Driving to Canada, what to expect...

JamesStep wrote:


Studded tires (snow tires with metal studs) certainly give you
better traction on ice, but I don't think many people use them.
There's the expense, the added road noise, the hassle of changing
your tires, the necessity of storing them in your garage most of
the year, plus they are legal only during certain months.

Plus the fact that they are illegal in most places ,like here in
Ontario.

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 21:36:55 GMT, (Patty Winter)
wrote:

In article ,
B Vaughan wrote:

Chains were used on the east coast up until the mid 1960's, when snow
tires were invented. For about 10 years you changed your tires at the
beginning of winter. Then all-weather tires came along and chains and
snow tires both disappeared.

By "snow tires" do you mean M+S tires, or studded tires?

They were not studded tires, which hadn't been introduced yet. I don't
know what M+S means. They had very deep treads and made a certain
amount of noise on the road. Also they reduced fuel consumption. For
all of these reasons, people removed them after the threat of snow was
past and put their regular tires back on. As I said, however, snow
tires seem to have disappeared as well as chains.

... I can't see
M+S tires solving the problem on their own. Here in California, you
have to have 4WD plus M+S tires in order to get past chain control
checkpoints--and that's only when an R1 or R2 has been declared.
R3, everybody chains up (or turns around and goes home!).

I don't know of any places on the east coast that have these controls.
Major roads are plowed pretty regularly. Still, I have driven on some
very snowy as well as icy roads without chains. I had a standard
transmission car and kept my speed very moderate. I don't think many
people on the east coast even own chains. Of course, our mountains are
nothing compared to those in the west, but I think that there are
probably grades as steep as those in the west. I remember a road in
central Pennsylvania that I drove in freezing rain that really
frightened the passenger in my car. There were many places along the
road where trucks could pull off to be eased into a stop if they had
lost their brakes. It was a pretty steep and curvy road.

--------
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

(Alex) wrote in message . com...
Thanks for any info and assistance... oh, and one more question. Any
suggestions on a nice B&B in the Toronto area?

If you're interested in making a side trip from Toronto with your car,
Port Hope is a nice quaint town about 80 miles east of Toronto. There
are lots of really nice B&B's there in old Victorian houses, including
the Penstowe which I would highly recommend. http://www.penstowe.com
The downtown of the town has neat shops and really well preserved
historic buildings.

In article ,
B Vaughan wrote:
As I said, however, snow
tires seem to have disappeared as well as chains.

They are still offered for sale by on-line tire vendors like tirerack.com .
Probably a good idea if your snow season is long and predictable.

But it is unlikely that a rental car will have any tires other than the
OEM all-season tires that it came with from the factory.

--
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Timothy J. Lee
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