2000 Blazer with Kumho tires that are two years old and have 50% of
tread per my local tire place. Snow traction is absolutely horrible
for stopping and turns, I have to slow down to a near stop to take a
curve on the backroads. I know it was a year ago, but it has never
had such bad traction and I am driving very very slow when this is
happening and I am in 4x4.

My question is if it is not my tires, could there be another cause for
bad snow traction such as alignment or stabilizer issue? I'm trying
to figure out what course of action I should take to figure out what I
can do to make my winter driving not as much of a whitenuckle
experience. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

What is your tire pressure?
Maybe they are worn more than 50% for snow use.

When I told my tire store I wanted a tire that was both quiet on the highway
and also very good in the snow they suggested Dayton Timberline AT W/L and
per Cooper Discover ATR. However, how come I can't find any reviews on
these two brands/tires on tiretrack or other online sources? Are they
crap? or not a mainstream tire?

I have a Chevy 2500HD 4x4. I run the best 4 season tires I can find.
Lately, this has been Michelin. The point I am making is that even
with new tires, I can get unacceptable snow traction unless I put some
weight in the bed of my truck.

I put about 750lb in the bed of my truck & with good tires, I get
excellent traction in the snow. Adjust the weight for your Blazer.

Amount of tread has NOTHING to do with traction on snow. Type and cut of
tread does.

You can have brand new tires on a vehicle with an inch of tread and be
useless in snow/ice. How the tread is broken up and siped makes the
difference. For snow and ice you want tread that has lots of small sipes
in the large tread blocks. The large blocks need to be spaced out to
be self cleaning and you also don't want large unbroken grooves running
the diameter of the tread.

If you look at the mud tires sold you might think those huge thread
blocks would be great in snow. In actuality they are terrible. The
reason being that they self clean too fast and the lugs place too much
stress on small areas of the snow pack for them to be effective.

The problem your having is likely from the tires. Regardless of what a
tire store told you. Bad alignment would have shown up with bad tire
wear and noise and your current set of tires would not have 50% of the
tread left.

--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York


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I thought it was as simple as the compound freezing?? If you run all season
tires with a rubber compound that freezes when the mercury dips below zero,
you won't have any bite/traction. Steve's comments about siping are dead on
also especially on ice. The worst thing about ice is the water on it. Good
snow/ice tires will remove the water from the ice so that the rubber
compound (designed to stay soft below zero) will grip the now 'dry' ice. If
you want to improve your traction by 100%, try a dedicated snow tires or air
down your all seasons and put some weight in the back of the truck.

Good luck.
Andrew.

On 17/11/08 1:47 PM, in article
3e30dbf9-b20c-4e64-86d2-1d460f20c879...oglegroups.com, "patty