Weight in the trunk for winter driving

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

If 1/2 an inch a year is "horrific" what does this, in two hours, classify as?

Hell.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by KNS

Of course the heating/defrost system in the winter left something to be desired...

What, a "heating" system that burns gas, has zero adjustment beyond on or off and if you were really, really lucky may melt the ice on your windshield in an hour or so left something to be desired?
Don't know why they didn't use it in all cars.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

No on many points.

My worst car ever in the snow was my last car, a base model 91 eclipse.

Funny you say that as my best car in the snow was a 91 Talon TSI AWD which was fundamentally the same car (turbo and AWD but still the same everything else). It certainly reinforces the benefits of AWD as I could take that thing through crap that bogged down SUVs.
The worst I ever drove was the old 75, F250, crew cab, army trucks. Those things would get stuck with anything more than a dusting of snow. We put about 500 pounds in the back and we got stuck slightly fewer times. But ... once you started to lose the rear end you were going for a ride and might as well just sit back and enjoy it cuz there was **** all you could do to stop it.
Hit a patch of ice once and did five 360s (an 1800?) down the middle of the road before it stopped.
So you had a choice. Leave them as is and get stuck a lot, or, put weight in them and see how good they were at ballet when they enviably went out on you.

[Ultramaroon]

Yeah, I've been wondering about yours. Mine got much tighter and it was atrocious taking off from a dead stop.

I think weight transfer must have been a big thing with those cars.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Yeah, I've been wondering about yours. Mine got much tighter and it was atrocious taking off from a dead stop.

I think weight transfer must have been a big thing with those cars.

Did it have the horrendous torque steer the later gen FWD ones had?

[KNS]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

What, a "heating" system that burns gas, has zero adjustment beyond on or off and if you were really, really lucky may melt the ice on your windshield in an hour or so left something to be desired?
Don't know why they didn't use it in all cars.

Only the most ancient (and rarely seen these days) of air-cooled Porsches and VWs used gas heaters, it was an option, never standard. The vast majority throughout the 60s and 70s (and up 'till 1998 on 911s) used hot air sourced from the heat exchangers. Instant hot air on a cold day, no waiting for the coolant to warm up.

While a bit crude in the 60s, the heating system on the later air-cooled Porsches and 964 and 993 (my car) are fantastic.

And those prehistoric gas heaters are highly valued by collectors today - go figure.

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by KNS

... winter snow in northern (mountainous) Arizona but just rainy, wet roads in southern Arizona. Commuting between the north and south would ruin winter tires pretty quick so you're forced to get by with all-seasons.

That sounds like very much like my winters. Constantly changing between dry, wet, snow, icy. So I drive studless Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2's. They are excellent on snow, good enough on ice, good in the wet, good on dry. As the temperature gets below 10°C (50F), the 205/55R16 Nokian's have better grip on dry roads than my summer setup with 225/45R17 PSS's.
And the Nokian's don't get ruined in any way, they're made for these conditions. Drifting them in the dry will probably wear them faster than summer tires, though, since the rubber is softer.
I really don't see that getting forced to get by with all-seasons argument.
All-seasons are widely regarded as completely and utterly useless here in Scandinavia. I don't even know if they're available anymore.

[KNS]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

That sounds like very much like my winters. Constantly changing between dry, wet, snow, icy. So I drive studless Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2's. They are excellent on snow, good enough on ice, good in the wet, good on dry. As the temperature gets below 10°C (50F), the 205/55R16 Nokian's have better grip on dry roads than my summer setup with 225/45R17 PSS's.
And the Nokian's don't get ruined in any way, they're made for these conditions. Drifting them in the dry will probably wear them faster than summer tires, though, since the rubber is softer.
I really don't see that getting forced to get by with all-seasons argument.
All-seasons are widely regarded as completely and utterly useless here in Scandinavia. I don't even know if they're available anymore.

Sounds like a great tire. I'll have to research them. In Arizona last winter our lowest temps dipped down to 8 degrees F where I work (about -13 C), yet a few weeks later you can easily get a warm spell down south and see temps in the 80s F in Phoenix (about 28 C). I managed with the all seasons on my 325i. Definitely a compromise.

[Tcoat]

In 40 years of driving in Canada this is the very first set of snow tire I have ever put on a car!
Drove on good all seasons for all those other winters and never put a car in a ditch.
Got stuck a time or 1000 but never lost control.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Did it have the horrendous torque steer the later gen FWD ones had?

There was some of that but it was manageable.

[Sarlacc]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

In 40 years of driving in Canada this is the very first set of snow tire I have ever put on a car!
Drove on good all seasons for all those other winters and never put a car in a ditch.
Got stuck a time or 1000 but never lost control.

In 28 years of driving in Norway, I have always have had winter tires of top notch quality on my cars, and I have never got stuck nor lost control on public roads. (What I do for fun is another matter, but I've never damaged anything or needed help escaping the scene.)
Getting stuck in snow and calling for help is, to me, the ultimate humiliation.

The two best winter tires right now, in my experience, are:
- Studded: Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8
- Studless: Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2
Studded tires are noisier, have less grip and are less comfortable on dry/wet conditions.
Since I have two cars I have studded on the wagon and studless on the GT86. For mountain drives where I risk facing unpredictable and extreme conditions I feel I need studded tires to stay safe.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sarlacc

In 28 years of driving in Norway, I have always have had winter tires of top notch quality on my cars, and I have never got stuck nor lost control on public roads. (What I do for fun is another matter, but I've never damaged anything or needed help escaping the scene.)
Getting stuck in snow and calling for help is, to me, the ultimate humiliation.

The two best winter tires right now, in my experience, are:
- Studded: Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8
- Studless: Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2
Studded tires are noisier, have less grip and are less comfortable on dry/wet conditions.
Since I have two cars I have studded on the wagon and studless on the GT86. For mountain drives where I risk facing unpredictable and extreme conditions I feel I need studded tires to stay safe.

Studded are illegal in Canada.

[jvincent]

They are actually legal in Quebec. Not sure about out west.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by jvincent

They are actually legal in Quebec. Not sure about out west.

Ya, I should have been more specific.
They are illegal in southern Ontario.