Season is fast approaching. I have the 18 inch noise reduction wheel on my ES. I think they are 235/45.. I don't live in a climate where I need snow tires.. therefore looking for a mid-tier pair of snow chains. Anyone have suggestions?

 

Do people still really use tire chains like I remember in the '50's when I was a kid? A challenge to put them on the tires! In western PA, they also used to scatter the ashes from their coal furnaces on the icy streets and alleyways for better traction. Wow, the memories...

 

Chains are definitely still a thing today. However, I think there are alternatives nowadays, like cables. Take a look here: https://www.etrailer.com/chains-2019...-235%7c45%7e18

The mountain passes in the northwest requires chains to be in the vehicle most times through winter... so trying to be proactive. I'm always skeptical of these sites (etrailer) though - I'm not sure if they take wheel-well clearance into consideration.

Love your story by the way The EPA might have a bone to pick with the municipalities if that were to happen today. You are right, snow chains are still a challenge to put on, but I've heard they've gotten easier.

 

Quite a few [US] mountainous areas have vehicle chain requirements. Some require always carrying tire chains during certain periods of the year; others only require chains installed when dictated by weather and/or road conditions.

Carrying chains? No problem. But, mounting chains on 18 inch tires....

On page 242 of the 2019 ES 350 Owner's Manual:
However, based upon the 17 inch tire sentence "Chain size is regulated for each tire size." that may be more of a dictate of some sort of governmental regulation or industrial standard than strictly a real world impracticality.

Still, quite a dilemma between the manual's "cannot" and road travel restriction of "[mounted] tire chain required beyond this point".

 

One of the few things that we’re not part of “good” in the expression,”The good old days!”
After 65 years of that snow and ice stuff, I want to more of it. Spend winters in FL, driving the Lexus whose license plate reads, “NOMOSNO!”

 

Hmm... Seems like your "to" should be a big fat NO in "... I want to more of it. ..."

 

Exactly—-Distracted—- packing up to leave PA soon for the winter. NOMOSNO

 

I called a Lexus dealership located near a mountain pass and asked them "what the locals" end up getting. He told me about these things called tire socks. They fit in the tightest of wheel wells and they recommend them to ES drivers. I've never heard of these before and looked them up. Here is a Consumer Reports article about them: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...d-it/index.htm

Several states have approved these as alternatives to chains.

They didn't have any in stock so I bought a pair on Amazon:
I will update this thread on their performance if I run into snow in the next few weeks. Any pictures of body work I upload will indicate that they don't work well

 

As promised, wanted to provide an update here to let folks know how these auto socks worked..

Ran into some snow and ice over the weekend and actually got stuck in a gravel parking lot out of all places. The area I got stuck in had thick, crusty and hard snow that had frozen and thawed many times over the course of several days. Also, had a ton of ice.

Traction control didn't do much good and turning it off resulted in one wheel getting all of the power and spinning (it having open differential).

I put on the auto socks (a bit of a pain to put on but didn't take more than 5 mins) and as if by magic, got all the traction I needed to get unstuck! They really worked beautifully! Note, the tires I have are the Turanza EL440 at about 35 PSI. They are complete garbage and can't wait to get rid of them after they wear down.

So for folks looking to take on winter conditions in their ES, (aside from a set of winter tires) the auto socks are a great alternative.