Winter Driving

[Suitcase Jefferson]

Hello from chilly northern Alberta, Canada -- where we have a beautiful three months of summer!

The point of this thread is me asking for tips/suggestions regarding winter driving in a Supra. (And I won't take, "don't" for an answer -- it's my only vehicle).

So, 3.0L straight 6 turbo, rear wheel drive. Whoo, boy. Going to be interesting...

Before the white blanket lands, here are some things I am doing to the car:

Oil change/fluid change.

New tires (winter ones, of course).

Now, for winter tires, what should I get? Is there any recommendations?

Should I get studded tires?

Thanks for your time,
Suitcase

 

[Sawbladz]

Weight in the trunk and slow down. Should get you through all but heavy snow days. Studded tires would depend on your area. In southern Ontario they are not allowed. If they are allowed in your area they would likely help but only you would know if they are necessary.

Also, we have a straight six. Not flat. Flat is for Porsches and Subarus.

 

[Sam]

I'm from Saskatchewan, and 2 years ago I drove my right hand drive JZA70 in the winter (and I'll do it again this year if it ever gets out of the shop). Any snow/ice tires will do, you really have to just not drive like a dumbass. In the 70s almost every car on the road was rear wheel drive, and everyone drove around just fine. There's really no trick to it. Buy appropriate tires, drive with caution, learn to brake early and try not to oversteer.

 

[Grandavi]

If you want winter tires, I have a set of "sawblades" with 4 winter tires on them (about 90% tread on 2 of them and the other 2 are brand new). I would part with the rims/tires for 400.00 as I will never put my Supra on a winter road. If your interested. (I live in Calgary) PM me.

Now.. for the suggestion.. I dont suggest studs, but it depends how far north you are and if your going to be in black-ice conditions. Also, watch your quarter panels, the body panels cover the metal (in front of the rear wheel and behind the front wheel) and they hold moisture/salt up there. The bumpers can get caked on the sides and cause rust situations so I would look at those as well and perhaps do something simple like rubbing a coating of engine oil on the outside (in between the inside of the bumper and the base of the rear quarter panel. I dont like undercoat because if it gets perforated its hard to get inside to clean out any salt. The Farmer's almanac supposedly calls for a snowy winter this year, I would just try to keep the typical rust areas as clean as possible. You can also feel the base of your driverside quarter panel very easily from the little doorway inside the hatch area. Make sure it is not filled with dirt and moisture already. The water is bad enough.. its the salt/chemicals that really scare me.

Are studs legal? I thought they made them illegal.. not sure... lol.

I would love to drive my car in the snow simply because its rear wheel. I drove my Cressida (it was my winter car) and had a blast in it. This year though, I bought a 2500 GMC Sierra as a beater. Love rear wheel drive in snow.

Oh yeah.. if its really cold.. try not to store it in a heated garage.. thats like the kiss of death.. lol

 

[Canuckrz]

I packed my entire spare tire well with about 55kg of traction sand. I had toyo garrit's myself, I personally wouldnt reccomend studded tires the entire industry is getting away from them 90% of the studable tires will be low end shit. As for which tire to go for, it all depends on your budget, and what the most common winter driving you're going to be dealing with.

I found the biggest thing with the supra to watch while driving in the winter is maintaining momentum, the car is great when you're moving but if you come to a stop you're fucked.

Also for the sake of your car undercoat the hell out of it, and wash it atleast weekly.

 

[mkiiichip]

Put the poor thing away for the winter, already.

 

[Grandavi]

Okay.. I hunted down pics of your car... you silly silly man....
Dont drive that in winter! Get a 400.00 beater.. and smile. Thats a white car.. winter will not be pretty with it.

Now.. step back from the car.. apologise to it.. and pop a cover on it.

 

[Suitcase Jefferson]

Okay.. I hunted down pics of your car... you silly silly man....
Dont drive that in winter! Get a 400.00 beater.. and smile. Thats a white car.. winter will not be pretty with it.

Now.. step back from the car.. apologise to it.. and pop a cover on it.

There already is a cover on it, which I plan on using throughout winter.

I had a beater-car. An '88 Tempest. I upgraded from it. I no longer have it because I needed the room for the Supra. The Supra is my only mode of transportation, and I will be using it in winter as I've said in my original post.

So studs aren't recommended? Are they a thing of the past?

 

[Grandavi]

I havent seen them since my early days in Swift Current Sask... (back in the 80's). I think they are still around, but I dont know if they are legal on road anymore. Maybe you will be lucky and winter wont be a rough one. And hopefully they dont need to salt the roads up there. (wherever up there is.. lol)
Calgary is really harsh on cars in winter as they do salt (although I think they are experimenting with a chemical compound) and we get the chinooks so the warm/damp air is like praying for rust... cause your gonna get it.

It isn't the snow sticking to your car that will kill it, its the salt and sand blasting away at the unseen parts. Its just a bad thing for a 20 year old car.

It cost me 4000 (will end up costing me another 5k before Im done) fixing the damage done by winters to my 88... much cheaper to pay for storage and get a winter beater. (not always an option.. but if there's any way you can pull it off the road, I would do it)

 

[Suitcase Jefferson]

I havent seen them since my early days in Swift Current Sask... (back in the 80's). I think they are still around, but I dont know if they are legal on road anymore. Maybe you will be lucky and winter wont be a rough one. And hopefully they dont need to salt the roads up there. (wherever up there is.. lol)
Calgary is really harsh on cars in winter as they do salt (although I think they are experimenting with a chemical compound) and we get the chinooks so the warm/damp air is like praying for rust... cause your gonna get it.

It isn't the snow sticking to your car that will kill it, its the salt and sand blasting away at the unseen parts. Its just a bad thing for a 20 year old car.

It cost me 4000 (will end up costing me another 5k before Im done) fixing the damage done by winters to my 88... much cheaper to pay for storage and get a winter beater. (not always an option.. but if there's any way you can pull it off the road, I would do it)

I'm up in Fort McMurray.

The tire places will put studs in your tires, so it leads me to believe they are legal here.

They sand the roads in my city.

 

[Grandavi]

I do work for Diversified up there. Apparently studs are legal there.. and they throw everything they possibly can on the roads.

 

[Suitcase Jefferson]

I do work for Diversified up there. Apparently studs are legal there.. and they throw everything they possibly can on the roads.

Ahhh, I didn't know they salted up here, I thought it was just sand and grit, hehe.

 

[deabionni]

I live in northern Michigan, where we aren't allowed to run studded tires on our cars. The best stud-less tires I found for the Supra were Yokohama's IG20. With the IG20's, I can drive the supra anywhere I want to go; and have no problem controlling the car over icy and snowy covered roads.

If you're stuck running a stud-less tire, the Yokohama IG20 would be my tire of choice.

Yokohama's site information about the IG20.


If you can run a studded tire where you're at, a tire to look at may be a Hankook iPike W409.

My buddy got a set of these last winter on his Jeep, and even without studs, these tires seemed to perform great and kept him from getting stuck. Since they're able to be studded these may be a good alternative for those running in stud-friendly areas.

 

[Keros]

Studded vs non-studded is a question of road conditions: studs -ONLY- give traction on ice. That's it, that's all, nothing else. Studs are also detrimental to traction on pavement (the steel will lift part of the rubber off the road surrounding it, and the steel doesn't grip the pavement either). So, if most of the year is spent as clear roads and occasional shitty weather, then studs are worthless. If it's generally always icy and/or deep snow, studs can be beneficial. Most winter tires are great in packed snow, few are excellent at deep snow, and some perform well with just rubber on ice.

Basically, pick your battle. Ice is the worst place to be caught red handed, so perhaps studs aren't a bad idea if there's alot of icy roads you'll need to brave.

A good snow tire like a Nokian, an X-Ice or a Blizzak will treat you well in the MkIII, I never had a problem on my Michelin Pilot Sport Alpins when I winter drove mine... but I did regret the accelerated deterioration that it caused. Just remember to 2nd gear start if the wheels spin and be easy on the clutch.

 

[te72]

I've driven through 4 winters with Supras (two in my 88 n/a auto, one in the 84 p-type 5sp, and one in the 89 1j/R154), and have driven all of them on Goodyear Assurance TripleTread tires. If you're still running 16's, they can be had in the stock size (17's I just couldn't find a good size for them though), and will get you out of damn near anything if you're a moderately skilled driver. If your car has LSD, you should be fine to drive through just about anything. Case in point, it snowed heavily here in Wyoming once for about 16 hours straight. Got to work, parked, and worked for 8 hours. Snow piled up on my car, around my car, just about everywhere really... by the end of my day, my car had snow up to the Supra emblem on the hood. The guys at the shop were all taking bets on whether I'd even make it out of the parking lot (I was the only one without a truck). I scooped as much of the snow off my windows and hood as I could to see, and about 2' of space in front of me so I could get momentum.

It was a fun drive home, I was doing the work of a snow plow (literally had 15" of snow everywhere), but I made it home. Trickiest part was getting up the hill I live on (~15* incline), but like Canuckrz said, MOMENTUM IS KEY. These cars handle winter roads awesomely IF you are moving. Hell, I put my old, tired (nearly bald) drag radials on my car one winter storm too early this year (in late April, figured I was clear, argh), and still managed to drive home safely. Granted, there was a bit of my awesome footwork at play, but still, it is possible, just takes forever and a day to get moving. It might not be a bad idea (especially if you don't have an LSD diff) to put ~100lbs of sand in the back. I would suggest putting it in the back seat though, and not more than 100lbs, for two reasons. One being that the more of the car's weight is centered between the axles, the better it will handle, and two being that while weight will help get you going, it will hinder your efforts to slow down.

Good luck and safe driving (to all of us who have to put up with the white blanket of doom).

Forgot to mention, switched to the Continental DWS this year, because I couldn't get the Goodyears that I like in a 17" (going to be putting the ARZ brake kit on my car next year) that isn't excessively tall. Hoping they'll work as good for me as the Goodyears have been.

 

[HEDORAH]

Continental DWS and read up on rally snow driving

 

[Poodles]

Okay.. I hunted down pics of your car... you silly silly man....
Dont drive that in winter! Get a 400.00 beater.. and smile. Thats a white car.. winter will not be pretty with it.

Now.. step back from the car.. apologise to it.. and pop a cover on it.

This. Rent out a storage place and put it there and sell the winter beater come spring. Snow and dirt isn't the issue, it's the chemicals and you have an unmolested car right now that I'm sure wasn't cheap. It's going to cost you more in the long run to repair any damage (the suspension adjustment bolts already have a bad habit of siezing). I drove mine in the winter here, but we only use sand and we usually only get a few inches of snow...

 

[Suitcase Jefferson]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to drive this despite some of the comments here.

Getting another car is just out of the question.

Winter preparations are under way. Getting new winter rubber with studs next week, new battery, and a full fluid change - with temperature-appropriate oil.

I will post how this goes.

 

[Grandavi]

Well.. you may have to if you have to.. but do me a favor.. every now and then feel inside your quarters (you can access them from inside the hatch area using the little doors). If you feel dirt or water inside there.. clean it and dump engine oil inside (even dirty is fine although it smells worse). It costs about 2500.00 per quarter panel to rebuild those suckers... and there are no patch panels available for the car. Also, try to clean out the inside of the bumper from time to time so your brackets dont dissolve (you can feel up there if you go the the side of the car and reach up into the bumper). That area is a bad spot for holding snow/salt/sand. I think (someone may correct me) that the mudflaps on the 89 were fixed and arent a metal/plastic construction like the 88's and previous were. so you may be okay there. All of our MKIII's rust.. its prepping them correctly that will stop it. There is a lot more you can do to "rust proof" it, but the rest involves ripping the interior out to access the metal areas.

 

[Poodles]

A good snow tire like a Nokian, an X-Ice or a Blizzak will treat you well in the MkIII, I never had a problem on my Michelin Pilot Sport Alpins when I winter drove mine... but I did regret the accelerated deterioration that it caused. Just remember to 2nd gear start if the wheels spin and be easy on the clutch.

Listen to this man! With parts being discontinued and parts cars getting more rare (I've seen a rapid decline in only 5 years), repairs are going to only get more expensive, if they're possible at all.