hi there - trying to figure out the best way to handle driving weekly or bi-weekly from san francsico to south lake tahoe/kirkwood during the winter. snow tires seem to be the obvious choice, but 80% of the drive to tahoe is on dry or maybe wet freeways. once in tahoe, the snow can hit any time and the road to kirkwood and to the ski house is usually snowy. there's often chain controls going over the passes. can i put snow tires on and leave them on all winter, even for driving around the bay area?
thanks

 

Seems like you could just get a good set of "all weather" tires and just put on chains when needed?

 

Here is an option we are looking at for both Hubby's Soul and MY MINI...www.spikes-spiders.com, yes, they are a bit $$$, but if you are going to be doing this drive for a length of time I think it will be worth the added cost over chains.

 

thanks for the replies.
The spiders look good as opposed to chains.

Do the stock 15" all season continentals count as good ones?

Even with the spider spikes, I still think winter tires may be necessary for the ride to kirkwood. A couple of passes that get quite hairy in a storm. Not to mention the 50 just before entering south lake. steep and snowy and the plows don't always get out there right away. often, they wait till the snow stops.
I don't want to have to keep stopping to remove spiders in order to go over 30 mph when the road gets better, then back on when it funks up again. that's how that ride goes...

 

On this topic, if I'm driving to Tahoe from the Bay Area over Thanksgiving break...will my regular set of tires work? I believe they are just standard all weather tires, and I can't really afford to buy snow tires for one trip to Tahoe.
Should I get chains? Borrow another car?

Thanks!

 

ok, in case anyone else needs this info...
I called 2 bay area mini dealers' part depts and they were useless. one has the reco'd small link tire chains for $220+tax. I've found them searching online for $90.
someone posted a link to cables which sound good: scc super z6 cable chains.
and then there's the spider spikes - $475 for the ones reco'd for my car (15"). wow.
lastly, I called my local tire shop and he said that with good, newish all-seasons marked 'M&S' I just need a traction device. This is specific to the bay area. mind, he's probably never driven over the south lake tahoe passes in a snow storm, but looks like I'm going to try the cable chains with the current all-seasons and see how it goes.

ps - @sjkar, yes you need chains.

 

A few thoughts:

o There are a wide variety of winter tires, but this tire category is distinguished from "all- season" tires by having heavily "siped" tread. This substantially improves traction in severe winter conditions:
see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siping_(rubber)>

o If you poke around on the Tire Rack web site, there's a test of dedicated winter tires vs. all seasons vs. summer tires - tested under both snowy and icy conditions, as I recall. The winter tires DO make a significant difference.

o There are winter tires that will do fine on dry pavement. They're not going to handle like a summer tire or last like an all-season, but they'd be fine driving back and forth to Tahoe. Obviously, they'd last longer if they were only used on the weekends.

o I once rented a 4WD Jeep to go to the Sierra's. It had all-season tires on it. Coming down the mountain on our way home, the CHP halted traffic due to icy road conditions. As we sat there, stopped on the road, I felt the Jeep slowly crabbing sideways across the road, drawn by gravitational forces in the downhill direction of the road crown. Mind you, this was with my foot firmly on the brake pedal! I became a believer in winter tires that day!

o It would be worth checking what the CHP accepts for various winter road conditions. I believe they rate winter road conditions over a range of 1 to 4 (4), with 4 being the worst. I also believe you're supposed to carry chains under all conditions, but depending on whether the vehicle is 2WD or 4WD, and perhaps the type of tire on the car, the chains are only required to be used under the more severe conditions. But I seem to recall that the use of winter / snow tires didn't buy you anything in their rating system over all-seasons, despite the fact that the winter tires are superior under winter conditions.

o I live in San Jose. If your car takes 15" wheels, I happen to have a spare set of winer tires and wheels I've been meaning to post in the classifieds. The rims are Mini 7-hole rims (aka "holies") mounted with Hankook Icebear W300 winter tires. Both are in like-new condition. I thought I was going to be driving to the Sierra's in the winter myself, but my plans changed.

Regards,

Alan