same reason.

[Justin2129]

i made it through the big snow storm last december driving through interstate 77/64 and route 460 (all mountains in WVa and Va) with bald tires on my p5. first time driving in snow too. scared the crap out of me lol

[bhazard]

Winterforces going on the 92 tomorrow... can't wait to see how it runs this winter...its gonna be a beast.

[freshtiva]

Here is a video of a festiva in about 8-10 inches of snow. Deep enought to scrap the bottom of the car. Note the other cars at the first of the video that couldnt make it up the drive.

[Evil D]

I guess if it gets bad enough i can get some Maxxis quad tires and throw them on..lol

[sketchman]

I went through last season's insta-blizzard with 225/15 Khumo Ecsta AST on a neon. It was "fun" some of the time and deadly all of the time. Same thing in rain. Hit a puddle and you WILL be killed.

Festiva is night a day I think a lot of this because stock tires are so narrow. I flew through a flood one year when everyone else was slowing down to avoid hydroing into each other. I had plenty of control.

[bhazard]

I agree, AST's suck.

[Evil D]

Yeah i figured the narrow tread would help. The tires i just got are really meaty as far as the tread go, they almost look like a 12 inch all terrain truck tire.

[iceracerdude]

Here is a video of a festiva in about 8-10 inches of snow. Deep enought to scrap the bottom of the car. Note the other cars at the first of the video that couldnt make it up the drive.

Great video of how to get it done Fresh. Way to represent!
If you close your eyes during the video, your car has the low rumbling sound of a damn
battle tank moving into position!
If you ever make your way up to Michigan, I'm inviting you to come out and
school the boys on driving in weather...or spotting the illusive Morel, either or brother.