dsl@phoenix.UUCP (David S. Levine) (09/05/84)
I am in the market for a pair of snow tires for a large Ford station wagon. Does anyone know if studded snow tires provide any great advantage (disadvantages), are they worth buying? I currently have Firestone 721 radials on the car and will be buying a radial snow tire. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. David Levine phoenix!dsl
ales@hpfloat.UUCP (ales) (09/08/84)
I agree that Vredesteins are good tires as far as traction goes,
but I have had some bad luck with them.
Last fall I have bought a set of four and I had to replace two of them
before the winter was over. On two separate occasions I have hit a pothole.
The first time my rim has pinched the tire to the ground and the tire
developed a bulge on the side. The dealer was nice about replacing it free of
charge. The second time I had a blowout.
It may just be my driving, but I have not had this problem with my summer
Michelins, and I have hit some good size potholes with those too. It may
just be bad luck. I will give the Vredesteins another chance this winter.
Ales Fiala
{hplabs, ihnp4}!hpfcla!alesdove@fortune.UUCP (Michael Dove) (08/02/85)
Unfortunately here in (Sunny?) California, studded tires are illegal. They also do not salt our roads out here, they sand (not exactly right, they are experimenting with salt on 89, west side of Tahoe), so life might be a bit more exciting out here. Most of the locals have studded tires (illegally I might add), as do the police. The law was enacted to prevent destruction to the roads, since most people leave them on the entire winter. This might be true, but it seems a small price to pay for the lives that might be saved because of it. The big problem we have out here is inexperience. Back east, you tend to have much more driving time in the snow, than most people out here. We have all the maniacs from the Bay Area head to Tahoe for the weekends during the winter. And when snow hits on the weekend these people head up there, there are always people that slide off the road into ditches. There are also the people who manage to ROLL their car into a ditch, and they are always standing next to the car scratching their head, probably wondering "What happened, I was only going 40"). I have one question you might be able to answer. What is it with nevada drivers. Being in a 4wd Landcruiser, with good size mud/snow tires, I can generally go faster than people with chains. But everytime I am up in the mountains during a snow storm, I get passed at at least double my speed by cars, trucks, etc, all with NEVADA plates. And I am going twice the speed of the people with chains. And they seldomly have chains, or studs, and they are either 2 or 4wd (more of the latter). How do they do it? Do they have a working relationship with some higher force, or are they just crazy? -- /*****************************************\ |* *| |* Michael Dove *| |* Fortune Systems Corporation *| |* {ihnp4, ucbvax!dual}!fortune!dove *| |* *| \*****************************************/