There are a few "all season" tires that are "Mountain and Snowflake" rated - Nokian makes the WRG2 - they don't all them "all season" - they call them "all weather"

Most "all season" tires are designed around summer, and they "work" in winter. Nokian does it the other way - design a snow tire that is OK in the summer

I had a set of the earlier generation of the WRg2 - amazing tires,. Other folks would be getting stuck, and in stuff my previous tires would not grip, I just kept going. One thing - Hard to get (unless you live in snow country) and NOT cheap

Only thing I have to do with them is a happy customer

http://www.nokiantires.com/tyre?id=11899&group=1.01&name=Nokian+WRG2

I moved to Florida ... problem solved. Except for the hurricanes, gators, snakes, mosquitoes, wildfires, galloping fungus ...

SOCAL here. Polo shirts and shorts give way to long sleeves and jeans.

Winter kit/duffel goes in the truck for any unforeseen problems away from home.

Art, what kind of tires are good against the 'gators?

Sue

Where I live in Missouri we see very few snow tires, but I have dealt with them. They are pretty tough. They hold up really well on light cars, There is a couple of Ford Aspire type cars that run Goodyear Grippers year round for the past 2-3 years (same set, I sold them/put them on)

I run the Uniroyal Liberators. Great all-around tire. They hold their own in snow, especially with extra weight in the back of my truck. They are aggressive without being noisy. They are not snow tires though, but IMO the best for my truck.

The Goodyear Tracker 2 is pretty much only good for the highway. If they are 1/2 worn they are useless in snow/ice/water/wet pavement/hard cornering/general traction (yes I owned a set, yes I hated them). The new Bridgestone tires look good but are not tough, they have tread designs that appeal to people, not tire guys. I ran a set of Firestone FireHawks about 8 years ago and loved them, but remember having a lot of fun in snow too (traction problems) I have yet to hear about Bridgestone performance in snow.

If I wanted an outstanding set of mind-blowing tires I would look into Michelin, they will blow out your wallet too but are worth the hit.

I sell these tires so I am biased. You can get any of these tires at your local Wal-mart.

Word to the wise, Wal-mart has some funny ideas on tires.

Calgary winters are hard to predict.
There will be snow & ice, but nobody knows when, or how long it will last.
I used to have a Subaru WRX (all-wheel drive) and it was terrible on ice until I put on winter tires.
I never bothered with snow tires on the Chevy Avalanche, all-season radials & 4-wheel drive worked fine even in really nasty conditions. Really good traction control on that vehicle.
Now we have a Chev Traverse, still all-wheel drive, and early snows indicate it won't be all that the Avalanche was.
So it's somewhat vehicle dependent.

As to the OP; we have a BIG duffle of winter gear that gets tossed into the car if going out of town. Snow shovel, candles, food, tuques, gloves, stove/pot, etc, etc.

At the house the generator gets checked over & that's about it.

I'll bet the AV was most likely not AWD but a more traditional 4x4. AWD gived 4wheel drive via some form of clutches or coupling in the center which is reactive to road conditions and tire slip. A traditional 4x4 system locks the front and rear together solid so you really can't have one end slip without the other slipping, so the traction on one end keeps the other from slipping. It also makes a simple form of ABS, hard to get a whell on one end to lock since the others will force it to turn. GM only has one AWD transfer case and I think its only available on the Cadalic version of the AV which is why I beleive you have a more simple always locked in 4x4 system. You may have the push button switch on the dash with an auto setting but its simply a motor moving what would be a shift lever and still locking solid.

yes, the Avalanche is more traditional 4-wheel drive.
It had some pretty impressive traction control tho.
In normal rear-wheel drive, if it sensed any wheel-spin it would transfer power to the front almost instantly.
No need to push the '4x4' button.
I tried to deliberately put it into a skid on ice: computer takes over & controls the skid using the 4x4 and individual wheel braking.
Don't ask me just how it works, but it does work.

The Subaru is all-wheel drive all the time.
For some reason the all-season tires on the front would push instead of steer on ice.
Once snow tires (Goodyear, I think) were installed, it was good.
But it would not correct driver error like the Avalanche.

I haven't had the Traverse through a winter yet, but we did have some early snow.
It is front wheel drive with rear drive assist.
Computer traction control similar to the Avalanche, but doesn't correct driver error to the same extent the Avalanche does.
Likely several factors at play: front-wheel drive & rear assist instead of rear-wheel drive with front assist and it's a much lighter vehicle, shorter & narrower wheelbase.
I'm thinking snow tires would be a very good idea on this car, just have to get used to the $1200+ price tag!

hmmm, seem to have hijacked the thread into a discussion about traction control...

Yeah, the price tag on good snow/ice tires is a shocker.

But I can tell you they're worth every penny.

I have a complete set, mounted on rims, for every car I own. Blizzaks on one, Michelin X-ice on the other.

In terms of mitigating the hard, measurable risks that we face daily, they're the best survival investment you can make.

- - - - -

(BTW, fasteer, cheers from Edmonton. Keep your stick on the ice, and your shiny side up, eh!)

+1 on the Blizzaks.

I used to live in NE PA, Pike County, across the river from Narrowsburg, NY. We could get some snow and ice up there, so much that some years I ran out of room to plow my driveway. Put a set of Blizzaks on a 94 Camaro Z28 to use it as a spare car, and they worked great. I was able to drive up and down twisty, narrow and mountainous country roads at reasonable speed and with excellent control in moderate snow and ice (as long as I kept a very light foot on the gas). People would be stuck or going sideways up the big hill on Route 6 as I drove past. Of course the Camaro is too low if the snow's deeper than 6 inches.