New snow tires ..... wow!

A few weeks ago I got 4 extra OEM rims from a local salvage yard, and we put on them 4 ContiWinterViking II tires. 

Because of the weather forecast for today, last night I mounted the 4 winter wheels on the car for the first time.  Sure enough, overnight Edmonton got a blast of wind and snow - a real blizzard. 

After clearing the snow from our driveway and sidewalk, my wife and I jumped in the car (92 Accord LX 4AT) and went for a ride on some of Edmonton's completely un-plowed "streets".

To be brief, these snow tires are simply fantastic!  The manufacturer puts the studs in the tires, and I must say that the performance of these studded snow tires cannot be beaten on snowy and icy roads. 

I intentionally drove through some pretty deep, drifted snow along the edges of the pavement - right near the old snow windrows - and the snow tires simply found their way through it like a hot knife through butter (or snow).  I even slowed the car down to almost stopping as I did this, and the car still continued forward without even spinning the wheels.

A few intersections had become very slippery because of the hard-packed snow being "polished" by the spinning and sliding tires of the traffic.  Here the value of the conti's specially-shaped studs was quite apparent.  I did not slide or spin unless I intentionally jammed on the brakes, or hit the gas heavily on acceleration. 

Pretty fast cornering in these god-awful conditions was very controllable and secure - no surprises whatsoever doing manueuvers I'd never try with all-seasons.

I would not say that driving on these tires in snowy and icy conditions is the equivalent of the performance of all-season tires on bone-dry pavement, but it comes about as close to that as snow-tire-technology can achieve - good enough so that I know that I will never go unexpectedly out of control, regardless of how deep the snow is, or how slick the surface. 

I recommend these tires with no reservations whatsoever.

that's really good to know for us cold weather guys.... right now my aquatreads are getting me from A to B but not very well *L* If you don't mind me asking how much did the tires cost you?

Nasty, the tires were approximately $110 USD apiece.  I'll bet you can find them for much less in the US.
 
There are two other fantastic winter tires:
 
The Nokian Hak 4's http://www.nokiantyres.com/passengercars_product_en?product=610495&name=NOKIAN+HAKKAPELIITTA+4  (which are soon to be replaced by the awsome Hak 5 http://www.hakkapeliitta5.com/) 
 
The other is the he Gislaved Nordfrost 3's. (now owned by Continental, I think): http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/com/en/gislaved/automobile/themes/pc_tyres/winter/nord_frost_3/master_nf3_en.html
 
BTW, my wife has driven several times over the past couple of days on our poor city streets.  After each trip, she's just raved about our new snow tires.
 
I do not want to wear out the winter tires on dry pavement, so because it only takes me about 20 minutes, I plan to swap the snows for the all-seasons as soon as the roads are acceptable for them.

Well, I intstalled and removed our new set of winter tires/wheels three times this past (I hope it's "past") winter.

In their infinite wisdom, the brilliant Concillors of the City of Edmonton have decided that only the main roads of the city will be plowed.  Unless their condition is literally impassable to emergency vehicles, residential streets are not plowed.  Yes, you heard that right.

So the main streets - the roads where one drives a lot faster - become bone dry withing days of plowing, but the residential streets are still nearly impossible to negotiate without snow tires.  Do you get my "drift" here?

What this means pracitcally, of course, is that if one wants to be very safe in the residential areas, one's snow tires have to endure a lot of dry-pavement - bad for snow tires.
 
I had the snow tires on the car a grand total of three weeks this winter. 
 
Was it worth it?  Honestly, I don't know.