I found myself in the I-95 snow mess yesterday/last night in my drive from Chapel Hill to DC. I’ll fairly take the hits on why I made the journey so my lesson learned. However, my gps rerouted me around the I-95 shutdown and pushed me onto surface roads. Many of them were 4 lane roads down to 1 lane and blocked with trees and stuck vehicles. It was bad. I watched so many cars spinning out and sliding into ditches and some of the roads were no more than alpine cross country trails. I have to say that my Hybrid Santa Fe, in snow mode and occasional diff-lock never wavered. It was a fantastic performance. I was so happy that I didn’t try to make that drive in my Tacoma. One observation on the cruise control/radar - it’s mounted so low that it was rendered ineffective by collecting road ice early into my journey . I was using cruise before conditions got too bad and while the interstate was flowing. I had to pull into reststops to scrape off the ice but it kept getting covered. And once that little plate is covered there is no cruise control at all. Lane and steering assist worked fine throughout (when there was a line to be had). Anyway, awesome vehicle in the nasty stuff.
Santa Fe kills in the the snow!
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Factory all season tires or snow tires?
We have a cabin in the eastern Sierra Nevada at 7,000 ft. Last I checked there was 5' of snow on the ground there.
Although plowed, the roads/highway getting there have some steep grades and can be icy.
We have a 2021 AWD limited that I've barely driven in the snow, still need to "feel" it out.
I have factory all season tires on the car.
Maybe an overkill but I bought a set of four chains, not cables, in case.
Anyone else have experience with their SF in these conditions?
Anyone driving their S.F.
I have a 2019 AWD 2.4L and in upper midwest snow it's done fine now in its 4th winter with OEM Hankooks.
I was skeptical of the tires but they've been OK. I did use 4WD LOCK a few times living out on county roads north of our metro area a few times in deep snow but few hills here and it did fine under 40 mph in LOCK mode. I'm an "older" driver and don't push it on freeways when they are snowy. We just moved back into a retirement community in town so it won't tax the Santa Fe too much but we do have a 240 ft hill to drop into most shopping areas that may give the AWD a challenge this winter. I know it's a bit apples n oranges to compare the 2019 to 2021-2 but I'm betting the AWD HTRAC and LOCK systems are fairly similar.
We just did an early snowbird trip to TX & back so yes for the first time in over 3 years of ownship we DID A ROADTRIP and did drive our Santa Fe, a lot. No problems with 2 passengers and 400+ lbs of luggage down I35 & back. Averaged around 28+mpg and they drive a lot faster in TX than in the upper midwest.
I'm not a big fan of chains. I have a 2020 Santa Fe AWD with the OEM Hankook street tires with 25,000 miles on them now. Tread on the front is nearing replacement and I live in the Colorado mountains on a narrow one lane road with two short steep hills. The Hankooks couldn't handle the hills, so I put chains on the front tires. In soft snow uphill chains worked OK but under power, unless you have the "V" bars welded on the chains, you have almost no lateral stability and the front end wants to side-slip on banked surfaces and turns. "V" bar chains wear out quickly and tear up cleared roads, so chains are an emergency solution only. They are also not ideal for highway travel, and not that easy to take on/off while lying on the ground in a blizzard. It's a problem here in Colorado because they are so quick and efficient at clearing roads, once you get off mountain roads, all city streets are cleared and bare.
So I bought a second set of wheels and mounted Nokian hakkapeliitta 10 dedicated snow tires (studded) and they are far better than chains. The main problem with dedicated snow tires is that tread compound is very soft for good ice performance, and they wear out very quickly on dry pavement in warmer weather. So I do a lot of wheel swapping with weather conditions.
Then the problem with swapping wheels/tires is what to do about the TPMS sensors. (See my post in Wheels & Tires)
2022 Blue with 4k on the clock. Hope that makes your day a little happier.
Oh, Brother. Here’s a lesson. Reject it if that’s your bent. If you’d like to know something try this: ”Hi, Talbryn. I’d like to know what kind year and model your vehicle is. Thanks.” How hard is that? I don’t have patience for incivility in social media. I was offering an experience and you head to conflict. I reject that. You can do better. I wish you luck and a happier day.
Thanks for your input. You tried even if it did not meet the demands of one person. You made the effort. I assumed you had an AWD because of diff-lock.
Interesting observations. I had highly rated cables on my last vehicle (can't remember the brand) they split in the middle on one side and could be installed without much climbing around in the snow but we have STEEP roads going into property here and I was not real confident in them. I bought these Titan chains off e trailer. They also split on one side so you can slide them under the car unlike regular chains you have to drive over. Folks seem pretty impressed with them if you can believe the reviews. If I lived in a "long winter" area full time as you do, I'd opt for the winter studded tires as well.
For us, when we go to the Sierra, it's to the cabin and mostly stay there in winter. When we do get a snow here at our home in So. Cal mountains, it's either too deep and no plowing or plowed and ice. Over 400 miles to the cabin on mostly dry roads, swapping tires when we get there does not work for us but I appreciate your input.
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