more Ta'rs questions...

[Peter_C_Schulz@ccmail.ed.ray.com]

Since tire thread hasn't been totally beaten to death...

My office-mate is quite the off-road afficiando.  We were discussing how 
a snow tire works. We're stumped at this point.

I had always been told that the best tires for snow are those that are 
narrow and tall with plenty of small and deep elements (siping) to break 
up the snow and "punch thru" it. 

My office mate has driven with his mudder tires on his 4x4 in the snow 
(big, chunky tread blocks, lots of open tread area. Granted, the tires 
are oversized, and probably have a much lower ground pressure per inch 
than "normal snows". Any way, what I learned about his tires would 
indicate that they should be at least ok in the snow.

Well, not in his experience.  He said that absolutely no snow sticks to 
them, and to "drive well in snow, you need the snow on the ground 
sticking to the snow in the tire.

My brand new BF Goodrich Comp TA VR4s (ok, so they're all seasons, but 
I'm still trying to make a point) shed snow like crazy, and I've never 
had better traction  on any car, including those with snow tires on all 
four wheels (quattro probably deserves some of the credit, but then my 
officemate was in four wheel drive...)

His reasoning about snow on snow for traction makes no sense to me. If 
you compress snow enough, you essentially end up with ice, and water on 
ice - no traction what so ever (without studs/chains).

Granted, we're probably missing something here, since Bridgestone has 
proven the importance of rubber compounds in their new Blizzak...

Inquiring minds want and need to know...

Peter Schulz
1990 Silver Coupe Q