Snow Tires, do we need them?

[ALsmallmouth]

Originally Posted by deepdrop

Hi,
I just bought a 2007 Ridgeline RTL this week. It came with Michelin LTX tires (P24565R17) and I was wondering if these are adequate for winter use. I live in NH so we get a lot of snow and ice, but the tread looks pretty aggressive and I was hoping to hear opinions from other Ridgeline owners on this topic. I couldn't find any threads in the forum by searching this topic. Thanks.

Dan

Never much snow here in AL but I have run the LTX M/S tires on a couple trucks and it gives an amazing ride. The local Michelin dealer states that the M/S designation on the LTX tire actually stands for mud and snow?

[polarexpress]

Originally Posted by ALsmallmouth

Never much snow here in AL but I have run the LTX M/S tires on a couple trucks and it gives an amazing ride. The local Michelin dealer states that the M/S designation on the LTX tire actually stands for mud and snow?

Yes, that is what we are told as well......and they seem to work just fine. I have had M&S tires on my previous Ford truck and they did the job. I live in Manitoba Canada.......we get some snow occasionally.

[weather_wrangler]

Originally Posted by deepdrop

Hi,
I just bought a 2007 Ridgeline RTL this week. It came with Michelin LTX tires (P24565R17) and I was wondering if these are adequate for winter use.
Dan

My '06 Ridgeline did really well with stock tires in 14" of wet snow here in Missouri last year. I credit the computerized traction features for most of that, because other, bigger and more expensive SUVs types were getting stuck right in their driveways while backing out to get to work. (I had to snicker to myself over that!)

After the snow, came the rough ice on hills...and I still did fine.

[S2000]

I'll go the opposite way here. The stock tires are fine for snow, but snow tires are better. I drive dirt roads that haven't been plowed so the snow tire are better for me. If you are driving paved roads that have been plowed or are driving in a few inches of unplowed snow the stock tires are fine.

[deepdrop]

Wow, I posted the original question on this thread and hadn't checked it in a few days. Boy was I surprised to find three pages of responses! What a great forum with a bunch of great people.

I've been reading all the tonneau reviews and racking my brain trying to figure out which one to get.
I put in the USA Spec for my ipod. Again, posts on this forum really helped. It was an easy install and works great!

I love my ridgeline and thanks for all the responses re: snow tires. I guess I've always felt that snowtires were worth the money even if the stock tires are good. I put Blizzaks on the minivan for my wife and kids. I think for my Ridgeline, I'll see how it does and buy some snowtires if it seems to need them this winter.

I've had good luck with Tirerack.com in the past. By the way, I was very impressed with the Winterforce snow tires. they sell. They were much cheaper than the Blizzaks and I thought they were just as good.

I guess another thought would be that the aluminum wheels that come on the Ridgeline might suffer some from the salt on winter roads. That might be a good reason to have a set of snow tires on steel wheels.

[Kellcut]

Originally Posted by S2000

I'll go the opposite way here. The stock tires are fine for snow, but snow tires are better. I drive dirt roads that haven't been plowed so the snow tire are better for me. If you are driving paved roads that have been plowed or are driving in a few inches of unplowed snow the stock tires are fine.

I drive a lot on unpaved, gravel roads too. In fact, my driveway is one of those. If you look at my prior post, the OEM tires did just fine on that. Even was able to pull my husband's Civic out of the snow and up the driveway. I'm sure that snow tires are better, but IMO, the stock Michelin's do just fine.