Hi,

My wife and I love our 08 xB, and I have to give it credit for decent handling on snow and ice, it was far better than I expected.

I am thinking about investing in some dedicated snow/ice tires for when the roads are nasty. Around here we have this issue of not ever getting our roads plowed. So when it snows, the snow stays on the road, melts, gets ruts from other drivers, refreezes, and generally becomes nasty to drive on until it gets warm enough to melt off.

My concern is ground clearance with the xB. I think the factory spec is just over 5" as I recall. I wouldn't mind having a spare set of tires for snow/ice driving and changing them out in my garage if I needed to.

What do you guys recommend? I would think a taller tire to get a little more ground clearance would be a good thing as long as it doesn't rub anywhere. I'm not sure if studded tires are a good choice or not or even if they are legal here or not (Oklahoma). Or if tire chains should be considered or not.

I just want to have a solution to when we get tons of snow. I would think about another vehicle better suited for snow if there isn't a good xB solution compared to that, but the xB has handled nicely for me when I've had to have it out. I just want to enhance its capability...

Thanks,

Alan

 

I've been driving my lowered tC in the snow for the past 5 winters, here is my experience. I've had two types of snow tires on the car both made by Bridgestone. The WS-50 and the LM-25. The WS had phenomenal deep snow and ice traction. They lasted about two seasons for their usable snow tread which I was happy with. Bridgestone puts two wear indicators on their tires, one that shows when the usable snow tread is worn off (approx. 6/32nds) and the other when the tire is at the end of its life (2/32nds?). Since I was doing more highway driving I switched to the LM25 their performance snow tire. I wanted better wear and high speed stability which is what the LM offered at a sacrifice of deep snow and ice traction. I haven't had any problem with them in the three winters I've driven on them. You just have to remember that no matter what kind of technology or tires you have, the best device for controlling a car in bad weather is the driver.

 

I love my Bridgestone Blizzak tires I have on my tC. I have had them for three years and they handle great and I can get around very well in my car. I live in MN so I know what you mean about horrible winter driving conditions.

 

^^^^^ What he said. I had these on another car and accidently went past my driveway I was to turn in for at work. I did framing so roads never got plowed on roads I was on. Had blizzzaks on and reversed it up a steep hill on a sheet of ice/snow mix without a problem. I swear by those tires. Love them

 

Hi,

Do you guys run into any ground clearance issues? I think the spec for the xB is 5.1" or so. How _much_ snow could you get through even with Blizzak's ?

If I get the tires for dedicated "heavy snow only", meaning they get very little if any drive time on dry roads, and quite possibly 5 days a year drive time, would it be worth looking at a larger tire for more height/ground clearance? If so, how big can you go without issues?

Thanks,

Alan

 

I think if you are going to be dealing with that deep of snow on a regular basis you might want a vehicle with more ground clearance. I've personally never driven in snow much deeper than 4 inches, if its that bad I usually stay in. As far as running an over-sized tire I don't think you'd gain that much ground clearance with the tires that safely fit the xb2. tirerack dot com has some good tire size information. and 1010tires dot com has a size calculator that is useful for finding out the percentage over size in relation to the original spec tire.

 

I personally consider General Altimax Arctic snow tires to be among the very best available. Use what ever profile best suits your needs, but keep in mind fender clearance and speedometer reading impact. I went with a 5% taller profile and have to allow for the resulting under reading speedometer when they're on the car.