Interesting tires. I’m about two weeks away from having to do by twice-annual tire migration on four vehicles which is a pita. Have to because ice tires don’t last in the summer, but they’re saying you can drive the crossclimate in winter and summer, and they’re good for both.
I’ve got those tires, too, and like them. I wouldn’t call them quiet, though. They’re definitely a bit louder than the previous set I had.
Having the case be the charger helps me too. I use some flavor of Air Pods, and sometimes struggle with them falling out (rotating them helps with that) but having the case be the charger makes sure that they are always organized and not lost.
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Yeah, there are some all-season tires that are rated for severe snow, AKA the ‘three peak mountain snow flake,’ AKA ‘3PMSF.’ Tires that perform well enough in snow have the logo below, with… uh, three mountain peaks and a snow flake. Is Tire Rack a thing in Canada? You can filter for this on the Tire Rack website.
For years, I ran high-performance summer tires and had a separate set of wheels and tires for winter. As you note, a pita. I mostly used Blizzaks in winter but I did have one set of… Michelin maybe? And then I got a Chevy that isn’t a race car and decided I’d try an all season tire again. We live in Colorado at the time so there was winter driving. I got a set of Goodyear rated for severe snow, and I have to say, while they aren’t as good as a true winter tire, they are good enough that I’m not going back to rotating tires.
So, I’m not sure how much snow you typically deal with, but maybe worth considering this type of tire. Maybe not for whatever you drive to go camping in deep snow.
A third vote by me for having the case be helpful, and having the case also charge them is cool.
Now, if you’re like my wife… the case just means she has three things to lose instead of just the two earbuds, so YMMV.
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Partly concerned about snow, mostly about ice. We run ice tires in the winter. They have the snowflake and then are software so they stick to ice. Can’t run them in the summer because they’re soft and they’re gone in a season if you do that. But it seems those crossclimate tires have all that plus don’t wear out in the summer.
I’ll have to ask my mechanic next time we need tires. Which may actually be in a couple weeks, I think my truck may need new summer tires. Which, ugh, there goes a grand or two.
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Damn tires are getting really fancy these days…the problem is you’ve got to stay on top of the software updates.
I have seen a couple places where it shows some vehicles have a 2 position fuse for the power port. In one position (factory default) it only powers on when the key is in ACC or RUN. While switching the fuse to the other position allows the power port to be powered all the time. Check out this link down a little where dabrandt22 talks about USB Power Port.
I’m not sure if this is the same thing, but the port in the trunk of our car is always on. That’s probably an option for us, if we bought an extension cord. BUT I don’t want to have to open the lift gate and unplug every time to keep the battery from dying. Will need to do more research on that to see if it auto shuts off before the batter is killed.
Yeah, our Chrysler Town and Country has 2 power ports near the floor in the front. One is only powered when the car is on, the other is always powered. Since the camera probably has some kind of auto shutoff with probably a motion sensing turn on, it would only charge until full and then quit pulling power. Probably take a really long time to drain the battery.
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Oh that is surprisingly easy. I’ll give that a try. Wonder if I will need to unplug it when I don’t want the camera running when I’m not in the car (which is most of the time) but that’s much easier to do in the front than at the back.
I hadn’t previously been aware that all-season 3PMSF tires were available.
Snow tires are handy but not necessary in my local area, but a few years ago I found myself needing to drive to Canada a couple of times each winter. I considered starting to get snow tires, but I couldn’t justify the cost of doing so and the hassle of dealing with two sets of tires, and I didn’t spot any all-season 3PMSF tires at that time.
Now, if my driving patterns remain the same, I’ll probably consider them whenever I next need to replace my tires. I haven’t gotten into trouble yet with my lesser tires, but I have had a couple of interesting experiences.
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Went out and did about 30 minutes of driving on the new tires. It’s a little wet around here from morning rain and grey misty weather. They felt like the car was glued to the road and we’re quite a bit quieter than the factory Michelin Energy Saver tires that were replaced. So far so good for the CrossClimate2.
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There’s a couple of wind-swept rural roads we drive on routinely that no way am I driving on without top-tier ice tires. It’s the difference between getting in to town, and getting into the ditch. I’ve witnessed numerous people doing donuts and boom off the road when all I do is take it slow and no problem.
Snow’s a problem too, but if there’s that much snow on the road and it’s not plowed, we just stay home. It’s the ice that’s the nerve-wracking part.
Still…last year I took some students winter camping, in the truck pulling a heavy trailer. The ‘trail’ I had imagined we were going to go down, turns out in the winter it’s the snowmobile trail. Uh, whoops. Anyway, we barely made it in the few miles to the campsite. And no way would we make it out fully loaded. So the next day we unloaded everything, unhooked the trailer, and I went into town and bought new tires. then getting in and out down the snowmobile trail in the bush wasn’t fun, but it was possible. So they do make a difference in the snow too.
The CrossClimate mentioned above are highly rated. A lot of folks swear by Nokian, I’ve not used them. I can vouch for the Goodyear WeatherReady tires, they are comfortable and quiet, and they do quite well on snow.
Probably others but if you want a short list to noodle on, there it is.
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Me on the camping trip last February pulling out other trucks trying to get into the camp as well.
The guy in the bottom pic in the red jacket is Sahil. He’s wearing my coat. Because he came on the trip wearing sandals and a sweatshirt lol.
Meanwhile the people we were helping were Serbian immigrants, hard asses, drinking vodka at 9am type of thing. (You can see the vodka bottle in the back pocket of the old guy on the left) And frank, the student from Africa, was giving them directions on how to get out. I’m like, dude, shut up. You’re going to get our asses beat. And besides youve never seen snow, nevermind a truck in the ditch lol.
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I spent $45 on a gimmicky water bottle for my son that uses scent to trick your brain into thinking you’re drinking something with flavor. I really wanted it to be stupid and not work, but dammit, it does.
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New personal laptop: 5 years old, the battery is pooched, I’ve spilled water and coffee on the keyboard, it’s having trouble picking up the wifi when I’m upstairs.
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I bought a new old light for our foyer. The one that’s there now is 1980s and I don’t love it. I don’t know much about this one, it’s an oddball. Some neoclassical features, the shade has a schoolhouse shape to it. It’s larger than it looks, the shade is 12” across and about 16” tall. Best guess maybe 1920?
Bonus, someone has rewired it so I don’t have to.
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Yes that has been an issue for me even with the Bose.
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