One of the Miss BB61s is a RN at a NICU and will have early morning and evening commutes to and from work. She has an AWD RAV 4 but we are thinking a snow/ winter tire for better traction.

Thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Thx!

They aint cheap but I prefer Bridgestone Blizzak

Supposedly the best is nokian hakkkapeliita R5. I’ve use the previous version which is the r3 and it’s amazing.

what part of the country are we talking???

Salt Lake City with a small mountain pass too.

Hakka are the bomb. I had them installed on my wife’s Audi A3 ( sedan) when we lived in Buffalo. Thing could get through stuff that bogged my jeep wrangler down. Worth every penny

I would look at Cooper, Falken and Hankook. Maybe BFG TA's if can get in that size.

Nokian Hakkas on the BMW X3, and Nokian studded Nordsman's on the 4x4 RAM truck.

Montana...where it's been snowing or freezing rain for the last 2 weeks

If you go back to all season- look at Cooper Discoverer-Enduramax. 3=peak rating - ran 60,000mi on my 1st set in Eastern-PA and just put another set on the 2018 Forester. Weather never stopped me but again its not a mountain pass in Utah!

I’ve used mostly Blizzacks over the years. I’m trying 2 Michelin snow tires this year.

The ones I didn’t care for were the Firestone ‘Winterforce’, though they would seem to wear longer on dry pavement. They just never gripped as well as the Blizzacks.

If one drives an AWD vehicle, depending on where they live, the best of the ‘all season’ tires can be suitable. Not all ‘all season’ tires are equal.

We've been using General Altimax Arctic winter tires on several of our vehicles for a good number of years now. Very happy with their performance and tread wear.

With our sparse population and resulting tax base, snow removal and black ice treatment waits until the snowfall stops. So having excellent performing winter tires around here is mandatory and as said the Altimax Arctic tires deliver.

Tried Blizzacks and other such but found they wore quickly loosing any performance advantages. They're much more costly that the Altimax-Arctic shoes as well.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires...al-altimax-arctic-12

I really like Blizzaks and the offerings from Michelin are good too.

Every time you or she will have to drive in sketchy conditions you both will be glad you splurged on dedicated snows!

We have this thread every winter. I’ve lived in northern latitudes and/or at elevation for a long, long time. We’ve always had my 4wd truck and an all-wheel drive or 4wd car (Jeep) for my wife. I’ve never changed tires expressly for winter driving, always getting through winter with all-season tires. I do have preferences. I’m a Michelin guy and have had great success with their all-season tires (ATX?). I don’t like Pirelli Scorpions, and unfortunately, my new truck came with them. Pirellis were on a Volvo XC60 we had and they were awful on snow; I hope these on the truck are much improved.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
You may have been "lucky" with all weather tires where you live. But having been raised in upstate NY (HS drivers Ed on a frozen lake with rear wheel drive cars) and having lived in a variety of cold winter locations, betting on all weather tires over dedicated winter shoes is folly for 99% of those living in such areas. Sorry.

We have had good luck with the Michelin X Ice series on an Outback and 4Runner here in lower Michigan.

Lived most of 60 years in snow and cold country, and driven 45 of those years, so I know a little of that which you ask.

Blizzak hands-down. They do wear quicker, but I can get 3 or 4 winters out of them before performance drops. They are like velcro on the road. Even the FWD cars are nearly unstoppable with these-ground clearance is the limiting factor.

I'm sure there are other options that may be nearly as good or as good, but you will not go wrong with the Blizzaks.

We sell a few Firestone Winterforce here. We also run them ourselves. They are very effective. They are not too noisy. They have a stay soft compound like the Blizzak so you want to get them off asap after winter. They are capable of being studded if you are so inclined.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
We have this thread every winter. I’ve lived in northern latitudes and/or at elevation for a long, long time. We’ve always had my 4wd truck and an all-wheel drive or 4wd car (Jeep) for my wife. I’ve never changed tires expressly for winter driving, always getting through winter with all-season tires.

Same here.

I used to change tires when I was driving RWD cars and Michigan allowed studded snow tires. Once Michigan disallowed studded snow tires, which was about the time I went to FWD or AWD vehicles, I never bothered anymore.

For my wife's care I've always selected road tires that were reported to have good performance on snow and ice. For my SUVs I've always gone with a touring/off-road hybrid tire.

I put Michelin LTX M/S' on the Jeep Grand Cherokee a year ago. They did fine on snowy/icy roads. We put Michelin CrossClimate 2's on my wife's FWD Equinox and she reported they worked fine.

But my area of Michigan is pretty flat and we don't often get more than 6-10 in. of snow at a pop. In areas of heavier snowfall and/or with elevation challenges perhaps it'd be a different story.