Hey all, well winter is hear and since I bough my 09 FWD Hybrid right after winter last year I didn't get to find out until this season how unbelievably BAD the stock Michelin tires are in snow and on ice. I've driven rear wheel drive sports cars in the snow that were better than my Escape! I am actually terrified to drive it in the snow. In any case I don't want to spend several hundreds of dollars on snow tires that I am only going to have on for 4 months out of the year so my search led me to Craigslist for a good used set of tires, finding the stock size of 235/70/16 proved to be difficult so I expanded my search to sizes slightly bigger or slightly smaller and found an awesome deal on a set of 245/75/16 which per the tire calculators are about 1.5 inches taller than stock and will alter my speed by about 3 MPH at 60 which isn't too bad. Do you think these tires will be OK as far as fitment in the wheelwell and any other potential problems? Thanks!

 

That has not been my experience, even with the Michelins.
These trucks were designed by the engineers to get by on slippery roads using the 4WD(AWD) option. I believe you are going to continue to be dissatisfied if you think a great set of snow tires on the FWD will even approximate the performance of the AWD model....which I think was available in the 2009MY. Good luck.

 

You live in the Denver area and you purchased a FWD vehicle....mistake...BIG mistake.

Tires might help, but in my opinion not enough to overcome the wintertime HAZARDS of FWD you will encounter in your area.

I would suggest you take yourself to LA and trade that FWD in for a F/awd. No real shortcoming to FWD in that climate and you might be lucky and find a F/awd on an LA dealer's lot that otherwise might not sell quickly.

Then add a manual switch to fully engage/power the rear drive coupling but only when you are driving on a KNOWN slippery surface. With the switch activated should conditions get really dire you will be able to use tire chains, effectively, on the rear without otherwise adding to teh wintertime driving HAZARDS via use of tire chains on the front.

My personal opinion is that summer use tires are so advantageous, more tread contact CSA, throughout the year, my approach is to use those year 'round and rely on tire chains otherwise. Rear chains first/initially, and only add the fronts in REALLY dire situations.

 

Goodyear Fortera Triple Tread tires carry a 60,000 mile warranty and meet the severe winter requirements as shown by the snowflake and mountain label.


The negative of this tire is "it is not a low rolling resistance" model and you could lose 1 mpg or so compared to the stock tires.