Winter wonderland and all-weather tires

February 24, 2022 11:46 AM

Car has worn down studded tires that won't make it another winter. Could all-weather tires be for me?

I live in Anchorage, which has 4-6 months of ice and snow weather and very poorly maintained roads that are packed snow/ice sheets for much of that time. I am an adequate winter driver and the car is AWD. I take the bus instead of driving if the weather is especially bad. (For example, when it's an ice rink a couple times a year I take the bus or cancel.) I don't go off-road and I don't go anywhere more remote than South Anchorage in the winter.

I ride a bike in the summer, but can't avoid driving entirely (mostly tight deadlines and hauling stuff for work.) The ticket for parking on the street with studs in the summer costs the same as four new tires, and these are shot anyway so it's not like I can just leave them on. I would love to avoid tire changeover season. I don't have storage for a second set of tires but might be able to figure something out. The expense either way is kind of equivalent.

Note that I am aware that all-season tires and all-weather tires are different; "all-season" means "except for winter in Alaska." I've heard from locals that all-weather tires are good enough if you have AWD. Are all-weather as good as people say? Good enough to stand in for studs? I'm looking for people with experience of both in places with similar weather to give advice.

posted by blnkfrnk to Travel & Transportation (14 answers total)

I have studless winter tires on my Subaru. This winter I had to tow two friends out of our neighborhood because the hill was icy. They had all weather tires. And even when they put chains on they couldn’t get out on their own. The Subaru had zero issues.

I’d stick with winter tires. Mine have walnut shells embedded in them that give greater traction without wearing down the road like studs do.
posted by MonsieurBon at 12:00 PM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Whoops, also, forgot to ask how warm it gets in the summer. I’ve heard in some places where it doesn’t get too warm, folks just use winter tires all year and deal with increased wear from summer use.
posted by MonsieurBon at 12:02 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

If they're available in the right size for your car, I've had good luck with and can recommend the non-studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas. I've never tried the studded version, though, and I always swapped them out in the summer, but it sounds like the lack of studs would reduce the penalty for leaving them on year-round (other than increased wear).
posted by pullayup at 12:12 PM on February 24, 2022

Response by poster: We may have a couple days over the summer that go to 90F. It's typically 50-60F and raining. Summer is end of May to around Labor Day when it starts to freeze overnight.

You really can't drive with studs here after stud season; it's a reliable way to get a ticket.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:29 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

They aren't cheap, but I've been very happy with Michelin CrossClimate 2. They have been excellent in snow and in summer on my RAV4. I am in upstate New York.
posted by jkent at 1:23 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Ask your local tire shop if they offer tire storage like Les Schwab does. It takes a lot of the pain out of swapping tires seasonally.
posted by Monochrome at 1:51 PM on February 24, 2022

For your location and conditions, all-weather and all-season tires are absolutely not a good idea. Winter tires (where the rubber is a different compound that stays soft at temperatures below 40F for more traction) are the bare minimum. The studs are optional (though extremely helpful on ice) but the winter tires part is not.

If price is the primary consideration, try getting a used set of winter tires for cheap on craigslist or your local equivalent.

If you only want one set of tires, get nonstudded winter tires and drive on them in the summer. They'll wear much faster but that's a better tradeoff than trying to drive on summer tires in the winter.

If you want to avoid lines during changeover season, but can pay a bit more upfront cost, buy a set of steel rims and have a shop mount your winter tires on those. Now you can do your tire changes yourself without going to a shop. The cost balances out over a few years.

Whatever you do, make sure you have winter tires.
posted by danceswithlight at 1:57 PM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta so frozen north, but not Anchorage frozen north. I cannot imagine driving more than to the corner store without winter tires for the winter season. All-season just don't cut it in 90% of winter road types, especially when it gets really cold. We did keep our all-seasons on last winter, but it was the depths of COVID and we were both working from home and doing zero highway driving. If you ever get on a highway and need to avoid wildlife for example, you want your tires to....actually stop your vehicle. This is an area it's worth spending the money.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 2:51 PM on February 24, 2022

I also live north of 60 and would recommend at least winter tires, even with AWD. I've done what's suggested above and ran winter tires year-round until they were worn out, which is maybe OK if you're mostly biking in the summer but the traction in rain isn't as good (and, of course, so hard on the tires). I had all-weather tires and they were pretty noisy in the summer and traction wasn't that great in the winter, so I wouldn't recommend them . I'm running good studded winters now and they are the ticket. I agree that this is worth spending money on.
posted by bighappyhairydog at 3:42 PM on February 24, 2022

I'm in Maine, and kind of sorry I went with all-season tires. Summer tires are way better on rain. Snow tires are way better on snow, and nothing works on ice except studded tires. If you plan to have the car for several more years and can afford 2 sets, it's better, more enjoyable, and safer. If you really don't drive more than a couple hundred miles in summer, just get snow tires.
posted by theora55 at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I live in Anchorage. I, too, have heard locals say this and having borrowed an AWD once that had all-weather tires when my car was in the shop: I would not go with that choice. I really missed my studs. I don’t think you can get through the stuff like we have had the last two weeks without at least winter tires.

I know studs on rims so you can switch them over yourself are expensive and it sucks to store crap, but the rims really make the changeover thing less hectic since you can control the timing. If you can swing it, there’s a reason almost everybody who can make it work financially has two sets here. It just works better.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:12 PM on February 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

We went with Nokians, and I know folks who swear by Blizzaks. This year we didn’t manage to get the winter tires on, and it’s late enough that I don’t think I’m going to bother, but we don’t do a ton of driving and it’s all in town. But Fairbanks has better roads than Anchorage in the winter, even including the inch of ice we got in December.

Summary: given Anchorage weather, I think you shouldn’t rely on AWDs and that you should consider studless winter tires. And that you should change them out in summer because otherwise they’ll get worn out quick and presumably you’re not made of money.
posted by leahwrenn at 8:27 AM on February 25, 2022

Here in northern Scandinavia everyone have two sets of tires and most have studs in the winter.
I would not want to bee without studs in a area with large game, they don't seem to have any sense of self preservation.

Here it is common for the tire changing places to offer storage for the off season tires, for a smal fee. Perhaps there is something like that over there as well.
posted by skaggig at 6:43 AM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yeah, I got three-season tires, tossed the old worn out studs, and I'm going back to the same place for new studs. I'm getting my first PFD this year, so I guess I'll spend it on that...

One cool thing I learned is there's a mobile tire change business that comes to your house, does the job, and takes your other tires to storage, which is worth every penny!
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:43 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]