Snow Tires and/or chain reccos??

[skoronesa]

Originally Posted by Blowby

Have just bought an extra set of rims so that I can run studded for the winter.Unfortunately to get to our house we have a fairly substantial downgrade where the fall line is not user friendly.Have seen many a vehicle down the embankment and in the worst conditions we will continue passed our turn off so that we can turn around and approach our road from the downhill side.

Those are some sweet looking tires! What make/model? I wish they would make tires like that in a street compound. By end of winter most of the studs are gone or the carbides are worn out so I usually run my winters into the rainy season. Just wish they didn't wear out so fast.

[stayalert]

Originally Posted by Blowby

Have just bought an extra set of rims so that I can run studded for the winter.Unfortunately to get to our house we have a fairly substantial downgrade where the fall line is not user friendly.Have seen many a vehicle down the embankment and in the worst conditions we will continue passed our turn off so that we can turn around and approach our road from the downhill side.

I know this scenario well.....Just like where we live....When its really greasy you modify your route to be able to attack the hill from the downhill side.....

[Blowby]

Originally Posted by skoronesa

Those are some sweet looking tires! What make/model? I wish they would make tires like that in a street compound. By end of winter most of the studs are gone or the carbides are worn out so I usually run my winters into the rainy season. Just wish they didn't wear out so fast.

Mastercraft Courser MSR
Fortunately my commute is short so am hoping to get a few years out of them.

[Trevor]

I'll 2nd skoronesa on tirechains.com. I ran some of their diamond pattern chains with the boron alloy steel on a 2wd class C chasing snow here in Colorado. Putting on any chain is a PITA, but these went on and off reasonably fast and have a built in tensioner. I liked the diamond pattern for lateral stability, and they are supposed to smooth out the ride a little compared to ladder chains. I'd put them on in the evening if I was expecting overnight snow.
Although I haven't used them on my van, I have run a set of Nokian Hakkapalitta LT2 studded snows on my truck. They're load range E and a damn good tire, but pricy. You can get them without studs as well. I've run Cooper discoverers M+S without studds on a jeep. I thought the rubber was too stiff for a snow tire, but they didnt wear so fast because of it. I suspect they might really need the studs to work well, plus that jeep was so light by comparison maybe it's not applicable here.

[stayalert]

Crosscountry and around crestedbutte in snow and ice = so far ao good
Trip to Ophir pass (dirtroad ordinarily closed but so little snow it was driveable)
Top if the pass is 11,000plus feet so I tried out the propane durnace and it fired right up!