Front Rangers - when do you mount up your snow tires?

When do you front range residents mount up your snow tires? Days in Boulder are still sunny and warm but ski season is already upon us and the ice is building in the Park. What do I do?!?

Judging by I70 most weekends, never.

I used to live a couple hours into the mountains and travel to Denver weekly. I'd put my winter tires on in October and take them off early May. I always felt silly driving around Denver with my winter tires on when it was 70 degrees, but never, never, never regretted having them on when I hit Eisenhower. Even on the good days, I remembered the bad ones.

I think the decision about when really depends on what you want to prioritize. Do you want spend some more money annually on snow tires and drive with more confidence year round in the mountains, or save some money and drive more tentatively the times you head up?

Well not to tell you how to be an adult, but it's weather and therefore unpredictable. And it's winter in CO...we could get a foot tomorrow or have sun for another week or both.

There is going to be the people that put their tires on early, and there will be those that will spend an entire day in line with the droves that waited till the first snowfall.

And like it was said above...some never do and make the rest of us pay the price, and the difference in an hour of driving could be considerable.

Relax and have another croissant.

Ski season is not upon us. Only overblown-by-the-media-scritching-down-icy-man-made-snow-on-one-lousy-blue-run season is upon us.

I have separate wheels for my studded snows and put them on when it's time to go skiing; takes about 45 minutes.

And BTW, never drive I70 on a weekend, summer or winter.

John Byrnes wrote:Relax and have another croissant. Ski season is not upon us. Only overblown-by-the-media-scritching-down-icy-man-made-snow-on-one-lousy-blue-run season is upon us. I have separate wheels for my studded snows and put them on when it's time to go skiing; takes about 45 minutes. And BTW, never drive I70 on a weekend, summer or winter.

Get an air compressor and an impact ratchet and I bet you could get that down to 15 min!

To the OP, you might want to check out Nokian tires. They make a year round tire that is winter rated. I run them on my subaru and they are amazing in deep snow and last four years or so.

nokiantires.com/winter-tire…

Morgan Patterson wrote: Get an air compressor and an impact ratchet and I bet you could get that down to 15 min!

I have a compressor and impact wrench.

It's the other stuff that takes the rest of the time: positioning Bose box, pulling the snows out of storage area, getting tools out, backing out the car, jacking front up, lowering front, jacking back up, lowering back, putting summer tires away, putting tools away, putting Bose back.

I need a minion to do the grunt-work. The position's open, Morgan.

Nokian makes a studded snow, the Haakapelita. I used them for decades but they're hard to find now. I use Hankooks now, really like 'em.

I've never used them in the 8 years I've lived here. If you actually know how to drive they're rarely a necessity (same can be said for high clearance and 4wd).

If you really want them do it around Thanksgiving and take them off between Spring Break and Labor Day.

jmeizis wrote:I've never used them in the 8 years I've lived here. If you actually know how to drive they're rarely a necessity (same can be said for high clearance and 4wd).

Since you've never used them, you're not qualified to judge, eh?

There are studded snow tires, and non-studded snow tires. I have never needed to get anywhere in the mountains so badly, so quickly, that I needed studded snow tires. Leaving them on all the time is hard on the roads too.

When I was still living in the rockies, I'd get quality non-studded snow tires as my regular tires on my truck.

Takes me about 45 minutes too, but I have an electric impact wrench. Wrench only saves maybe 5 minutes. As I still torque them down to spec so I don't end up with stripped lugs or warped rotors... Actually, this is why I do it myself.

Anyway. The rest of the time is getting stuff together and jacking up the car.

Oh and the you don't need snow tires thing is lame. It's like the idiots with 4WD but Street tires that get stuck on slightly muddy uphills.

Sure 99% of the time you can survive without snow tires. But having them makes driving a lot less stressful.

I see all this talk about not needing to get places quickly ... How about stopping and handling to avoid the idiots that do try to drive fast without snow tires..

I put mine on during halftime Sunday. 35 minutes without an impact wrench, beat that ya punters!

John Byrnes wrote: Since you've never used them, you're not qualified to judge, eh?

I can judge that I see plenty of trucks and Subarus in the ditch all winter long. Correlation doesn't equal causation but perhaps people get overconfident. Zamboni's have studded tires, trust me you can still spin that shit out. Never used them on my car is what I should of said.

For the 10% of the winter when safety cannot be improved by simply slowing down a little I don't think it's worth the money to get snow tires. Just stay home or carpool with someone else. This coming from someone who has received speeding tickets in snow storms. Most people here and elsewhere kind of suck at driving in the snow.

It's just physics...

Morgan Patterson wrote:To the OP, you might want to check out Nokian tires. They make a year round tire that is winter rated. I run them on my subaru and they are amazing in deep snow and last four years or so. nokiantires.com/winter-tire…

I second that for the Nokian's!! Best winter tires around. I have the Hakkapeliitta R's on a second set of wheels for my Audi. They are a studless ice tire. I drive approx. 35,000 miles a year and this is the 3rd season that I will get out of them. With Quattro and these tires I have NO problem going 5-10 mph over any speed limit in almost any conditions.

jmeizis wrote: Correlation doesn't equal causation but perhaps people get overconfident.

Of course people get overconfident, most drivers are complete idiots. It doesn't mean we should all drive sports cars with summer tires to go skiing.

Snow tires are noticeably more sticky than all seasons in winter driving. Necessary? No. Nice to have? Yes. Worth it? Depends on how much money you have. Same as the latest climbing shoes, cams, clothes, cars, skis, etc.

I usually put the studded tires on in early November and off in April. My "summer tires" are already snow rated so they can be used year round. The studded tires are the best on ice.

The shop where I bought my studded tires doesn't even use an impact wrench because they claim it over-tightens the bolts, or something like that. They tighten all the lug nuts by hand!

Nokian Hakkapeliittas are great, so are Michelin X-Ice. My own winter driving setup is 4 high quality studless winter tires (like the two I just named) on their own steel rims for most winter driving, and a set of chains in the trunk for when things get really nasty. Studs are great if most of your driving is on unplowed roads or on ice, but they wear out in a hurry on bare pavement and they damage paved roads. I'm not sure how well they grip on bare pavement, either.

John Byrnes wrote: I have a compressor and impact wrench. It's the other stuff that takes the rest of the time: positioning Bose box, pulling the snows out of storage area, getting tools out, backing out the car, jacking front up, lowering front, jacking back up, lowering back, putting summer tires away, putting tools away, putting Bose back. I need a minion to do the grunt-work. The position's open, Morgan. Nokian makes a studded snow, the Haakapelita. I used them for decades but they're hard to find now. I use Hankooks now, really like 'em.

I'm all for minion work but the pay has to be good, like milk chocolate and cookies good.

I would add the stock Conti's on my subaru were fu*kin awful, my suby ended up stuck in the white many times, hydroplaning at 55mph, just horrible. The first time I put on the WRG2 (all season winter rated nokian) I truly understood exactly what a winter tire meant... All the funny slipping of the subaru awd system were gone, hydroplaning no more even at 75, and the car can easily travel 60mph on totally snowed out unplowed highways w/ striaght traction and little slip. Honestly, I'll probably never run a regular tire in the winter again.

My personal opinion is people who say its all the same really have no idea of the difference and should be ignored ;-P. And sometimes slowing down isn't an option, like having to drive 350mi both ways on the weekend to slay freshies in the burliest storms. You can't drive 30-40mph for 350mi on a firday night and expect to make it for first chair.