enfield said:
cj10jeeper said:
agree with sp3ctre. We rarely get snow, but when we do chaos ensues.
So I'm ready to escalate the situation:
First season with a Z4 coming up so I'll give it a go and no doubt have great fun
If that fails I'll switch to the X5
...and if all else fails it's one of my Jeeps:
Bring on your worst this year.......
Ground clearence is important but so is grip. You need grip. Winter tires provide more grip due to the design and the rubber compound used. Those jeeps may actually be dangerous. Short wheel base, high center of gravity and poor grip in snow when it is -5 to -20 C below zero. Those tires may be great in the mud but that does not mean that they will be any good for snow & ice.
Enfield - what you say is of course true. High centre of gravity, etc. is not conducive to good on road performance, (relative to a fast road car on a dry road) but that's not the point of my post which is really that if it snows, given a choice the Z4 will stay in the garage. Every aspect of the Z4 makes it poor in snow - rear wheel drive, powerful engine/light rear end, wide tyres and no ground clearance.
Sure the Z4 will do better on snow tyres than standard, but driving on snow in my experience is best on narrow tyres, with ground clearance, 4 wheel drive, manually selectable axle diffs, selectable centre diff, ideally snow tyres, (but sand tyres work as well) and driving as though there we eggs on the pedals... You then really need to decide if you plan to float on the snow or cut through to solid road/ice. All a question of how much snow, how far and how fast you need to go.
BTW - I actually run 5 sets of tyres across the 2 Jeeps depending upon conditions, varying from sand, rock, mud to snow. I regularly enter top flight competitions across the UK & Europe and in the Alps and Pyrenees, and driven one of them to the artic circle and back, so have experienced most problems and conditions. As conditions deteriorate I move to specialist tyres and then onto heavy duty snow chains. Those photos are illustrative - not with the specialist tyres and equipment used.
Should be in by the end of next week.
), I'd surely get snow tires. This way you don't have to be as cautious. Everyone I spoke with around here runs the blizzaks if that's any help.