On Sun, Oct 24, 2004 at 09:09:05AM -0500, Fred Talmadge wrote:
Your document name is incorrect it's:
http://96trees.com/lotus/W401.pdf
As one that has a lot of experience with snow tires; I live in
the Colorado mountains, and drive on them 6-7 months out of the year,
I'll give this one a shot.
The problem with snow tires on dry pavement is the depth of
tread. The tread blocks flex under load which helps them grip in snow,
and also helps them throw out packed snow. Because of the tread flex a
friend describes them as like driving on scrub brushes. There is
easily a 20% drop in traction from reasonable all-seasons. This based
on my subjective feel driving the same dry roads with both types of
tires not empirical data. This is on a large 4wd audi, not a
lotus. Additionally I run 16" wheels with snows in higher profile, and
17" summers so that may add in to the feel and reduced grip.
The real issue is that the large blocks also build up heat
because of the soft compound and flex. This isn't a problem when the
outside air temp is low as they cool quickly and in snow the heat
helps clear the treads. Running them in hot conditions will make them
break down and chuck. They are also quite noisy. So unless they were
shaved down to rational tread depths there by reducing their life to a
few thousand miles, I wouldn't do this.
fwiw: Hankook are pretty good snow tires, I run them on a
Subaru outback and they perform well as snow tires.
fj..
--
"Don't close your eyes for the crash; you'll miss the best part"
-- Bruce MacInnes, Skip Barber Driving School instructor
Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2004 2:16 pm