Leaf tires in the snow?

This evening we got a few inches of snow in WA and I got to enjoy a bit of time in my awd car while rescuing my stranded wife in her Sentra. As I was doing that I had thoughts running through my head how would Leaf do in the same conditions. Stock tires are not great in our Sentra and lack of traction control makes things even harder. I don't expect Leaf would plow through snow like awd car, but hoping it has good tires to deal with less than perfect conditions.

Usually LRR (Low Rolling Resistance) tires are not optimal for snow or rain, but I am guessing the running them at slightly lower pressures might help.
Does anybody know about that?

My first order of business will be to pick up a set of tire chains. Should be fairly easy to get in April.

Snow tires on all four corners would be a good thing regardless.

I'm originally from Nrn Michigan and have plenty of windshield time in snow and ice in rear- front- and 4-wheel drive. I'd rather be in a front wheel drive car in the snow. Drive gently, no abrupt moves, increase following distance - the usual stuff.

Maybe keep the Leaf out of ECO mode and be gentle on the throttle and brakes as a start...

Or not - this Tango driver seems to do OK in snow! :lol:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhGCLnAPG88[/youtube]

Our brand new Prius (with brand new tires) was really quite bad in the snow. Once we got six inches or so of new stuff, the car couldn't make it up even a small hill. Really not something that inspired confidence in the bad weather.

This winter - studded tires on the car and it's just a beast in the snow. It's been able to plow through everything that has been thrown at us so far this winter.

Chains (actually cables - don't use chains they break too easily) are great in a pinch (or when CalTrans forces you to put them on the car in order to drive over a pass), but I'd much rather drive on snows if you are regularly in the white stuff. Cables and chains are a PITA to put on, break rather easily with the broken part whacking your wheel well ripping through all that aerodynamic plastic.

So as Andy says - "snow tires on all four corners" is definitely the way to go.

We just got a second set of rims with the Prius, without TPMS. The Prius just puts up a warning light. It would be nice to know that the Leaf won't bark at you all the time if you replace the wheels with snows without TPMS in them.

Wow! WTH is a Tango?! Well, now I know. :lol:

http://www.commutercars.com/

Not cheap, though!

AndyH said:

Or not - this Tango driver seems to do OK in snow! :lol:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhGCLnAPG88[/youtube]

Click to expand...

I would like to know how the LEAF handles low-end torque in the snow.

The Prius has a Traction Control (TC) system that has as much to do with
preventing overspeed of Motor/Generator2 (MG2) as with dealing with
traction issues. Once a Gen II Prius is stopped dead in the snow, if
you're unfortunate enough to find yourself going up hill, and maybe
with a turn to negotiate, it can be really challenging to get moving
without the TC intervening and cutting off power. The Gen III is said
to be less likely to intervene.

Anyway, if you spin the LEAF's drive wheels at a stop, what happens?

Oh yeah, the Tango goes for $100K+. Seems like a good set of Blizzaks
or Nokians all 'round is a better investment. ;-)

I got to drive one of them a couple of months ago. It is an amazing vehicle! The acceleration feels like a rocket has been strapped to your back!

JPVLeaf said:

Wow! WTH is a Tango?! Well, now I know. :lol:

http://www.commutercars.com/

Not cheap, though!

Click to expand...

Redacted

Rokeby said:

Anyway, if you spin the LEAF's drive wheels at a stop, what happens?

Click to expand...

You can't without turning off the traction control.

Of equal import to me (being in sunny/rainy So. Cal) - has anyone seen a 60-0 braking time/distance posted for the Leaf? I can imagine that the same hard tire compound that gives the tires low rolling resistance would work against a short braking distance. Any owners willing to conduct a test?

I had a Chevy Sprint (aka Geo Metro) in the '80s - great gas mileage (averaged 50 on trips!), but its downfall was the braking. I wound up rear-ending someone once and finally totalled it after someone turned in front of me and I couldn't stop. I'd like to have some confidence that the Leaf won't be a repeat of that fiasco...

The LEAF can repeat that.
ABS can actually extend braking distance a bit.

One can easily drive it too fast, to close, or just be in the wrong place, or the right place at the wrong time!

ahagge said:

Of equal import to me (being in sunny/rainy So. Cal) - has anyone seen a 60-0 braking time/distance posted for the Leaf? I can imagine that the same hard tire compound that gives the tires low rolling resistance would work against a short braking distance. Any owners willing to conduct a test?

Click to expand...

Here you go: http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/leaf/2011/road-test-specs2.html

60-0 in 126 ft. Nothing special, but not bad, either. For reference, the Nissan Altima's 60-0 is 123 ft and the Maxima is 128 ft (all numbers from Edmunds).

Besides the traction control, I wonder how well the VSC (vehicle stability control) works on the LEAF given moderate snow/ice on moderate hills. The TC and VSC on our 2010 Prius seem to work great; our AWD car is getting less use than I anticipated when we bought the Prius. We have all-season Kumho Solus KR21 tires on the Prius, which makes it up our icy street with no issues while 2WD pickup trucks struggle. I would generally not install chains/cables if Caltrans/CHP didn't force me to (but I grew up in upstate NY and have my biases).

Given halfway decent all season or snow tires on a LEAF, I wonder how it'd compare with the Prius. Also, has anyone been able to take delivery of a LEAF with other than the stock LRR tires?

Having lived in WI nearly all my life I can say that the best technology for snow driving are snow tires. AWD, 4WD, FWD, traction control all help a little but nothing compared to a set of Blizzak's. I've had them on the family minivan and a RWD Mustang GT. Despite those not being thought of as "winter" cars there was no stopping them with the Blizzak's. Also, couterintuitively, you should keep the tire pressure normal or slighly high as that reduces the tire footprint, thereby increasing the "bite" into the snow.

Thanks, WaunaLeaf. If I still lived in upstate NY, I'd likely install snow tires each winter. However, as we now live in the Southern California mountains (> 6000'), we have to be prepared for both "summer" and winter conditions (the former whenever we go "down the hill"). Also, even with the best snow tires, the California authorities force us to install chains/cables on all 2WD vehicles whenever there is snow and ice on the main roads. :-( So we simply use good all-season tires.

Another issue is tire wear. When we purchased our 2010 Prius secondhand at 21K miles, all four stock Yokohama LRR tires were in great shape, with most of the tread remaining. After about 5000 miles of both mountain and freeway driving, averaging ~50 mpg, the front tires really needed to be replaced. Needless to say, we looked for replacement tires with better wear ratings. With non-LRR-rated front tires on the Prius, we are still averaging about 50 mpg. On our Pontiac Vibe AWD, we can get at least 20-25K miles out of each carefully chosen set of tires. I doubt we could do that with the LRR-rated tires that the LEAF comes with. So, assuming with we go through with the LEAF purchase, we intend to ask the dealer if we can swap out the stock tires before taking delivery. Otherwise, I suppose we could try listing them on eBay...

We had a little bit of snow in Portland this morning and I tried my best to slip and slide in the LEAF to no avail (OK, maybe I didn't try my BEST, but I did attempt punching it and hitting the brakes hard). Accumulation on the roads was minimal, but there was 1/4 - 1/2 inch of frosty slushy-ness to test in, temp was reading right at 32 F. I was hoping for a little more accumulation and was planning a mid-morning drive, but it all melted off fairly quickly instead and th weather outside makes me want to go play Disc Golf instead!

Well, Snowpocalypse 2011 hit Bellevue yesterday, with about 2.5 inches of wet snow. Bridgestone Ecopias: complete fail. Probably about the worst possible conditions for these tires, since it was new, wet snow, with ambient temperatures of 33-35 degreesF. Traction control seemed to be working well. I had to punch it to get wheel slip. I think with the proper tires, the LEAF will do just fine. I'm going to play around with it today, maybe try sliding to get a feel for the center-of-gravity, etc.

Next winter, I'll have a set of snow tires put on before Nov 1.

Snowpocalypse eh? It's not supposed to start snowing here until tomorrow. Until then, I suppose one could be enjoying a nice ride along our country roads here without the snow tires.



If we get the snow predicted over the next few days - those walls will be another story tall.

AndyH said:

Rokeby said:

Anyway, if you spin the LEAF's drive wheels at a stop, what happens?

Click to expand...

You can't without turning off the traction control.

Click to expand...

oh yes you can. just not as much fun with traction on, but u can most definitely spin them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNvC3BG4Syg

i tried to view it on web, says still processing ... but it plays fine on my phone!!

ok, video is ready, just played it on FB