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Snow tires and my reliable 20 year old Volvo ( short story, long)

posted by  TONY H on  Sat Dec 20 00:35 CST 2008
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last visit: Fri Oct 17 16:39 CST 2014
[RELATED]

We just got dumped on with snow yesterday. A lot of snow in a short time. I get a call from a friend of mine. "Tony, can you make an emergency run for me?" One of his neighbors was stuck on a hill going to her house. She was too scared to back down the hill, the car was sideways on this Rural road and she couldn't get up the hill.
I just put the snows on the Volvo that morning because, well, it was going to snow. I grab a shovel, my gloves and head out to see if I could at the very least get it down the hill to my friends driveway (out of harms way).

I get to his street and as I look up the hill I see 4 cars facing every way but Parallel with the road. You had to see the tire tracks too. they were 'Z' shaped all the way up the hill to where they were stuck. Too funny.
I Slolum through the cars to the top of the hill and get out of my car.

Not one of the four cars wee more then 3 years old. None of them had snow tires. 2 of them were Cadillac STS's or CTS's with tires that had to be 12" wide.
Anyway, the women get out of their cars and were ALL to nervous to do any more. They seemed more then happy to hand me (a stranger) the keys. I got 3 cars down to the bottom of the hill. The woman in the car that I got the call on originally had a 6 speed manual, I managed to 'walk' that one up the hill and into her driveway. These people marvelled over how I got to the top of the hill without hesitation, I played it down... "Yeah, This old Volvo has gotten me around for 20 years, it runs good, never felt I needed to replace it."
My friend calls me back when I got home, He was laughing after his neighbor called to thank him for sending me and telling the story of the multiple cars that ended up on the hill.
Can someone please tell me why when the snow is dumping down and they call off school, Why do parents feel it is safer to take their unequiped car to go retrieve their kids instead of letting that nice heavy School Bus take them home? Does it make more sense to have 50 cars slip sliding into a school yard over having ONE bus take them home?

--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.no.net/ebrox/Tony's%20cars.htm








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    posted by  someone claiming to be on  Wed Dec 31 18:00 CST 1969 [RELATED]

    re: "...Can someone please tell me why , Why... do parents feel it is safer to take their unequiped car to go retrieve their kids instead of....?"

    Because they believed the advertising hype about their FWD and electronic do-dads (and failing to read the fine print in the commercial about professional driver on a closed course, snow tires, etc.) -- the big SUVs with summer tires are usually the worst, until they crack up or flip over, tying up the highway for everyone else. At least they believed it until they felt their multi-$10K car or truck skidding and sliding down the hill into oblivion.

    FWD or AWD/4WD and electronics cannot basic laws of physics -- if you don't have traction, you're not going to control the car! Not like my 240s, each with four studded, Nokian snow tires, 1/3 worn Hakka-2s on my '93 and brand new Hakka-5s on my '84. I'm really looking forward to an interesting winter here at home -- in past years it's been dull around here, and I only got to enjoy the snow tires on our trips through New England for snow recreation.

    Enjoy.


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    posted by  someone claiming to be on  Wed Dec 31 18:00 CST 1969 [RELATED]

    Yep, yesterday was a reminder of how well my '70 145 does in the snow.

    Snow tires and about 140 pounds over the rear axle and it navigates hills and valleys easily. We had just about 8" which was a piece of cake.

    The biggest difference - SNOW TIRES! I never realized what a difference real snow tires (as opposed to all-season) made. The control and traction is almost unbelievably better. My 140s were always good in the snow, but with the snow tires and extra weight, the car feels unstoppable.



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      posted by  someone claiming to be on  Wed Dec 31 18:00 CST 1969 [RELATED]

      It's only been the last 3-5 years that I did buy Snows for my 200, I always managed to stay out of trouble with the All Seasons and 100lbs in the trunk. After stumbling onto a free set of Rims, I decided to go with Snows....Absolutely, no comparison, the stopping and accelerating you get with Snows.
      I just loved all these people that will buy a new $40K car every two years but wont spend a few bucks to keep the car useful in the snow.
      --
      '75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.no.net/ebrox/Tony's%20cars.htm



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        posted by  someone claiming to be on  Wed Dec 31 18:00 CST 1969 [RELATED]

        what brand and size snows did you use? thanks, lynn I have a1991, 1993, 1987 and a 1986 240 models....chmtnbliss@cs.com



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          posted by  someone claiming to be on  Wed Dec 31 18:00 CST 1969 [RELATED]

          http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes.jsp?make=Firestone&model=Winterforce

          If you look here, they have Unbranded and Branded. Should be no difference. Firestone just started putting their name on them but the tires are identical. You can Call The Tire Rack to verify.

          185/70/14 is the size.

          These are a Directional tire. This means they have an arrow point in the way they must be mounted for forward rotation. The passenger side tires have to stay on the passenger side and the drivers side always get remounted on the drivers side. AFTER stating all this, This is an e-mail I got today that might interest you. I can only speak for the WINTERFORCE tires.


          "I read the feedback on the Firestone Winterforce and it looks like everybody loves them. When they come off your brick, you might want to try to recently introduced Firehawk GT. It looks like they outperform almost every tire in their sizes at less than half the price. Even the TireRack guy that I spoke to said they're a superior performer against many Michelin and Pirellis - he was one of the drivers during the BMW comparison testing."
          --
          '75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.no.net/ebrox/Tony's%20cars.htm



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