Winter Tires or All Season?

[Clark]

Why would some people chose to keep summer tires and winter tires instead of just going with all season? This is my first time in many years that I have had a vehicle that will see snow/slush on a daily basis. Last vehicle was a Jeep so I didn't change tires on it.

Looking at getting some factory take offs and getting the Blizzaks, but some people here told me to just get some all seasons. Was looking at getting 255/50R19 to replace my Kumhos. Only all season I can find(that will ship to me) in that size are Continental ExtremeContact DWS. I have no idea if those tires are worth a d@mn or not.

Question is, should I just replace my Kumhos with an all season, or do the summer/winter tire thing?

Thanks,

Clark

[BLM]

Why would some people chose to keep summer tires and winter tires instead of just going with all season? This is my first time in many years that I have had a vehicle that will see snow/slush on a daily basis. Last vehicle was a Jeep so I didn't change tires on it.

Looking at getting some factory take offs and getting the Blizzaks, but some people here told me to just get some all seasons. Was looking at getting 255/50R19 to replace my Kumhos. Only all season I can find(that will ship to me) in that size are Continental ExtremeContact DWS. I have no idea if those tires are worth a d@mn or not.

Question is, should I just replace my Kumhos with an all season, or do the summer/winter tire thing?

Thanks,

Clark

IMO it all depends on where you live. In Northern VT, with our (mostly dirt) roads, All Seasons won't cut it. A true winter tire is made of softer rubber and provides much better grip on ice. If you simply have some snow, slush and wet, they might be fine. We live on ice from Dec-Feb and I have the Blizzaks on my AWD Journey which gives better handling than All Season tires on my 4WD Suburban. If you have ice I'd go with a true winter tire. However, you may have to get another set of rims...they didn't have 19" winters last year when I got mine.

[smitty77]

I'll second what BLM said. We live a tad further south in north/central Massachusetts, so we get a little more ice and mixed precip than they do in Vermont where it's mostly snow. We ran Blizzak REVO-1 tires on my wife's PT Cruiser and it made a world of difference! Traction on packed snow and ice was outstanding! Most everyday tires are branded M+S (mud and snow) or "All Season" but there is no comparison to the traction offered by the softer rubber compound of winter tires, IMO. And the REVO-1 doesn't have a super-aggressive tread design so they ride and handle about as good as all season tires. No annoying humming on the highway at all.

We just bought a 2010 AWD SXT and I'm torn over getting through the first winter with the factory Kumho's (only 370 miles on them right now) or to go out and get a set of Blizzaks. We don't drive much in the snow, but with the AWD we might be more tempted. The REVO-1 are now are now referred to by a different name, but here's the write-up at TireRack.com:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+REVO+1

And TireRack is awesome to deal with. I bought tires from them twice, and the service has been excellent. Shipped by UPS ground and they arrived on my doorstep in 2 days for the snows. My summer combo of alloys and BF Goodrich tires came in 3 days, mounted and balanced by them. If you look for deals, they're often cheaper after shipping than most local shops around me for the same tire.

Good luck!

Matt