I see a lot of threads about winter tires and wonder - why do people even bother with snow tires? Of course snows are better, but since the car is AWD, and quite heavy, it should do just fine on all-seasons. I only put snows on RWD cars, never had a problem with FWD and all-seasons. Is GLK particularly bad in snow or something?

 

Three principal characteristics distinguish a winter tire from an all-season tire:

• The winter tire is made of a softer rubber that grips better in colder weather. The rubber on an all-season tire will stay flexible to +14°F (÷10°C), and the rubber on a winter tire to ÷22°F (÷30° C).
• The grooves are deeper.
• Enhanced performance in deep snow and slush and last but not least - better braking on ice.

So the GLK may perform “particularly bad” in snow and on ice with all-seasons - when the environmental become harsh.

 

In theory - yes. But what about practice? How about good a/s+snow tires such as Continental DWS? Or one of those Nokians?

 

Not all GLKs are equipped with the 4matic system.
The standard tires are wider than snow tires and therefore not as efficient.
On the other hand, snow tires can get chewed up on dry pavement. They need snow.

Wayne

 

I'm thinking 245/45/20 all around. I know A/S are not as efficient, but I don't see a reason why a 4WD car should fail where none of my previously owned FWD ones did (all had A/S).

 

“How about good a/s+snow tires” in relation to what? Tires (in general) from various brands perform differently driving on snow, ice, slush, wet, dry - with regard to handling abilities like traction, braking, acceleration, hydroplaning etc. This applies for the Continental DWS and Nokian (WRG2?) as well, and you haven’t told us what driving conditions are in question in your case – or which handling abilities are your preference.

And for the GLK RWD or 4MATIC, as for you: By selecting “shoes” according to the conditions peaks the performance.

 

The weak link in most AWD systems is the tires. So get the best tires for the conditions that you are concerned about. Studs don't help in deep snow. Deep tread doesn't help on ice. Blizzacks on ice are better than ordinary all-season tires. All-season tires are good for rain, slush and dry, but don't offer as much help on ice as Blizzacks or studded tires. Studded tires are noisy on dry pavement.

I've had the good fortune of participating in the now-defunct Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and organizing, running and winning the Winter Gymkhana on the ice at the lake in Georgetown CO with the BMW Club. Nokian Hakkapelitta tires (with or without studs) have proven to be the best for the mix of light snow, slush and ice, typical of a winter highway. But if you need to make your way through deep snow, look for a really deep open tread rather than a studded tire. If you have a lot of ice and not much snow, consider Blizzacks or studdded tires. The Blizzacks wear quickly and once the initial soft tread is gone, you are left with less-than optimum all season tires.

See my separate post on the studded Hakkas that I recently installed at
https://mbworld.org/forums/glk-class...ed-photos.html

 

I was considering DWS... but I read they can only be used in snow until they still have that S letter on their rubber, which is probably 1/3 of it (just a guess).

I was checking out Nokians, but forgot which one is A/S+S tire, thanks for the suggestion. Too bad they don't come in our size (235-245/45/20)

I live in eastern WA, and although we're supposed to be a cold wintery climate, we don't really get that much snow. Of course, when it snows, it just dumps 5 feet of it, but the streets get plowed quickly and deiced nicely so we really need snow tires just for brief periods of time (but when you need them, you need them).

I had a separate set of wheels+snows for my previous CLK, and I HATED swapping them. We live in a condo, and hauling those heavy wheels back and forth and putting them on was just something I loathed. I had to have them, of course CLK was RWD. But in reality, I only put those snows to use maybe on 7 days total. The rest of the 3 winters I got around fine on summers. 1st winter I put summers back on in the middle of December when it looked like we wouldn't have winter, and got away with that. The next winter we did have some little snow. Usually it's one dump that won't melt and kind of lies there until March. This winter, CLK was parked on the street for most of the time. I drove my Miata on summers all winter long save for 3-4 days when it was icy or a little snow was on the ground. So in my case extra wheels set with snow tires on them proved to be a wasteful investment. This is why I'm leaning towards A/S tires, as we only will have to drive carefully for a couple of days every winter, looks like, but it's nice to be ready for something more than that, so I'm looking at A/S+snow tires like those Nokians, or DWS. They look pretty serious. The car is for my wife and she drives like all wives do - slow and calm, so we don't need high-performance tires, just something soft, quiet and with good tread life.

 

Your requirement for A/S tires, size 245/45/20, certainly limits the availability, not at least when the Load Index (LI) is taken into account.

The DWSs are there, Nokian are not available (as you point at), however are there 3 more A/Ss. Check: http://tires.canadiantire.ca/view/content/search?tab=1, enter your size and LI 99 - given it complies with regulations where you live, and you'll find 2 Goodyears and 1 Michelin.

How do they perform? Have no idea, as we use winter tires "optimized" for our area. Needed about 6 months a year.

 

I have a 2011 GLK350 4matic with all stock all-season tires.Last Sunday we got 21” of snow in the Chicago land area. Even though I have all-seasontires I decided to take the car for a spin. The snow depth on the alley behindmy house was 18.5” of virgin unplowed snow (measured with a ruler). I went outon the alley for about 600 feet and only had to rock the car once while I wasturning. Afterwards I found some of the worst streets to drive on. This Tankfailed to get stuck. The car handles quite well, and I only turned tractioncontrol off once. I must say with stock tires the GLK handles quite well, and Iam very happy with it. Since then I have been going in and out my house withoutany issues.