Re: Snow birds, plows

[bearbvd@domain.elided (Greg Hermann)]

>On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Ferdinando Di Matteo wrote:
>
>> The trick is not to reduce the diameter of the tire for snow going, but to
>> reduce the size to the narrowist you can get and stay with 15 inch wheels.
>> Worked fine for me in Maine and Massachusetts.  Fred Di Matteo
>>
>Thanks.  We sunshine boys may come-up with some cogent suggestions for the
>frozen Northland.....
>
>I know diameter |per se| has little to do with it, but the GTV6 wheel is
>6J, while the Milano 14" wheel is 5.5J, and Haynes gives 5.5 for the width
>of the Alfetta wheel.  Presumably the ubiquitous 185/70 - 14 will fit
>nicely, while I don't know that narrow 15" tires are readily available to
>fit the 6Jx15 rim.  A second set of snow-tire rims is often used
>(undesirable rims may be cheap in comparison with a number of tire
>changes), and the steel Milano rims should be available cheap.  There is a
>small difference in cross-section meeting the snow, in addition.  (Let's
>face it -- under adverse conditions, there is also a heightened risk of
>damaging fancy alloy wheels.)

Based on more than 20 winters in the Colorado mountains (at 7K plus
elevation, not Denver, and west of the divide, in a town with about 275
inches average annual snowfall (over 400 inches average up on the pass),
plus another 10 years esperience living in central NY state-- I have one
word for anybody needing snow tires: "Nokia"--in either NR-10 Hakkepelitta
or N-1 Hakkepelitta treads, WITH studs, in the same size as you would run
for summer tires, and on all FOUR corners,  PARTICULARLY if you have a
front driver. These tires are SO sticky on slick stuff that you will swap
ends quicker than you can blink under the wrong circumstances if you only
mount two of them!

Four extra, STEEL wheels for permanent mounting of the winter tires is the
ONLY way to fly.

For those who live in bureaucratically crippled and otherwise myopic
states, Nokia also offers some studless models. If you can manage to find
them--the European style studs are technically superior to, and outperform
the usual American style ones by a worthwhile margin, although the
drillings in the tires will accept either style of stud.

Price is reasonable, and Nokias are available in a wide variety of low
profile sizes.

These tires are Finnish made, and they wear decently. (Two to four times as
well as Blizaks.) And either an N-1 or an NR-10 will outperform a Blizak
SERIOUSLY --EVEN WITHOUT THE STUDS! With the studs, it is kind of comical
to even try to compare the two. Plus--they have a dencent speed rating--I
think 115 mph or so for the N-1's, but check me on this. I know people who
run Nokias in pro rally--when winter or mud conditions exist, events  such
as the POR in upper Michigan.

They have a web site, and a US distribution center (this is rather recent),
I think in Memphis or Nashville. <www.nokiantyres.com> (or something close
to that). Their distributor in Denver is Meadow Creek Performance Tires
Warehouse.

I have NO commercial interest here--just hate to see anybody slow down, get
stuck, or bend their car unnecessarily. The Finns (as one might suspect)
are well motivated in this area, and they have gotten it RIGHT--I have
never found a winter tire which offers even CLOSE to comparable performance
under foul conditions.

With all due respect to Fred's past experience in MA, a taller than stock,
narrow section, traction tread tire is effective for cutting down through
deep, loose snow (or mud) in search for traction IF (and ONLY IF) there is
something solid underneath--but if the soft stuff is deeper than your
ground clearance is tall, you are VERY soon high centered, and stuck!
Otherwise, as for driving on either white or black ice, or a plowed, hard
surface road, a stock (or the same oversize as you run in summer) size and
profile traction tread tire will do far better than a tall skinny one,
particularly with the air pressure set as low as possible. Plus--I kind of
suspect that Fred has been in the Sunshine State since before the Nokias
even became available on a gray market basis here--AND--winter tire
technology has come a VERY long way in the past ten or fifteen years.

Regards, Greg
>
>r.m.bies

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