Tires for skier living in warm climate?

[luvsuv]

Newbie here seeking advise. I'm not a newbie to snow, having living in snow country for over 10 years, but new to AWD CX 5. Now that we move to sunny CA, we travel to the ski slopes whenever there are nice snow storms brewing. It's always challenging to drive up the icy and snowy twisty highways. The worst part is getting in and out of the cabin, located high up on the hill where snow plows are seldom seen until all the main roads are cleared. Even my Chevy 4x4 truck and our Subaru with good tires get stuck at times.

What do you recommend for someone who spends 95% of the time on pavements and less than 5% in snow every winter? Thanks in advance.

 

[luvsuv]

Forgot to say that changing tires for each trip is out of questions for me. I don't have room for a second set of tires and I'm too busy and too lazy to change them even if I did. Are there some thing that are good compromise (certain all-weather) you would recommend?

 

[piotrek91]

Newbie here seeking advise. I'm not a newbie to snow, having living in snow country for over 10 years, but new to AWD CX 5. Now that we move to sunny CA, we travel to the ski slopes whenever there are nice snow storms brewing. It's always challenging to drive up the icy and snowy twisty highways. The worst part is getting in and out of the cabin, located high up on the hill where snow plows are seldom seen until all the main roads are cleared. Even my Chevy 4x4 truck and our Subaru with good tires get stuck at times.

What do you recommend for someone who spends 95% of the time on pavements and less than 5% in snow every winter? Thanks in advance.

I would recommend regular all season tires and a set of Z style cables with a rubber tightener for getting up to the cabin when it's really slippery.

The Z cables I have for my CX-5 are super easy to put on/take off (done in 5 min)

 

[MikeM.]

Are there some thing that are good compromise (certain all-weather) you would recommend?

All weather tires are going to wear quickly in the summer heat and provide dismal summer performance. If you absolutely refuse to run summer and winter sets, just get some all seasons that are known to be better than average in snow (like the Conti's) and get some good tire chains and familiarize yourself with their operation. But this is an unacceptable compromise if you will be in fast moving traffic on icy/slushy/snowy highways because chains are limited to very slow speeds.

I really wish people who planned to drive in winter conditions took that responsibility more seriously...

 

[fdew]

A friend of mine bought hakkapeliittas for a Audi A4 and then moved to CA. He didn't want to waste so he ran them. He said the worked well in the summer. I think the wrong tires in snow is much more dangerous then the wrong sires on hot dry roads so I would run hakkapeliittas.

 

[luvsuv]

A friend of mine bought hakkapeliittas for a Audi A4 and then moved to CA. He didn't want to waste so he ran them. He said the worked well in the summer. I think the wrong tires in snow is much more dangerous then the wrong sires on hot dry roads so I would run hakkapeliittas.

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know anything about Hakkapeliittas & had to look it up. My Audi A4 has the all seasons Pirelli and it performs much worse than my old Outbback with similar all seasons tires in deep snow. The Hakkapeliittas website says:
SUPREMELY SAFE NON-STUDDED TIRE ON ICE AND SNOW
SUPREME HANDLING ON WET AND DRY ROADS
LOWEST ROLLING RESISTANCE, SMALLEST FUEL CONSUMPTION
That sounds really good. I may have put them on either the CX 5 or the A4.

 

[fdew]

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know anything about Hakkapeliittas & had to look it up. My Audi A4 has the all seasons Pirelli and it performs much worse than my old Outbback with similar all seasons tires in deep snow. The Hakkapeliittas website says:
SUPREMELY SAFE NON-STUDDED TIRE ON ICE AND SNOW
SUPREME HANDLING ON WET AND DRY ROADS
LOWEST ROLLING RESISTANCE, SMALLEST FUEL CONSUMPTION
That sounds really good. I may have put them on either the CX 5 or the A4.

My friend with the A4 called me one day and said his Hakkapeliittas almost caused him to be in a accident. He was on I90 and two cars in front of him had a accident and stopped quickly. He got on the brakes hard and stopped safely. He looked in the mirror and saw a caw with wheels locked sliding towards him. He started back up and drove around the accident on the shoulder and when track to see if he could help. Sure enough the car that was sliding toward him hit the othe two cars. Good tires.

 

[ColtX-5]

Have a look at Michelin LT-X M+S. They make a size that is one away from the OEM 19" that will fit. I ran them on an old 4x4 Ford and drove is like a Mustang on dry roads, but they did well enough in the snow and had great life, considering how I treated them.

 

[kdaug]

Newbie here seeking advise. I'm not a newbie to snow, having living in snow country for over 10 years, but new to AWD CX 5. Now that we move to sunny CA, we travel to the ski slopes whenever there are nice snow storms brewing. It's always challenging to drive up the icy and snowy twisty highways. The worst part is getting in and out of the cabin, located high up on the hill where snow plows are seldom seen until all the main roads are cleared. Even my Chevy 4x4 truck and our Subaru with good tires get stuck at times.

What do you recommend for someone who spends 95% of the time on pavements and less than 5% in snow every winter? Thanks in advance.

While I run separate winter tires one tire that looks to have a aggressive tread pattern and might be a good choice for both winter snow and summer is the Bridgestone Dueler H/L Ecopia 422. I saw them at COSTCO, but they are also listed on TireRack and Discount Tire.

 

[rickprins]

I put Continental Tru Contacts on my 2014 Touring CX-5 this winter and have been very pleased with them. I'm in Michigan so the snow grip is great and the ride, handling, and low noise are excellent on the dry (or wet).