After searching past posts about snow tires, I couldn't find much about how the TCH does with stock tires. I have the Bridgestone Turanzas with about 8,000 miles on them. They still have plenty of tread left on them. For those of you who have driven in the snow, does the TCH need snow tires? I live in Central Oregon, where we end up with packed snow or ice covered roads on and off throughout the winter. Since the TCH is front wheel drive and has traction control, I was wondering if snow tires (studded or studless) would provide a significant improvement for traction. Typically driving style itself (such as driving slower) seems to be a good tactic, and not much will help on ice covered pavement. Last winter I had studless snow tires on my Tundra, and found they helped, but the Tundra is a totally different vehicle. The TCH is my first car/sedan daily driver so I would like see what you guys have to say.

Jason

I ski a lot in the Cascades and I just went through this same exercise. Here is what I did about it:

My wife has a Forester that we use for skiing, I suscribe to a European Subaru forum as well as this one. This forum is almost all about mountain driving in the Alps and northern Europe. They just completed this survey where these tires came out on top. They beat out the Blizzak by quite a lot, and are the top selling studless snow tire in Europe right now.

http://www.michelinman.com/tires/win...acy-alpin-pa3/

More good news is that they are a direct descendant of the Michlein Energy used on the TCH as an OEM tire. They are also Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) so the mileage change will be minimal. Unfortunately, they are too new for me to comment futher at this point as I am still on my first tank. ....More Later.

It is the ignorant among us that will eventually destroy us all.

I just got to work this morning with my standard Turanzas despite freezing rain and sleet. A few days ago we got about 3" of wet slushy snow and the Turanzas handled decently. My previous car was a pontiac G6 which wouldn't even make it out of my driveway if it had rained the night before. The Camry went right out of my icy driveway (a pretty steep hill) without even the traction control coming on. I'm still undecided whether to get winter tires or not, the Turanzas seem to be pretty decent for a stock tire.

I can't speak directly about the TCH, because I haven't wintered with mine yet, but I can't see it would be any different than any other front wheel drive sedan with traction control, so here's my take. I personally drove more than ten years without winter tires, and thought it was fine. Then I tried winter tires for the first time, and I couldn't believe the difference. I've since driven cars with and without traction control, with and without winter tires. The winter tires always made a significant improvement. I'll never drive another winter without them.

--My hybrid came home!--
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Randy

Have to say, I've never owned snow tires. This is only my second car and only owned a vehicle since 94, but I do live in the Boston area and come from Maine, so plenty of snow driving. As rmorrow said, never having used them I can't really say what it would be like, but my only problem last winter was when I got frozen into an inches-deep puddle and ended up needing AAA to come pull me out. Honestly not sure what it would have taken to get out otherwise, with or without snow tires. So if you're used to snow driving I'd think you could get along without them just fine, but quite possible they'd make a noticable difference.

The aforementioned test only uses the Bridgestone LM-25 which isn't in the same category as the Blizzak WS-50 or Revo. The LM-25 is considered a "performance winter tire" that trades some winter performance for high speed dry performance. Those tires may be a better choice for areas where the snow typically melts after a few days, like the Denver area.

Blizzak Revos perform quite a bit better than LM-25s in tests, illustrating the difference between "studeless winter" and "performance winter" tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...ay.jsp?ttid=80

Actually, there are quite a few clever techniques used in studless winter tires that improves traction even on solid ice. Testing of winter tires is often done on ice skating rinks and they perform quite a bit better than all season tires.

Jason,

I also live in central Oregon. I had my TCH all last winter. As you know last winter was very mild.I did not use snow tires. I used the tires that came with my TCH. ( bridgestone) I had no trouble at all . You can't count on every winter to be like the last. This year I installed Winterforce studded snow tires. When it comes to saftey you can't be too cauious!

If you know how to drive then no... snow tires are not needed. You can take summer tires in the snow and get them to work... just not very well. I know, I've been stuck with summer tires on a day that I didn't think it was going to snow, I just had to drive real slow and never come to a full stop.

All weahter tires will get you through most of the stuff... in heavy snow and ice conditions, nothing compares to a set of snow tires. In fact I would say that if you are not use to snow tires you might find yourself in a bit of trouble because you will be lead into a false sense of security. They feel so good that you might find yourself driving faster then you should. So even with snows you have to be careful but it is a night and day difference.

I too do a lot of skiing at Crystal Mountain. I used my TCH for 8 weeks last year on the OEM tires without any difficulty or incidents. Granted the traction control onlt came on once. I detest studded tires for what they do to our roads in Washington state, rather an individual's driving habiits will determine if they get stuck or have an accident. Snow tires are great if you want them, but the M&S rating is fine for me!