Amen to that. I always laugh when I see more stuck SUVs than anything else -- people who thought they were invincible. And then I just slowly drive by in my front wheel drive car with all seasons (which I also never got stuck in).

 

From 1998 through 2004 all I drove were RWD Crown Victorias (CVPIs) and I never got stuck, even through the New England winters. I was a member of 2 different EMS departments and didn't always have the choice to stay home and wait for the plows.

You just need to plan your moves in advance and be smooth on your inputs. There's no reason any vehicle should ever wind up in a ditch.

 

There's a common theme in winter tire threads popping up here; that all you need is all season tires and sensible, measured driving. What I think is important to remember is that proper winter tires will allways be significantly better in winter weather (this even means dry conditions but with sub freezing temps). So while I agree that driving style and ability is one of the more important factors why wouldn't one want to give themselves the BEST chance? The best chance is with winters and sensible driving.

 

I don't think anyone would argue with you. But changing back and forth to winter tires is an expense and a nuisance. I think what is being argued is that it's not mandatory to be safe unless you are in extreme conditions. And what you really need then is a set of chains.

 

Agreed about not mandatory to be safe but its like extra insurance, if you can afford it you buy it and deal with the changing of tires as opposed to rear ending or getting rear ended b/c you couldn't move out of the way, I've done this a few times (not with winter tires) but just by watching my surroundings.

I'm new to chains, I though that was only legal on certain mountain states. I was thinking about this last night, how can you get 20 inch chains on a durango all wheel drive, with such low profile tires on, those things are massive. I know you're supposed to be able to no put on chains if you have 4x4/4wd but if you do you gotta do it for all 4 tires!

Does anyone have experience with that on a 2011+ durango or any other 4 wheel driven vehicle?

 

I've never had a problem in the snow. I'm going to run the Knumo's that are on my AWD R/T through the winter. You just have to know how to drive in the snow. Slow down, quit hitting your damn brakes every 5 seconds and give yourself more distance to stop in. It's not that hard! It never ceases to amaze me how many crashes there are on the first day of snow. Like people in Ohio forgot how to drive since last winter...

 

Need to either remove or put a block under the brake pedal of those people. How can you possibly forget that non-rolling, skidding tires provide no steering or braking effort.

 

That's a lot less of a problem now that ABS is standard on all passenger vehicles. It's getting a lot harder to act like an idiot ;-)

 

But people are creative- they always find new ways.

 

this here is exactly the problem, they keep trying to make cars idiot proof, however then a better idiot finds its way out of the woodwork.

i have always run all terrain tires on my trucks w/ 4wd and never had a need to swap winter tires on for any reason, i am also a big anti-abs guy tho so take it as you will i learned to drive w/o it and it does nothing but aggravate me by going off when i dont need it to