[s-cars] Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3 not good in deep snow

[Taka Mizutani]

How much fresh snow were you driving through?

Not for nothing, my STi couldn't get through 8" of fresh powder easily with
Nokian NRWs- the ones I had were too wide for the weight of the car. I had
to lock the center diff to 50/50 in order to get any sort of stability in
deep snow.

All I know is that my old '86 5ktq was unstoppable with cheap Firestone
Winterforce tires. No problem driving in deep snow- braking, turning,
everything was a piece of cake. That's with the diffs open.

My old A4 1.8T was similar even with Dunlop Wintersport M2 tires- no issues
driving in the snow.

It was really dicey in the Volvo this weekend.

Please keep in mind I said *PILOT* Alpin, not Artic Alpin- everyone seemed
to miss that part.

I'm sure if I was on X Ice 2, I'd be fine. Then again, what do you expect
from V rated snow tires? :-)

Taka



On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 8:09 AM, Joe Pizzimenti <joe.pizzimenti at gmail.com>wrote:

> Had no such issues in my Blizzak LM-60's.  Maybe you want to swap for
> those.
>
> Then again, we didn't get as much up here as you did down there.
>
> On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 7:57 AM, Taka Mizutani <t44tqtro at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Just FYI, since we're talking about snow tires- Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3
>> are
>> not good in deep, fresh powder.
>>
>> Directional stability and braking are poor- the tires cannot handle it.
>>
>> I had to completely disable DSTC (aka traction and yaw control) in order
>> to
>> drive around Saturday- a good 10" of fresh powder on unplowed streets and
>> I
>> had to disable DSTC, put the trans in manual mode and drive rally-style to
>> make it through- carry speed through the corners, accelerate hard and
>> countersteer the whole way around- very hard to do in a car with a long
>> wheelbase and a poor turning circle like my Volvo wagon.
>>
>> They are awesome in the dry, awesome in the rain, but they're really a
>> tire
>> that is only good on plowed streets. Don't drive in deep snow with these
>> tires.
>>
>> I'm thinking about contacting Tire Rack and seeing if I can exchange these
>> for Primacy Alpin or possibly General Artimax.
>>
>> Taka
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>
>