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Article #8Re: snow tires
From: Gordon V. Cormack
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1985 16:16
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1985 16:16
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> In snow, narrow tall tires are best. The narrower the tire, the > more bite they will have into snow, since the weight on each tire > will be distributed over a smaller contact patch. Tall tires help > raise your car and give you improved ground clearance. > Jack Saltiel Not true. Two tires with the same pressure will have the same contact area. The wide tires will have a wide, short contact patch while the skinny tires will have a longer patch. Which is more desirable is a difficult question to answer. Other than increasing pressure (which I heartily recommend), the way to get higher contact pressures is to choose a tire with an open block tread design and heavy belts. If, for example, only half of the contact area has tread (the rest is grooves), the pressure on the parts of the tread contacting the ground is double that of an untreaded (slick) tire. I quit using snow tires about 10 years ago. Instead, I choose a steel-belted radial with a tread as described above (all-season radials don't meet my criteria). Some tires I have had are Uniroyal 180, Can. Tire Supreme (european sized), Michelin TRX. These were all wonderful. I have never been stuck in snow that was shallower than the underbelly of the car. Even in much deeper snow, I have done pretty well. During the 10 years I have lived in Winnipeg, Montreal, and Waterloo, so I think I have seen as much snow as most readers are likely to.
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmum.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!watnot!watmum!gvcormack From: gvcormack@watmum.UUCP (Gordon V. Cormack) Newsgroups: net.auto.tech Subject: Re: snow tires Message-ID: <289@watmum.UUCP> Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 12:16:01 EDT Article-I.D.: watmum.289 Posted: Tue Oct 15 12:16:01 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 05:06:35 EDT References: <314@g.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA> <187@cdstar.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 27