July 2011 Mailbag - Letters to the Editor
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July 2011 Mailbag - Letters to the Editor
April Fools, Randy Fools, Jeep Chix, and More!Snow Tired
Christian Hazel did a great job on “Choose Your Weapon” (April ’11). I am sure he cleared up a lot of misinformation on tire buying. With over 50 years of tire experience using both the right and wrong tires, I am pretty much in agreement with what he had to say. Being a Southern California transplant to Montana some 20 years ago, I had to add a new word to my vocabulary—snow! For about six months out of the year it becomes something to deal with on a daily basis. But not all snow is the same, so one tire does not fit all. My finding: for highway driving, a narrow tire with lots of siping and lots of sharp edges and channels to direct the water out of the tread (remember snow turns to water). A narrow tire applies more ground pressure and bites through the snow down to pavement. Dedicated snow tires like the General Altimax Arctic work super great and are well worth the money. When in the deep stuff, wider is better and it’s similar to driving in sand or at times mud. There are places and types of snow that require different tires and different driving techniques. Generally speaking, you want a tire that will grab the snow, hold it in for one turn of the tire, and then discharge it. Why? Well snow-to-snow has a lot more traction than rubber-to-snow. Take a snowball and stick it to another snowball, like when building a snowman. Now try sticking that snowball to the side of the tire and watch it fall off. However, if the tire holds the snow too long, it turns to ice, and ice-to-snow offers very little traction. So the tire has to be self-cleaning. All the tires that he mentioned I have firsthand experience with, and they do work quite well. Tires like the IROK with its rounded shoulders offer superior flotation in the snow, with no cupping in the center when aired down. The small sipes and staggered blocks aid in traction. Its downfall is the fact that the tread blocks are a bit far apart. Good for self cleaning in mud and grabbing rocks, but depending on the temperature of the snow and the moisture content, will not always hold enough snow. Still they are my overall choice and now stay on year around on my Jeep. Beadlocks are the only way to go if one is serious about running super low pressures in the snow. It’s no fun trying to reseat a tire back on the rim when it’s dropped down two feet into the snow.
Willie Worthy
Evaro, MT
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April Fools, Randy Fools, Jeep Chix, and More!Snow Tired
Christian Hazel did a great job on “Choose Your Weapon” (April ’11). I am sure he cleared up a lot of misinformation on tire buying. With over 50 years of tire experience using both the right and wrong tires, I am pretty much in agreement with what he had to say. Being a Southern California transplant to Montana some 20 years ago, I had to add a new word to my vocabulary—snow! For about six months out of the year it becomes something to deal with on a daily basis. But not all snow is the same, so one tire does not fit all. My finding: for highway driving, a narrow tire with lots of siping and lots of sharp edges and channels to direct the water out of the tread (remember snow turns to water). A narrow tire applies more ground pressure and bites through the snow down to pavement. Dedicated snow tires like the General Altimax Arctic work super great and are well worth the money. When in the deep stuff, wider is better and it’s similar to driving in sand or at times mud. There are places and types of snow that require different tires and different driving techniques. Generally speaking, you want a tire that will grab the snow, hold it in for one turn of the tire, and then discharge it. Why? Well snow-to-snow has a lot more traction than rubber-to-snow. Take a snowball and stick it to another snowball, like when building a snowman. Now try sticking that snowball to the side of the tire and watch it fall off. However, if the tire holds the snow too long, it turns to ice, and ice-to-snow offers very little traction. So the tire has to be self-cleaning. All the tires that he mentioned I have firsthand experience with, and they do work quite well. Tires like the IROK with its rounded shoulders offer superior flotation in the snow, with no cupping in the center when aired down. The small sipes and staggered blocks aid in traction. Its downfall is the fact that the tread blocks are a bit far apart. Good for self cleaning in mud and grabbing rocks, but depending on the temperature of the snow and the moisture content, will not always hold enough snow. Still they are my overall choice and now stay on year around on my Jeep. Beadlocks are the only way to go if one is serious about running super low pressures in the snow. It’s no fun trying to reseat a tire back on the rim when it’s dropped down two feet into the snow.
Willie Worthy
Evaro, MT
July 2011 Mailbag - Letters to the Editor | Digg It | Add to del.icio.us
More...