[andjayik]

Wanna get some used winter tires for my escape but my tire depot has only all terrain tires right now. Will they work just as good with the agressive tread design?

 

[kkreit01]

Depends. Which make/model? Some have the "snowflake" symbol. In general most dedicated winter tires will be better for winter driving. (duh). ATs are typically better for all-around driving. There are trade-offs. Some winter tires are poor handling, or wear quickly while driving on dry roads at highway speeds, and are noisy.

Notice how I use "some", and "in general" a lot. It all depends on the tire. There are many poor and good tires out there -- across all categories.

 

[sleeve]

Really depends on how cold it gets in your area. I'm in Detroit and use Firestone Destination A/T's on the Liberty and do just fine in winter. But the colder it gets, the harder a AT rubber gets. A winter tire is designed to be pliable even in extreme cold as well as containing extra siping for added traction on ice.

Things to consider:

1) How much used tread left on the winter tires
2) A/T's cost [newer is always more expensive right?]
3) Past experience in your area on different tires - you will be the real judge of how much added benefit you will get.

 

[Squishy]

ATs are useless for the kind of weather Toronto gets. I would rather drive on all-seasons than A/Ts, as the A/T tread pattern is good for deep snow, making them next to useless on ice and even the slushy stuff you guys get during rush hour snowstorms. My A/Ts can't even handle heavy rain, though they aren't severe-winter rated like BFGs. I imagine the BFGs would be about equal to a regular all-season in Toronto-type winters.

You can still get by for another two months on all-seasons - spend the time and get proper winters.

 

[andjayik]

that's what i thought

 

[sleeve]

ATs are useless for the kind of weather Toronto gets.

Well that answers that question.

Over in Detroit, any snow we get melts typically in a day or so. There's hardly ever any slush or ice on the road's... just the occasional 6" snowfall that we've got to drive though in the early morning (before the plows hit the roads.)

If I lived any further north in Michigan I'd probably opt for a good set of winter tires as well.

 

[Jordan31]

If you can find motomaster Roughrider Radial M+S (got mine from canadian tire, these tires are manufactured by goodyear), they are awesome in the winter. They don't have the snowflake symbol but they still work very well in ontario winter weather. Cheap too.

I've tried to get stuck with these tires and I have not been successful. Ive even tried to do donuts, and the only way i could was to put 4wd to ON and floor it.

 

[Squishy]

Well, there's Ontario weather and then there's Toronto weather. :lol:

Toronto tends to get two or three days a year where there is actually a good amount of fresh snow on the roads - usually it's either mostly melted with random icy spots, or "freshly" fallen snow compacted into a slushy, muddy, salty concoction by all the traffic. A/Ts and the old-school knobby snow tires are good for conditions where you can't hope to get the tires to touch asphalt, but with slush and ice, that stuff fills in the small valleys between the stones in the asphalt to create a smooth surface. You need the siping and contact area of a winter tire to be able to grab onto what little rough surface is left. The BGF A/Ts (and likely other severe snow-rated A/Ts) do have the siping, but lack the contact area of a winter tire.