dchen2

Hi guys, I have a GS430 and this is my first midwest winter with the car since I moved to Wisconsin. I recently put on my set of 16s with Dunlop M3s I bought new from tirerack and discovered in the first couple snow storms of the season that even with the winters, standing starts in moderate amounts of snow (even just 1" of fresh snow) is somewhat of a struggle. I know to use ect snow mode, feather the gas etc when on snow/ice.

I have driven my car for a whole winter in Salt Lake City, Utah with the 06 GS430 18s with new 245/40R18 high performance all season tires so I am somewhat seasoned in snow driving. Last winter I had a ski resort all season pass and made multiple drives up to the snow resort following or sometimes even during snowfall chasing the new powder on the slopes. I know the new tires with the deeper tread helped and I did fine in snow driving with those tires and never really came close to getting stuck when driving intelligently and even when I went into empty 6-9inch snow covered parking to goof around.

This year I figured with the now lower tread on my 18s, the fact I am now working full time so unlike my college days I can't just ditch class whenever there is heavy snow and the midwest reputation for heavy snow + colder temps meaning more ice I decided to go for the seperate set of dedicated winters in a narrower/taller tire.

So basically in summary I am somewhat dissapointed in how I don't see a significant improvement for winter time traction in my new M3s when compared to me driving on my 18s last winter and am looking for some other measures to help me improve wintertime traction. I heard snow tires do take 300-500mi to break in but I had my new tires on since Halloween now so basically about 700-800mi already.

I want to try putting some bags of road salt in my trunk to help put more weight on the rears and also a emergency traction aiding device incase I ever get stuck. I did this when I had my 2WD F150 truck in Utah and with about 4 50lb sacks traction was greatly improved. Any suggestions from the seasoned GS winter drivers out there on how much weight I should put into my trunk? Thanks!

Balling

try it...

i mean really, just try different weights.
i mena , personally id throw three dead hookers in there, but whatever you wanna do is up to you

VikH

iTrader: (5)

I have heard you should place the weight over the rear axle and not behind it.

dchen2

Well, I am going to go with 3 50lb bags of road salt in the back of my trunk. This way it keeps the weight fairly close to the rear axle... Madison is suppose to get some snow and freezing rain tomorrow so hopefully this will help. 8months without winter driving might have been too long for me since my car's rear end feels as loose as my truck's rear end did earlier!

Dean2

Suggest you try Sand or Kitty litter . Salt, if it leaks will make a very big mess of your trunk.