Do You Use Snow Tires In The Winter?

Post by **cuhfs** » 14 Mar 2017, 17:31

Our first snow together! A nor'easter abut 18". Is anybody running snow tires in the winter for their XC90??? or is the weight and the AWD with All Season Radials sufficient? First winter with XC90 for me and no issues with her in the snow with the All Seasons but have not really driven much at all in the snow.

: XC90 Snow Tires.jpg (104.08 KiB) Viewed 1702 times

See wiper blades from C70 sticking up in background LOL.

crlande · Post by **crlande** » 14 Mar 2017, 19:29

I have four Hakkapeliittas on my 850 and I had no problem topping the hill where two tractor trailers got stuck and one car turned around halfway up . Previous snow years without them I often had issues trying to get over the hill. They certainly paid for the peace of mind heading to work at 4 A.M.

Post by **Roger_850T** » 14 Mar 2017, 19:50

I just run regular all-season on my XC90. Haven't had any issues, but not a hard snow driver, either.

I have a set of Blizzaks for my 850, and when I lived in Seattle, I would use them when the snow occasionally came. I have actually had much more use out of the set of Spike Spiders I bought for the car - they will get me through when everyone else is stuck! That said, you can't drive over 25mph on them, so I just pop them on and off as needed.

These days I live in a non-studded-tire state, but the spike spiders still live in the trunk in the winter - if I need them I'll use them, and deal with it if someone squawks about it.

Roger

Post by **oragex** » 15 Mar 2017, 02:28

All season tires are only meant for areas with a few inches of snow/year and with most days over 30F temperatures. I know in the US most states think All weather tires coupled with AWD is a winter winner. Most of us here in Canada don't have AWD cars but we have winter tires. I can tell you that AWD is worthless compared with a winter tire. AWD won't brake the car more and won't give the car any extra grip to the road.

A video from Canada. All cars in the video have winter tires, this happened in a blizzard with no visibility and careless drivers.

This happened in the US with probably many cars on All season tires, including the trucks

I can only tell that with winter tire I feel like attached to the road. It's all about safety. With winter tires, you adapt speed and distance and drive with peace of mind. On All season tires you always feel unsafe.

Final thought. NOT all winter tires are good on snow! Do not buy the cheap chinese ones. These are garbage and only marginally better than an All season tire, because they use poor quality rubber. The good brands are Goodyear, Toyo (I like these because they last long and grip well), Michelin, Pirelli. The best brands are Bridgestone Blizzak (these wear faster) and Nokian. All these tires come in two versions: for ice with closer treads and for deep snow with more distant treads. An ice tire won't be good in deep snow. General Altimax and Firestone Winterforce are about the entry level that give ok traction.

Mattbchillin · Post by **Mattbchillin** » 15 Mar 2017, 07:38

This is our first winter with our XC90 on All season and handled well in all the storms. I do run snow tires on my V70 and they do very well. Im sure the snow tires would be a huge bonus for the XC90. This thing is a tank!