evaluation of Mastercraft's Glaciergrip II

[stiller fan]

tried them out last night, hence the pics i posted...

so far, am fairly well pleased......

- stopping traction excellent

- lateral grip good as well.....

however, finding grip for acceleration leaves something to be desired...... was spinning my wheels a bit to get going only with feathering the gas pedal in D2......

would dropping the pressure from 40psi to 32-34psi help things in the "get-going" department????

also, noticed a mercedes got stuck on a smal hill last night, spinning his wheels......

[OwAce]

nope dropping tire pressure will be a bad idea, you want as much pressure on the road as possible, therefore you want the least surface area.

its going to be difficult to catch grip while accelerating.

i would recommend having someone floor your car in 3-4 inches of snow, and you stand next to it to see the snow shavings fly of your tires. you will see exactly where the tires grip.

i was watching my roommates bmw on regular tires yesterday throw up vertical shavings (from the grooves) he had no traction at all.

he then tossed on tires with horizontal grooves in them, shavings thrown up were broken, he had improved traction.

[SSMV6]

Dropping the pressure to 32-34 psi will definately give you better handling, performance, and ride. The higher pressures are good for getting better gas mileage, but it's not doing your tirewear or grip any good. Higher pressures give you a smaller contact patch.

Tread design and compound has a lot to do with the amount of traction you have on the road. If your tread has large tread blocks, you'll get better dry traction, but your wet and snow traction will suffer. Small tread blocks will get better hydroplaning resistance as well as better snow traction (but higher noise and lower dry traction). It doesn't matter what kind type of shavings fly out from the tires.

[OwAce]

Originally Posted by SSMV6

Dropping the pressure to 32-34 psi will definately give you better handling, performance, and ride.
)

not in snow and ice it wont. smaller contact point = more weight pushing through to the road. = more grip.

[SSMV6]

A smaller width tire with the right pressures will help with the snow traction, but artificially creating a smaller contact patch by increasing pressures will not. When you got a smaller width tire (correct pressure) the whole tire is helping you turn, accelerate and brake. If you over-pump your tires, you're using mainly the middle of the tire for grip during acceleration and braking and the outside edge for cornering on dry roads (tire roll). On snow and ice, there's less friction so you're using more of the middle of the tire to turn.

You can picture a properly inflated tire like this |___| and an over-inflated tire like a big "U". Now which tire do you think is going to do better in the snow/ ice?

[OwAce]

oh smack..DOH!!...i was imagining dropping tire pressure to artificially increase contact patch..

sort of like what you do at the 1/4 mile strip..


but just for reference i meant contact patch in terms of tire width.

honestly thought id inflate the tires to the correct pressure as required by the car. you do want to maintain the tire in the exact shape as described above.

i thought you might go like this
| |
(___)

[SSMV6]

Oh.. the 1/4 mile strip... ..

They drop pressure on the strip because they're running slicks and they expect wheelspin to make up for the lower pressures. If you look at the tires on the Nitro drag cars, they all have wrinkle sidewall tires but when they start accelerating, the tires spin so fast that it actually increases in diameter and begins to look like an inner tube (centrifugal force)! I don't think the Accord can manage that kind of acceleration.

i thought you might go like this
| |
(___)

Can you tell I stink at art? I like your text drawing a lot better.

[OwAce]

lol shhhhhhhhhh....i hate ascii...

haha yessir..lowering my pressure to 16psi on the track helped me improve my 1/4 times by .2 secs. still didnt prevent wheelhop. it was so bad my wipers turned on...

[stiller fan]

guess i'll drop her to 35, at the expense of gas mileage then......but will receive better grip......

how about 37psi??? compromise b/w the two???

[SSMV6]

OEM specs call for 32 psi f/r, right? I'd stick with something that's close to those specs to help make the tires last longer and give you better grip in the snow. 35-37psi is a good compromise.

[stiller fan]

yeah, OEM specs are 32 all around for my car..... will drop to 35 for better grip in snow.....

[RTexasF]

Damn Stiller ..........I wouldn't know snow tires from a snow cone! I'm glad you enjoy it.

[stiller fan]

getting cold down there yet? heard that DFW is supposed to get wintry mix sometime wednesday if i'm not mistaken......