Just thought I would share my experience from over the weekend with my winter tires. I have a 2016 GT AWD with Blizzaks WS80's 225/65R17 on winter rims. On Friday I drove to Chicago from Milwaukee to meet a friend and spend the night down there and Saturday morning we were heading to Cleveland for the Packer Game on Sunday against the Browns with some other friends that live in Cleveland. Woke up Saturday morning and it had snowed over night and was just ending by the time we left around 7am. Basically we drove thru the heart of the snow system almost the entire way to Cleveland which included some rather heavy bands from lake effect snow as we got around the southern tip of lake Michigan. We were somewhere in Indiana and there was a very gentle left handed curve, about half way thru the curve was a bridge. The AWD RAV4 in front of us hit the bridge and started to fish tail back and forth. I was hard on the brakes but not hard enough to induce antilock system. The semi next to us was also hard on the brakes as the Rav4 slide around and proceeded to do a 720 in about the middle of the road. I was really nervous that she would hit the semi and us. She was luckly able to avoid both and ended up facing the right direction in the other lane as the semi passed and we slowly drove by. The drive was visibly shaken and for good reason. Thank god I had snow tires on!!! I'm 100% confident that if I had the 19" All seasons we would have made contact and My CX-5 would be at a body shop right now, if not worse and we'd be in a hospital somewhere due to a very likely accident. For me, the $500 I paid for the tires and wheels just paid for itself right there!!! Stay safe out there my friends
Winter tires for the Win!!!
- Thread starter Ride92
- Start date
thanks for sharing! Glad you and your CX-5 made it out safely.
One question.. would you have been going as fast as you were with all seasons on?
Driving even 5MPH faster because you have more grip can negate any safety benefit that the better tires might give you.
Wow thankfully that ended well- but it easily may not have and likely would have been avoided altogether if more people used winters (and knew how to drive per the conditions.)
Another recent I forgot to share is we had a visitor this past Sat in some snow she has a previous gen AWD RAV4 w/Conti LX20s (hey unob
) fronts decent prob little less than half worn, rears pretty cooked not bald but 2-3/32s at a glance- she got a stern talking to rest assured although my driveway told her all she needed to know... Long story short it took her awhile just to settle down after she didn't think she was going to stop coming down (it flattens for a car length or 2 then woods then drops) or be able to get back out. I got her out without having to prematurely shovel with only maybe an inch or so but it wasn't without drama as the left side of my narrow driveway drops off. Turning off nannies is a must in order to get some momentum which was quite difficult as the rear end was all over the place. Fast forward and hour or 2 we went to a friends house still snowing now probably a good 3 on it in wife's Highlander w/Blizz DM-V2s mounted. No slip, straight hooked- zero drama and hoisted that 4500# pig out like a champion!
So yeah my bad/scary for most driveway that basically mandates awd with winters or very good all weathers to handle it with confidence rather than trepidation- particularly for those without alot of winter driving experience has the very positive and motivating side effect of saying- hey dipshit even awd w/bad or worn AS tires may not go well for you- so do you feel smart or just lucky?
Another recent I forgot to share is we had a visitor this past Sat in some snow she has a previous gen AWD RAV4 w/Conti LX20s (hey unob
) fronts decent prob little less than half worn, rears pretty cooked not bald but 2-3/32s at a glance- she got a stern talking to rest assured although my driveway told her all she needed to know... Long story short it took her awhile just to settle down after she didn't think she was going to stop coming down (it flattens for a car length or 2 then woods then drops) or be able to get back out. I got her out without having to prematurely shovel with only maybe an inch or so but it wasn't without drama as the left side of my narrow driveway drops off. Turning off nannies is a must in order to get some momentum which was quite difficult as the rear end was all over the place. Fast forward and hour or 2 we went to a friends house still snowing now probably a good 3 on it in wife's Highlander w/Blizz DM-V2s mounted. No slip, straight hooked- zero drama and hoisted that 4500# pig out like a champion! So yeah my bad/scary for most driveway that basically mandates awd with winters or very good all weathers to handle it with confidence rather than trepidation- particularly for those without alot of winter driving experience has the very positive and motivating side effect of saying- hey dipshit even awd w/bad or worn AS tires may not go well for you- so do you feel smart or just lucky?
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The simple answer is, Yes. At the time this happened we were doing about 55 in a 70. Maybe even closer to 50mph as it was coming down pretty good. I didnt feel any where near the edge of the tires limits at this speed and probably wouldnt have with the all seasons either. Its just the reason they say to take extra care with bridges and overpasses as they are colder and freeze quicker. Frozen bridge plus just enough of a curve was enough to do it, not so much the speed in this case.
just $500 for 4 set of wheels and rims? where did you buy and how much... are you on steel rims? I assume blizzaks are atleast $120 a piece and 50 - 60 for the steel rims....
- :
- Denver, CO
I picked the rims up off of CL for $80 for the set of four. They are sport edition F7s I believe, 17x7 et35 so not an ideal offset but I couldn't pass up the price. The Tires I got, Blizzak WS80 225/65R17, from Costco when a new warehouse opened up in our area. They were running a sale on all bridgestone tires and were offering a 1 cent install promotion to go along with them. The Tires installed I want to say where about $107 each installed or something close to it. Final price for everthing was just a bit over $500 with taxes and shop fees and adding the price of the wheels in. I just got lucky I guess!
