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Mon Dec 05, 2005
18:55
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I finally got around to swapping one set of our snow tires onto
Claire's Golf (that's the black one) tonight. Yesterday we had
our first real accumulation of snow, so I figured it was time. I
normally like to get them on before the first snow, though -
so they're a little late this year. I still have to put our
other set of snow tires on my blue Golf - maybe tomorrow night.
All season tires are fine and all, but a good set of snow tires
just makes an unbelievable difference. This is the 3rd year I've
been running snow tires in the winter, and so far I have used
only
Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50s. Out of all the reviews I read,
they seemed to get the most praise, so I bought one set to use
on the Jetta I used to drive then (the red 95 Jetta that we still own
and use as a spare vehicle). When choosing a size for your snow
tires, in general you want to go skinnier than the standard tire
size for your vehicle. In my case, the stock tire size was
185/60-14 (185 is the width in millimeters, 60 is the percentage
of the width that makes up the sidewall height, and 14 is the
diameter of the wheel they are designed to fit, in inches) so
I went for 175/65-14. A narrower tire gives you an advantage in
snow and slush, because it cuts through with less of a "plowing"
effect. I would have liked to go for a 165 width tire, but the
Blizzak WS-50 does not seem to be available in that width on a 14
inch rim.
My first season with those Blizzaks was phenominal. I was so
impressed with them, in fact, that when I bought my blue Golf
I bought another set. That set came from a user on VWVortex
who was moving from Pennsylvania to Florida and had only used
them for one season. These Blizzaks were 195/60-14, which is
actually one size wider than the factory width. That really
didn't seem to make much of a difference, though. I am hooked
on these things. Even on wet ice, these tires somehow manage to
find grip. Bridgestone says they use a special compound on these
tires that give them ice traction equivalent to studded snow
tires, and I believe it. The only gotcha is that once the
tread wears down to 45%, the "special" compound is gone and
all that remains is tread made of standard winter tire compound.
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