Hi, Jack.
I have no experience with agricultural or industrial tires on either snow or ice, so I don't make any pretensions to expertise. From what I have read, HDAPs, ag tires and industrial tires can do OK in snow but when there is a film of ice, they can spin just as turf or road tires can do. I suppose that the same is true of rubber "chains."
I do have several years' experience dealing with our driveway and road tires. Two of the cars here are rear-wheel drive with ABS (electronically pulsed disc brakes to suppress skidding) and a traction mode that enhances the sensitivity of the ABS. One of the cars has a five-speed automatic transmission; the other has a five-speed manual gearbox. The cars have roughly the same dimensions, but one is about 1,000 pounds heavier because it is a convertible. The tires (Michelin radials in both cases) are somewhat larger and wider on the convertible.
Both cars struggle to get up three of the slopes on the driveway if there is ~ an inch of snow or more on the pavement. This is true even though the pavement itself is a fairly coarse aggregate (mildly rough surface) to enhance traction. We keep sets of
Rud emergency chains to slip on those cars if it looks as if one or the other of them will need help.
A third car here has front wheel drive, and it is not driven more than a few thousand miles per year, and almost never at highway speeds. That car has Michelin snow tires on it year-round. Considering how little that car is driven, it's not worth the bother of removing the snow tires for the warmer months, and having to store a set of tires off-season. This third car does a good bit better than the two rear-wheel drive cars, but it, too will have trouble climbing the slopes if there's a bottom layer of ice with snow on top.
We ourselves need to add ice-grips to the bottoms of our shoes or boots when we take our dog out for a constitutional. Otherwise, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to get down and then back up the driveway without slipping and falling. I guess it is the price one pays for living on top of a hill. At least we don't have to worry about the basement flooding.
Perhaps I am over-analyzing all of this. If so, I apologize for bending your ear. I should have no problems getting down the slopes at least one time, if there is a bottom layer of ice with snow on top of the ice. I suppose that between the tires themselves and the skid shoes on the snow blower, or the bristles of the broom, I would not go sliding down the hill. I could keep a couple of weatherproof bins filled with coarse sand or rock salt (or a mixture of both), with hand scoops, on the side of the driveway, in the worst spots, that I could use if I have difficulty getting back up the slopes after the initial run downhill. I just don't want to get stuck part-way up the hill.
Thanks again for your insights.
