[HarryD]

Joe Bob,

As a guy who grew up in the snow belt, here is my take. If your roads are going to be covered for many months with snow, ice and slush, snow tires are definately the way to go. Get a spare set of rims and mount them. Swap them at the first snow, take them off when you feel the snow will be gone. The cost of the rims will be paid for in the first two seasons of having the tire gorilla swap them on your primary set of rims. This is what I did when I lived in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

If you see only a few days of ice/snow, go with normal all season tires and get some chains for the bad days. Cheaper and more effective. Here in Oregon, that is what I do now.

The downside of snow tires is lousy traction on wet (not icy/snowy/slushy) roads, excessive noise and since the compounds need to be soft below freezing they do not tolerate heat very well.

If you want to go the snow tire route, look into the newer studless designs like Nokian etc. Most of the benefit of studs without the excessive noise and damage to our raods.

[rant on]
Here in Portland, Oregon, it never ceases to amaze me how when we get a dusting of snow, a huge number of folks put on STUDDED snow tires. Some, as soon as ODOT says its; ok, put them on with out waiting for a snow fall. When the snow subsides (about a week later), they leave them on until ODOT tells them to take them off. The studs destroy the roads, reduce traction, and when you run them on dry roads, the stud tips eventually get ground off by the pavement, leaving you with a tire that has lousy traction from the little steel dots to increase slip and worn studs when you really need them.
[/rant off]