Looking for snow tires for slippery T/A

[sciguyjim]

I have an 89 T/A which, I'm sure you know, is very light in the rear. It's my daily driver and is a pain to drive in the winter. It came with 245/50R16 Z rated Eagles which were useless in the winter. I changed to Goodrich Comp T/A P215/60 R16 VR4 tires which I've used for about 13 years now. It seems these have now been discontinued and I've decided to have a set of wheels and tires dedicated to winter use for more safety. I want to stay with the narrow style (cuts through loose snow better). Does anyone have any recommendations?

[ivymike1031]

no comments in/re tires, as I drive a compact car... but I felt like commenting on the subject anyway:

When I was growing up, in the mountains in CA, the guy across the street from me plowed driveways with a 2wd flatbed truck. He put 1500lbs of iron blocks above the back axle to improve traction, and seemed to do just fine.

Now that I live in Chicago, where there is considerably less snow, the closest approximation that I've seen is people who partially fill the beds of their pickups with sandbags.

Another thing that might help - see if you can fit smaller diameter wheels on your truck. With a smaller diameter wheel, you might be able to get a higher-profile tire with the same (or maybe slightly larger) OD. I would expect high profile tires to provide marginally better longitudinal traction than low profile tires, all other things held constant.

[sciguyjim]

I do put 1-200 lbs of weight in the trunk and this does help the all season tires I have now but I feel like I'm just getting lucky not hitting anything every winter.