You absolutely NEED winter tires in the Berkshires. I worked out there and the roads get absolutely savage in the winter. Much worse than most of NE, and even worse than North Dakota.
You’re also going to need wiper blades that won’t ice up. The rubber booted winter blades aork fine andthey’re affordable.
And you’ll need to purge the washer fluid from the bottle and replace it with “winter mix”. The summer mix you get in Cal wil freexe solid.
I’m with JoeMario,
Winter tires are the way to go I have set for each of my 2 cars mounted on separate set of rims so that I can swap them at my convenience in 20 minutes.
the difference between any winter tire even the cheapest one and the best all season tire is amazing. Yes sure, you can accelerate on snow with any tire but try turning or braking and you’ll see the difference.
Put it this way; how much is your deductible on insurance? Probably $500 or more. A set of winter tires is going to run you about $500 as well and I’ll much rather drive on a dedicated rubber than deal with insurance claims and having my car repaired.
Other perspective: you wouldn’t go hiking inf flip flops, right. Sure, it can be done but why would you. Unless you want to be one of those people that drive 20mph in the snow every year with fear in their eyes.
I know i’m not. You can comfortably maintain posted speed limit or higher on snow or ice and feel like you’re just driving on a wet road with all season tires.
your life is worth it.
NO. Good all-Season tires will do
“You can comfortably maintain posted speed limit or higher on snow or ice and feel like you’re just driving on a wet road with all season tires.”
Your opinion was doing OK until you made this statement. It negates everything else you intended to convey.
Anybody choosing to travel over the posted speed limit on ice (or even snow covered roads), driving whatever, with whatever tires is an ____________ (fill in the blank).
Police can and do cite drivers for traveling too fast for conditions. That means that the legal speed limit can be lower or much lower than what is posted. I hope you are spoken to and warned or cited before you kill somebody.
CSA
The regular FIT is okay on all seasons. The FIT sport is dreadful in winter conditions due to low profile wide tires on a light car.
Definitely price tirerack.com.
Another suggestion is Nokian WR G2 tires. They are as close to a winter tire you can get in an all-season tire. So you can run the rest of year.
People post for skiing you need winter tires. The truth is the main highways are plowed well for folks without winter tires to get them to the slopes. You see this on the routes that lead to ski area’s. Venture a little bit off and you find plowing is poor even on state highways.
In the Berkshires they won’t cite him for exceeding the limit in poor weather…they’ll peel him off a tree.
Seriously, trust me, you don’t want to spend the winter there without winter tires.
And be advised that the cops out there DO emthusiastically monitor the roads rein or shine. There are radar traps all over Western Mass, especially around Springfield and Amherst. Everyone who lives out there has a radar detector. When I started working out there nobody could understand why I didn;t have one. Just don;t let the cops see it!