Thanks John. I guess they'll get me through the summer until I can afford to replace them. Here's one person's comment on them that I found.

"They suck off road. They are tires, so yeah they'll work, but if you get into anything, sand, mud, piles of dead chickens, you'll lose traction."

The Goodyear Triple Treads were always my favorite. Here they are 3rd from the top. These tires don't look like all terrain tires though. I'd probably go with the #1 Firestone Destination LE 2.

None of the tire manufacturer's said their tires were good in a blizzard. They would either say good in light snow, or not even mention snow.

Since you don't plan to leave the pavement too often, I wouldn't be too concerned about an all-terrain tire. They are definitely not a winter tire. They are not really even good off-road tires and they will not be of any benefit to you in the rest of the year. Thier only purpose, IMHO, is to make your truck look like a truck.

A good winter tire will stop on ice better by very surprising multiples and the difference in moderate snow is similarly dramatic. Some are designed more for ice and others more for clearing snow from the treads. You generally trade a bit one way for the other.

You are correct in that most winter tires are not designed for silly amounts of snow and despite advertisements of them tunneling through the alps, you won't hear any true verbal claims about being able to master real deep snow. However, they will still be an huge improvement over all-seasons or all-terrain.


Want to really play in the serious snow? You need an expensive off-road tire that won't self destruct or fly off your wheel when you purposely deflate them to 10-12 PSI or less. Because, seriously, that's what you need to float over the snow and/or spread your weight over enough tire surface that it gets really hard to get stuck. Even then, once you get high centered (the weight of your vehicle is sitting on the snow by it's belly instead of the tires) you're screwed. Clearance beats all but the worst tires, every time, in snow.

My last thought,
The FJ is a pretty heavy rig. Keep in mind that whatever type of tires you invest in, they will need to be a light truck tire at minimum.

This info is probably here somewhere, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

If I want to convert my 100 cd's into files and store them on a flash drive to playback in new car this way.

1) what file format do I convert them to?
2) what software should I use?
3) will I be able to organization and play them back identified by the Cd they came from, or will it all be like 1 big cd?

1. MP3 as that is likely the only format your car deck supports. Many support iPads plugged into them as well but since you are talking an USB stick, it will be MP3 you most likely need.

When I burn any CD, I make a FLAC copy as well so I have a lossless versions for home listening but I also make an MP3 for my iPod and my car. I use 320 Kb/sec when I rip to MP3, just so I'm not subconsciously paranoid, but you could go smaller and still be good. Bigger number = less compression used but bigger file sizes so you fit less on your stick.

2. I use EAC as I have it all set up for automatically making MP3 and FLAC copies at the same time. However, I don't actually recommend it as it has a much steeper learning curve. I will let others chime in on much more convenient solutions.

3. Yes. Use folders to organize your artists and CDs. I start with a folder for an artist then have a sub-folder for each album. Some car decks simply use the folders for on-screen browsing.

Also, MP3, Flac, etc. all use a system called "Tags". When you rip the CD you will have an opportunity to fill in the artist, album name, track names, genre, etc. More complex car decks will use this tagging information to let you browse in an organized fashion. Either way, you should be good.

Also, most ripping programs have the ability to go out to sources on the Internet and automatically add all the tag information as soon as you pop the CD in the computer. You just have to be careful it actually picks out the correct album. I usually end up tweaking this information a just bit in order to keep my entire library consistent.

That you for the information!

I'm still planning on a Toyota FJ Cruiser with premium audio. Here's some information from their on-line owner's manual, page 267.

MP3 and WMA files:

MP3 (MPEG Audio LAYER3) is a standard audio compression format.
Files can be compressed to approximately 1/10 of their original size by using
MP3 compression.
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a Microsoft audio compression format.
This format compresses audio data to a size smaller than that of the MP3
format.
There is a limit to the MP3 and WMA file standards and to the media/formats
recorded by them that can be used.

MP3 file compatibility:

• Compatible standards
MP3 (MPEG1 LAYER3, MPEG2 LSF LAYER3)
• Compatible sampling frequencies
MPEG1 LAYER3: 32, 44.1, 48 (kHz)
MPEG2 LSF LAYER3: 16, 22.05, 24 (kHz)
• Compatible bit rates (compatible with VBR)
MPEG1 LAYER3: 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320 (kbps)
MPEG2 LSF LAYER3: 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160 (kbps)
• Compatible channel modes: stereo, joint stereo, dual channel and
monaural

WMA file compatibility:

• Compatible standards
WMA Ver. 7, 8, 9
• Compatible sampling frequencies
32, 44.1, 48 (kHz)
• Compatible bit rates (only compatible with 2-channel playback)
Ver. 7, 8: CBR 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160, 192 (kbps)
Ver. 9: CBR 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, 320 (kbps)

I guess I'll have to put some MP3 files in a folder withing a folder and see if it'll play properly on the audio system.

EAC = Exact Audio Copy. Found it. I'll download this sometime soon at home and play around with it for a while. I've got most of 1T disc storage, so hopefully that will be enough.


Does EAC do the rip too? If not, is there a good free or inexpensive software that'll do the rip for me? At work, I just use Window's Media to rip a CD for my computer there. Is Window's Media a good one to use for this purpose?

320 Kb/sec

The copy of EAC that I downloaded only goes as high as 256.

Looks like I may not even need EAC. So far, iTunes is doing everything for me and at 640 Kb/sec.

Wow. Forget EAC. iTunes Rips my CD's into the same MP3 setup I did last time, creates the folders, supplies all the track and artist info. All I have to do is insert a CD, wait for the rip to complete, then copy the directories to my flash drive. Couldn't be easier.

It doesn't create flac files, but I'm not in the market for flac files ATM.

Well, that project has been put on hold for a while. My 5 year old DVD burner broke while reading CD's. 621 songs, so far.

I ordered a new DVD burner from Amazon for 23.80. Get next week.

It looks like I can get about 50-60 CD's ripped to MP3's at 640 rate on an 8 gig flash drive. I'll need about 32 gig to hold my collection. 64 gig for expansion would be better. Have to check the prices.

Will a 3.0 flash drive work in a 2.0 player? Or should I get 2.0 flash drive just to be on the safe side?

Amazing what a little search can do... Hmmm. 3.0 drives will work with 2.0 devides. 3.0 was created for enhanced speed.

Ha! I warned you that I did not recommend EAC. It works awesome once you have it set up but it's far, far from user friendly.

It will rip and it will encode at higher than 256 but you also need to download and install a copy of LAME, which is the MP3 compression engine.

Anyways, ignore EAC. As you have discovered, there are much easier methods.