pacemark snows (was BFG winter slalom)

[Lawrence C Leung]

Dan,

I have run 4 sets of Kelly (which I now understand is part of Goodyear)
Pacemarks for winter tires. Two sets on my '84 4KQ, on the 2nd set on my
200Q. Have had excellent results on the 4KQ in 185/65-14. Climbed into
and out of ditches with over 18 inches of snow in them, over steep hills
in Binghamton with over 8 inches of fresh snowfall (HAD to go play!) and
respectable results on ice (now common in the Southern Tier with both the
4KQ, and the 200Q. In what little snow the 200 has faced (Gee I hate
having returned to Hudson Valley. Haven't been able to locally cross
country ski for over 2 years now) it has felt stable, but nimble,
actually subjectively more nimble than it does in the dry. Dry
performance is respectable, tossable, and wet is about on par with most
other snows I have used (Conti Contact TS 740, Vredestein Snow+ and
SnowStar+), not quite as good as Michelin Alpins. Dry about a little less
precise than the Alpins. In snow, TOTALLY blows the Alpins away in
stability and traction, about the same in braking. Added benefit. At
least from what I've heard about Sam's prices, boy are they cheap!

Now, I am about due to replace mine, although in a recent 33 degree rainy
day, they still seemed alright (they are about 4 years old, still have
adequate tread depth, but I question the compounding of ANY snow after
about 3 seasons), so if you can get me a price on a set of 4 in 195/65-15
that beats about $302 mounted, I may JUST have to bite. I betting you
ended up at the Sam's in Fishkill, right?

HTH!

LL - NY

BTW - oh I forgot, they are a little noisy. Kind of like listening to
your turbo wind up all of the time. 
- Incidentally, I only used the diff locks twice to get moving in the 4KQ
with the Pacemarks. Once, to just make sure I got out of the ditch I
parked over (didn't seem to make a difference) and on that snowy Bingo
day, I used it at the top of a steep (I'd bet about 10-12%) grade that
had a stop sign and a right angle turn to get onto the main road. It
moved without the diff lock, but I had to impress the Accord that tried
to follow me up the hill and was TOTALLY ticked off that I stopped at the
stop sign. He must have been even MORE ticked off when I took off like a
bat outta hell with the tail hung out. As I drove away, he was STILL at
the intersection. Awwww, too bad!