Tires for snow Articles

Motomaster is a line of automotive products sold exclusively at Canadian Tire stores. Products branded as Motomaster range from small items, such as oil filters and air filters, to larger items, such as the Motomaster line of tires.

In some product classes, Motomaster has created its own sub-brand to distinguish high-end merchandise. ‘Motomaster Eliminator’ identifies premium batteries and power-related products, while ‘Motomaster Roughrider’ is a line of truck tires. ‘Formula 1′ is the name used on premium Motomaster oils and additives.

The Motomaster line has shrunk somewhat in recent years as the store has moved towards brand name products. For example, in early 2003, the line of Motomaster spark plugs was fully discontinued in favour of carrying only brand names such as Champion, NGK and Bosch. In 2004, the Formula 1 line of oil filters was discontinued, and in 2002, the ‘Motomaster 60′ line of batteries was replaced with the more generic ‘Sure Start’. One reason for the graduation reduction of the Motomaster line is the existence of the PartSource chain, of which 63 locations are fully owned and operated by the Canadian Tire Corporation as of May 2007. Though these stores carry many of the same products and share much of their supply chain, there is no formal affiliation between PartSource and Canadian Tire stores.

Although the Motomaster name remains on a wide variety of tires, the selection has shrunk recently. Since 2004, the Sentinel A/S and Touring 160 tires have been discontinued, with no Motomaster replacements expected.

Generally, Motomaster is regarded as the “base” or “starting” quality and price point line.

The Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり Sapporo Yuki-matsuri ) is a famous yearly festival held in Sapporo, Japan over seven days in February. In 2007 it was held from February 6 to February 12.

It is one of the largest winter events in Japan. Teams from outside Japan come to participate, and the festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. About two million people come to see the enormous beautiful snow statues on display in Odori Park in central Sapporo, which is the main site of the festival.

The subject of the statues vary and often feature an event or famous person from the past year. For example, in 2004 there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who plays for the New York Yankees. There are also long ice chutes on which people are encouraged to slide.

The Snow Festival began in 1950 when six local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. In 1955, the Japan Self-Defense Forces from the nearby Makomanai base joined in and built the first massive snow sculpture, for which the Snow Festival has now become famous. In years when the accumulated snowfall is low, the Self-Defense Force, for whom participation is considered a training exercise, brings in snow from outside Sapporo. The Makomanai base, one of three main sites, hosts the largest sculptures, with an emphasis on providing play space for children. The third site is the night life district of Susukino, which hosts the ice carvings.

Snow chains, or tire chains, are devices which are affixed to the wheels of vehicles to provide superior traction when driving through snow and ice. Snow chains are usually attached to the drive wheels of a vehicle (e.g. the front wheels on a front-wheel drive car), though all four wheels may be chained to provide extra stability. Some owner’s manuals for four-wheel drive cars specify that two specific wheels can be chained, leaving the other two unchained if necessary.

Snow chains are paired into 2 sets of chains. You should buy chains that match your tire size (tire width and radius numbers can be found printed on the tire).

A set of chains are placed on the wheels that are connected to the drive train in order to gain traction in icey, snowy or muddy conditions.

Front Wheel Vehicles:
Most passenger cars are front wheel powered vehicles, so the snow chains would be placed on the 2 front tires.

Rear Wheel Vehicles:
Pickup trucks and older cars are usually rear wheeled drive so the chains are placed on the rear tires.

4 Wheel Vehicles:
4 wheel vehicles can use 2 sets of chains on all 4 wheels. With only 1 set of chains they are often put on the rear wheels, but can be placed on the front wheels instead for the added steering benefit.

In snowy conditions, transportation authorities often require snow chains to be fitted on vehicles that lack four-wheel drive and proper tires. These requirements are usually enforced by checkpoints, before which eligible drivers must have snow-chains fitted on their cars. Near such checkpoints, chains can often be fitted professionally for a fee. Snow chains limit the speed of the automobile to approximately 30 mph (50 km/h), but in deep snow the chains can be very useful.

Purchasing the right size chains for your tires

U.S. tires have standardized sizing information. This information can be found on the sidewalls of the tires. The first letter(s) is for the vehicle type, P for passenger, LT for light truck. The next 3 digit number gives the tire’s width in millimeters. The next 2 digit number gives the tire’s height to width ratio. The next letter is R, which stands for radial ply tires (not radius) followed by the last 2 digit number, which is the rim diameter for the vehicle’s wheels.

Mark Snow (born Martin Fulterman on 26 August 1946 in New York City) is a prolific composer for film and television.

He is brother-in-law of actress Tyne Daly and actor Tim Daly.

Snow graduated from the Juilliard School in New York City. He was a co-founder of the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble.

One of his most famous compositions is the theme music for sci-fi show The X-Files, which reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart, but Snow also wrote the music for Chris Carter’s Millennium, and the background music scores for both shows, a total of 12 seasons’ worth. The X-Files typically used more instrumental music score than most hour-long dramas.

He also composes the scoring for Smallville. He has even composed music for video games, such as Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

He has been nominated for 12 Emmy Awards and won 18 ASCAP awards.

A snow roller is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large snowballs are formed naturally as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by wind, picking up material along the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made.

Unlike snowballs made by people, snow rollers are typically cylindrical in shape, and are often hollow since the inner layers, which are the first layers to form, are weak and thin compared to the outer layers and can easily be blown away, leaving what looks like a doughnut or jelly roll. Snow rollers have been seen to grow as large as two feet in diameter.

The following conditions are needed for snow rollers to form:

• The ground must be covered by a layer of ice that snow will not stick to.
• The layer of ice must be covered by wet, loose snow with a temperature near the melting point of water.
• The wind must be strong enough to move the snow rollers, but not strong enough to blow them too fast.
• Alternatively, gravity can move the snow rollers as when a snowball, such as those that will fall from a tree or cliff, lands on steep hill and begins to roll down the hill.

Because of this last condition, snow rollers are more common in hilly areas. However, the precise nature of the conditions required makes them a very rare phenomenon.

A snow gauge is a type of instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of solid precipitation (as opposed to liquid precipitation that is measured by a rain gauge) over a set period of time.

The snow gauge consists of two parts, a copper catchment container and the funnel shaped gauge itself. The actual gauge is mounted on a pipe outdoors and is approximately 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) high, while the container is 51.5 cm (201/4 in) long.

When snow has fallen the container is removed and replaced with a spare. The snow is then melted, while still in the container, and poured into a glass measuring graduate. While the depth of snow is normally measured in centimetres, the measurement of melted snow (water equivalent) is in millimetres. An estimate of the snow depth can be obtained by multiplying the water equivalent by ten.

The snow gauge suffers from the same problem as that of the rain gauge when conditions are windy. If the wind is strong enough, then the snow may be blown across the wind gauge and the amount of snow fallen will be under-reported. However, due to the shape and size of the funnel this is a minor problem.

If the wind is very strong and a blizzard occurs then extra snow may be blown into the gauge and the amount of snow fallen will be over-reported. In this case the observer must judge how much of the water is from snow blown into the container and how much is fallen snow.

Another problem that occurs, is when both snow and rain fall before the observer has time to change the gauge. In all of these cases the observer must judge how much of the water is snow and how much is rain.

Remote reading gauges, such as used by weather stations, work similarly to rain gauges. They have a large catch area (such as a drum sawn in half, top to bottom) which collects snow until a given weight is collected. When this critical weight is reached, it tips and empties the snow catch. This dumping trips a switch, sending a signal. The collection then repeats. If the catch container has a heater in it, it measures the snow weight accurately. It is also possible to tip based on volume instead of weight, with appropriate fill sensing.

Another snow sensor called a snow pillow looks like a round bag laying on the ground. Inside the pillow is a liquid such as an environmentally safe antifreeze. Usually the snow pillow will be connected to a manometer. The manometer reading will vary based on how much snow is sitting on the pillow. This type of sensor works well for many locations but is more difficult to use in areas of hard blowing snow.

Tire rotation or rotating tires is the practice of moving automobile tires from one wheel to another to ensure even tire wear. Tire wear is uneven for any number of reasons. Even tire wear is desirable to maintain consistent performance in the vehicle.

By design, the weight on the front and rear axles differs which causes uneven wear. With the majority of cars being front-engine cars, the front axle typically has more of the weight. For rear wheel drive vehicles, the weight distribution between front and back approaches 50:50. Front wheel drive vehicles also have the
differential in front, adding to the weight with a typical weight distribution of no better than 60:40. This means, all else being equal, the front tires wear out at almost twice the rate of the rear wheels, especially when factoring the additional stress that braking puts on the front tires. Thus, tire rotation needs to occur more frequently for front-wheel drive vehicles.

Turning the vehicle will cause uneven tire wear. The outside, front tire is worn disproportionately. Cloverleaf interchanges and parking ramps turn right in right hand drive countries, causing the left front tire to be worn faster than the right front. Furthermore, right turns are tighter than left turns, also causing more tire wear. Conversely the sidewalls on the right tire tends to be bumped and rubbed against the curb while parking the vehicle, causing asymmetric sidewall wear. The symmetric opposite occurs in countries that drive on the left.

In addition, mechanical problems in the vehicle may cause uneven tire wear. The wheels need to be aligned with each other and the vehicle. The wheel that is out of alignment will tend to be dragged along by the other wheels, causing uneven wear in that tire. If the alignment is such that the vehicle tends to turn, the driver will correct by steering against the tendency. In effect the vehicle is constantly turning, causing uneven tire wear. Also, if a tire is under or over-inflated, it will wear differently than the other tires on the vehicle. Rotating will not help in this case and the inflation needs to be corrected.

Manufacturers will recommend tire rotation frequency and pattern. Depending on the specifics of the vehicle tire rotation may be recommended every 12,000 km (7,500 mi). The rotation pattern is typically moving the back wheels to the front and the front to the back but crossing them when moving to the back. If the tires are unidirectional, the rotation can only be rotated front to back on the same side of the vehicle to preserve the rotational direction of the tires. Most unidirectional tires can be moved from side to side if they are remounted; tires with asymmetric rims are a rare exception. More complex rotation patterns are required if the vehicle has a full-size spare tire that is part of the rotation or if there are snow tires.

Current thinking stresses the desirability of keeping the best tires on the rear wheels of the vehicle, whether it is front or rear drive. The reason for this is that if the rear wheels lose grip before the front ones, an oversteer condition will occur, which is harder to control than the corresponding understeer which will happen if a front wheel is lost. This is also the case if a tire blows out, so the intuitive belief that the front steering/driving tires need to be the best quality is not actually the case.

In rare cases, automobile manufacturers may recommend performing no tire rotation at all (eg BMW MINI).

Low-rolling resistance tires are tires which are designed to improve fuel efficiency of a car by minimizing the energy wasted as heat as the tire rolls down the road. Frictional losses can account for over 80% of the fuel energy consumed by a typical car. Of that, approximately 5–15% is lost to rolling resistance.Low Rolling Resistance Tires (Website). Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. A 2003 California Energy Commission (CEC) preliminary study estimated that adoption of low-rolling resistance tires could save 1.5–4.5% of all gasoline consumption, but that current data were also insufficient to compare safety and other characteristics.California State Fuel-Efficient Tire Report: Volume I California Energy Commission, July 2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. A database of much more complete data will be released by the CEC pending completion of an ongoing study.Tire and Fuel Effiency California Energy Commission, June 2006. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. A separate study by the Transportation Research Board also found it unclear whether economic and environmental savings would be offset by shorter tire life.”Tires and Passenger Vehicle Fuel Economy: Informing Consumers, Improving Performance — Special Report 286.”, National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-08-11..

Fuel economy effects are greater for vehicles with hybrid drivetrains and technologies such as cylinder cutout.
Most hybrid vehicles are equipped with low-rolling resistance tires.

Auto manufacturers in the United States typically equip new vehicles with tires that have lower rolling resistance than their average after-market replacements, in order to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Focal vocabulary is a specialized set of terms and distinctions that is particularly important to a certain group; those with particular focuses of experience or activity. A lexicon, or vocabulary, is a language’s dictionary, its set of names for things, events, and ideas. Lexicon influences people’s perception on things. Thus, Eskimos have several distinct words for different types of snow that in English are all called snow. Most English speakers never noticed the differences between these types of snow and might have trouble seeing them even if someone pointed them out. Eskimos, on the other hand, recognize and think about the differences in snow that English speakers don’t see because our language gives us just one word. Similarly, the Nuer of Sudan have an elaborate vocabulary to describe cattle. The Nuer have dozens of names for cattle because of the cattle’s particular histories, economies, and environments. English speakers can also elaborate their snow and cattle vocabularies when the need arises.

Meltywax was a brand of wax produced using melting snow. It was shortly available in New England in the early 1920s but was removed from the shelves pretty quickly since it never managed to prove the melting snow had any noticeable effect on the quality of the wax. Therefore the interest in the product shortly decreased and the company went bankrupt in 1924.