jjskywlker

Age old question that I'm sure has been answered before. I live in Virginia, and am still torn on decision making. I have an '06 CL with 18's that have some fairly old Michelin Pilot Sport AS+ on it. I am planning to move into the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus for everyday use. Will these be sufficient for the random weather with occasional snow (and snowmageddon) in Virginia without dedicated snow tires?

Sidebar, Tire Rack seems to have 16" rim packages with the winter tires on the LS430, would those actually fit?

2KHarrier

All season tires are great for the "normal" weather patterns we may experience, but winter tires with a more aggressive tread do much better in deeper snow. I just purchased a set of General Altimax Arctics for my 2001 and Xice 3's for my 2005. The Generals were surprisingly good in deep snow. We got hit with a storm on Saturday/Sunday and driving in deep snow was a non-issue. I was really surprised.
The Michelins had to be ordered for the 05, so they have not arrived yet.

As far as 16 inch wheels, that was the standard wheel size on 2001-2003 model years, so they should be fine. Blizzaks are great tires, but were unavailable when I bought mine last week.

Tom57

CAUTION > not just any 16" wheels will fit on the LS430. OE 16" wheels will fit. Aftermarket 16" wheels may / may not. The LS430 has very large 4-piston front calipers so not all wheels will clear the calipers.

Kansas

That's an issue. I regret buying a 16" aftermarket wheel/winter tire package from Tire Rack for the 2000 LS400 that I drove for many years which had the same brake caliper size as the LS430. The aftermarket rims from Tire Rack couldn't accept hammer-on weights on the rim lips and there wasn't room for stick-on weights inside the rims due to the calipers. Balancing was always an issue. A few years after I bought the aftermarket wheels from Tire Rack, I damaged one and found that replacements were no longer available. Only OEM wheels for me from now on.

If you want winter tires, I recommend finding a set of OEM 17" LS430 wheels and get Blizzak WS80 in 225/55-17. The OEM 17" wheels will have plenty of room for hidden stick-on balancing weights. I currently have 235/60-17 Blizzak WS80 on refurbished OEM wheels on my Sienna - in their third Winter - and they are incredible on snow and ice and better than any of the Blizzak models (WS50, WS60, WS70) I've used in the past. The WS80 have a nice ride and are quiet but they wear pretty fast like most Blizzak models and most winter tires in general. I downsized from 18" to 17" inch wheels on the Sienna for winter use and from 17" to 16" on our Prius wagon for winter use - Blizzak WS70 on the Prius.

Tom57

Hey Kansas, nice of you to post in ...

Similar to you, I have 3 sets of OE 16" wheels with Michelin X-ice snow tires on my LS's in the winter months here. The X-ice has great traction and handles extremely well at highway speeds. The tread life is also quite good. Rated for 40K miles, after 15K miles, the tread depth is 7-8/32nds. And, for anyone on a budget, 16" tires are less expensive as well.

bmore430

I went through 4 Maryland winters in my LS430 on 18 inch factory wheels. Best tires I've used are Michelin Premier A/S. Daily drive the car everyday and made it through every winter storm. I think dedicated snow tires are a bit overkill in most cases unless you live in the mountains or way up North. I had no issues in 6 to 8 inches of snow. I did put extra weight in the trunk for better traction over the rear wheels.

Tom57

I've driven LS continuously since 1993 residing in lower Michigan and Illinois, driving around the Great Lakes states and occasionally into lower Ontario, CA. Never had snow tires (drove Michelin MXV4 and Premiers) until 3 years ago ... will never do another Midwest winter without them on my LS's. I wish our winters here were as mild as Maryland's.

bmore430

Original poster of the thread is from VA so he'll have the same type of driving as I went through in MD. Dedicated snows are not needed for his situation.

More power to you guys way up north and midwest. I hate the snow and frigid weather.

2KHarrier

Couldn't agree more!

But, yes, MD and VA winters are not nearly as harsh as we get..

Johnhav430

Here's how I look at it. I got lazy and decided to NOT rotate the tires on my Maxima SE. What happened....Kumho Ecsta 4XII's, the fronts were gone at 22k (my original RS-A's went over 80k with rotation). Upon measuring the tread depth, this implied that the fronts wear 3X as fast as the rear. This is why I believe that FWD vehicles can get away with a/s tires in the winter. They inherently have more than the majority of their curb weight pressing down on the front tires.

The LS will not have this advantage of having say 65+% of the car over the drive wheels, so my guess is snow tires are required. In VA, 1" snow means cars off the road, unfortunate, but that would imho necessitate snows on a RWD car.

p.s these are American problems...in Canada or Germany the snows are required....we love our buffets don't we! (we don't like the idea of having to pay)

edit: I noticed my rental car has 4 snows, picked up at YUL

tallcaguy

Amen on frigid weather. One big reason I moved to CA. Very helpful to know about tires/snow. Also that TRAC works well. Have new Premiers and may do a road trip in Jan that includes mountain passes and some light snow. Sounds like it should go ok. LOL there's an LS for sale here in Sacramento. Ad says includes snow chains. He probably drove to Tahoe to go skiing or something.

Kansas

That assumes that the OP never leaves his home area in Virginia. We live in eastern Kansas where we don't usually get all that much snow but we often drive in areas that get far more. We're driving to Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday afternoon and, based on the current forecast, expect to be driving in falling snow much of the way.

Don't forget ice. Many dedicated winter tires with the mountain/snowflake logo have treads made of compounds that stick to ice. Winter tires like that allow much better turning and quicker stopping on slick surfaces than can be accomplished with any all-season tire and essentially removes most of the drama from winter driving ... and they can allow you to take evasive action to get out of the way of out-of-control skidding drivers.

Here is a interesting video from Tire Rack that compares braking, cornering and stopping of summer, all-season and winter tires:
And look out for blowing snow / white-out conditions. There have already been several massive pile-ups on Interstate highways in the past week or so due to people driving too fast in low visibility blowing snow. I've been in too many situations where others were driving at bizarre speeds when visibility was nearly zero. I like to think I am cautious instead of paranoid but I install rear fog lights on vehicles that don't come with them. The E-code rear fog lights I installed on our current vehicles were purchased on eBay Germany.

Johnhav430

I just drove every day in snow since Monday night. If this were 20 yrs. ago, I'm pretty sure the rental car would not have had 4 snows. I'm glad it did. Driving in the snow isn't a joke. When I was young, a snowstorm meant getting on the roads and having fun. Today, it means try to avoid driving. But if it has to do with work, that's not possible.

Again, this is totally an American problem. Just look to our brethren to the North, they just do it, don't even talk about it. I'm pretty sure that no tire shop will simply mount snows on the drive axle. If they do, shame on them. But, plenty of dealers will mount a/s at the customer's request. A BMW dealer did just that for my wife's cousin's husband 2 years ago, nuts. A/S tires, on a RWD car, because the husband didn't feel like shelling out the money for snows, the dealer accommodated.

airchomper

If you're going to go with winter tires, you may as well get winter rims. It's less of a hassle to mount / unmount a set of wheels than swap out tires twice a year.

I went with 16s to save a few bucks, I think I got the tires and rims and installation for fewer than 700 bucks and I figure it's well worth it if it saves me a single accident - heck, $700 is less than the price of my deductible.

I live in Minnesota and I love snow tires. I used to think you needed AWD to get through the winter but I was mistaken. Winter tires do an amazing job of giving you control on slippery surfaces. Heck, one time I drove to work and wondered "why is everyone driving so slow?". When I got to work, I fell over getting out of the car, the road was that slippery and I had no idea because my tires worked so well. Later in the day - when I was driving to lunch - I noticed a ton of drivers were using their ABS and I didn't even see the traction control light come on.

The sense of safety and security is worth every last penny, I don't like spending money but I'll gladly spend money on snow tires. You can get by without them, but you're at the whim of the weather, other drivers, and your luck. With winter tires, you're in control when it seems like everyone else is at the mercy of whatever happens.

jjskywlker

What exact 16s did you get that could handle stick on weights to balance and still fit around the rotors?