daryll40

I've asked this question before and never got the answer that I wanted to hear. So I'll ask it again and maybe someone will tell me it's OK to do what I want!

I live in Pittsburgh. Winter can be a bytche. That being said, I have found that Nokian, Blizzack and other "soft" snow tires wear out after just 1 season. Particularly since there are many dry days the burn the tires up.

So why can't I just slap a pair of cheap-but-sturdy snow tires on the rear (only), perhaps with studs, like I used to do back in the days before Lexus when I drove a Lincoln Town Car and Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham (RWD...the "real" Cadillac)? I don't do "touring"...my 2004 LS430 has never been out of the Pittsburgh area ever. It's mostly a city vehicle.

Anyone do this. Again, the "soft" snowtires wear out and are a hassle to install/de-install. Two cheap snowtires on one wheel plus the spare wheel is a much easier alternative and worked great for years back in the bad old days.

AggieLS

If my memory serves, we've chatted about this a year or so ago. I've reinstalled my Dunlop Winter Sport M3s on separate wheels for the third year. They've got about 12k on them over the last two winters and still are running strong.

We had about 13" of snow two weeks ago and I had absolutely no problems with them. We don't have the hills that you have out there but they ran just fine through unplowed roads and across the packed snow/ice for me.

I had put them on three weeks before and watched temps rise up to 60 for severals days. Had to run them on a couple of high speed runs into Chicago on the warm, dry roads and they seem to be none the worse for wear.

Installer said I had about half the tread life on them when we put them on so I am expecting that this may be the last winter, three total, that this set will survive. I'm doing more road trips heading into O'Hare these days and expect to double the mileage this year over the last two winters.

Hope that helps your decision.

Kansas

OK, I'll give you the answer you want to hear. You and your car will be just fine if you put snow tires only on the rear of your LS. I promise (fingers crossed).

But seriously ... With snow tires on only the back of a car as powerful as an LS430, your car will have a tendency to go into a spin so pronounced that you or VSC won't be able to intervene quickly enough to correct it.

We don't want you to hurt yourself!

Tire Rack explains it pretty well: http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...?techid=120#y4

Here is a Tire Rack page that discusses the life span of Blizzaks: http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=116

I'm in my 16th winter of driving an LS with four snow tires on extra wheels and in the fourth and probably last year on my current set of Blizzak WS-50 tires. All four Blizzaks on my current 00 LS have about 8/32 inch tread left and were still quite effective in the one deep snow I've driven in this winter.

Like the Tire Rack article recommends, I put my snow tires on as late as possible in the fall and remove them as soon as possible after the winter. In fact, I got caught one April with a late deep snowfall and I reinstalled the snow tires in my garage just to easily get around until the snow melted a few days later. I usually get about 20,000 miles (four winters) from a set of snow tires by driving gently in the winter and paying a lot of attention to inflation as ambient temperatures go up and down -- I carry a tire gauge in the driver door pocket and an electric air compressor in the spare tire well for quick pressure corrections.

I was able to get around during the 80's with snow tires only on the rear of a low powered Mercedes 4-cylinder diesel sedan without doing myself in but I sure got stuck quite a few times. I've never gotten stuck (or stuck enough to have to be rescued) in an LS - even in fairly deep (10+ inches) snow.

If you are using 17" for snow tires, it might help to use 16" wheels with a higher profile snow tire -- your snow tires will last longer and give extra cushioning when hitting winter potholes. A narrower tire can help too but probably overkill as far south as you are -- the "minus size" concept is covered on this page: http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...urrentpage=116

My 00 LS400 with Blizzaks and with the transmission in "Snow" mode seems to get around better than most SUV's. I've driven right past lots of 4WD SUVs stuck and spinning their tires on steep hills. But I've always loved driving in snow -- I used to call myself "master of the hand brake turn"!

Best of luck.