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wolfwingsBuying a set of winter snow/ice tires for my Yaris for the first time.
First year on brand-new TripleTred's I managed to bend a rim without damaging the tire due to ice on a roundabout, and dodging someone else spinning out on the highway resulted in my astro-turfing a couple hundred feet sideways down slushy median on the local interstate loop that thankfully has no center barrier or cable-netting. So no damage from that.
Second year I managed to end up off-roading a couple times trying to stop... lacking traction, and having to duck into the muck on the side of the road to drag myself to a stand-still in time. Once I clipped a curb in the process, but it was the direction I was facing so the car just climbed up dutifully without damage.
So first year I was surprised by ice on bridges and roundabouts. Second year I just midjudged, though that was with mostly worn out TripleTreds at the time. This year? Extra-skinny extra-high-load/PSI Bridgestone Blizzak's on seperate 14" rims versus the stock 15" rims my car came with. Short of drop-shipping custom tires from Europe these are the best winter-only tires available stateside. Sure, it's gonna ride rough as hell compared to the TripleTreds, but at least it'll stick to the damn roads during winter.
Anyways... off to work.
First year on brand-new TripleTred's I managed to bend a rim without damaging the tire due to ice on a roundabout, and dodging someone else spinning out on the highway resulted in my astro-turfing a couple hundred feet sideways down slushy median on the local interstate loop that thankfully has no center barrier or cable-netting. So no damage from that.
Second year I managed to end up off-roading a couple times trying to stop... lacking traction, and having to duck into the muck on the side of the road to drag myself to a stand-still in time. Once I clipped a curb in the process, but it was the direction I was facing so the car just climbed up dutifully without damage.
So first year I was surprised by ice on bridges and roundabouts. Second year I just midjudged, though that was with mostly worn out TripleTreds at the time. This year? Extra-skinny extra-high-load/PSI Bridgestone Blizzak's on seperate 14" rims versus the stock 15" rims my car came with. Short of drop-shipping custom tires from Europe these are the best winter-only tires available stateside. Sure, it's gonna ride rough as hell compared to the TripleTreds, but at least it'll stick to the damn roads during winter.
Anyways... off to work.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-29 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-29 08:22 pm (UTC)Shocked me to learn that studded tires (except for ice-racing 'cheater' tires that are basically 150lbs of screws bolted through a tire) aren't as good as modern rubber, but we've hit some kind of crest where the chemistry is turned the corner and we have tire rubber that actively sticks to ice now.