[throwaway892238]

FYI there is a new category of tire called "all weather", which have the little mountain-snowflake symbol used for snow tires. They're basically all-seasons rated for snow. I haven't seen a comparison against pure snow tires, but they do perform much better than all-seasons in snow.

[Johnny555]

Here's one comparison:

https://toptirereview.com/michelin-x-ice-snow-vs-michelin-cr...

In this test, the CrossClimate all seasons were within 10% of the snow performance of the X-Ice snow tires.

[smhinsey]

Do you mean the 3 mountain snowflake rating? I recently switched from some AT tires without it to those with it and while they definitely don't rise to the level of snow tires, the 3 mountain snowflake rating does seem to be legit. I don't do anything extreme in the snow but I don't want to turn around, either, and they go further than similar AT tires without.

[ungamedplayer]

Do you get both sets of tyres balanced?

[analog31]

Yes, mounting tires on rims (even re-mounting) always requires balancing. Since practically nobody can mount their own tires, balancing is one of those things that "just happens" behind the scenes.

Most people I know who have snow tires opt for a second set of (typically cheap) rims, and the wheel set comes mounted and balanced. In my case, I change them out when needed, otherwise if I'm scheduled for something like an oil change, I just toss them in the car and have the shop do it.

They are always marked with chalk for which one is which (i.e., right, left, front, back).

[dalyons]

They’re pretty great. Eg the michellean crossclimate 2. Unless you live somewhere with months and months of ice, they’re probably the way to go these days. Most of the performance, much less wear/noise/warm temp problems

[KennyBlanken]

That sounds suspiciously like a rebranding of "M&S rated" all-seasons.

[sandworm101]

>> They're basically all-seasons rated for snow.

Ya. They are the bare minimum to qualify for that label. They are essentially the worse snow tires that can still be called snow tires. It's all marketing hype, which becomes dangerous when stupid people rely upon it to make safety decisions.