What winter tiers do you guys like?

[RToyo86]

I've had various tires on different cars over the years.
Hankook Ipikes rc01, Michelin x-ice, general altimax arctic, Goodyear Nordic, and more recently the Pirelli ice zero FR.

That particular model of ipike was crap. Terrible wet performance, and mediocre in the snow, worst tire I've used to date.

Most snows will probably do the job if you don't care about dry performance. I wanted something that wasn't going to make the car feel like a wet noodle on dry pavement. The Pirelli's do a good job in the dry, while maintaining good snow and ice traction. Very quiet on the highway. Once these are toast I'm switching to nokian hakkapeliitta r3's. They should provide similar dry performance with superior snow performance over what I have now.

[BierMeister]

Originally Posted by RickyRacer

like the guy above said.. winter can mean different things... icy roads, snowy packed roads, cold weather but otherwise dry roads..


I'm in Toronto which is probably similar to Chicago.. Never had a problem with Michelin Xi3



.. except once.. in London, ON... when my girlfriend lived in a house at the bottom of a hill.



I don't blame that on the FRS though. I was leaving her place at 6am, got stuck trying to go uphill, called a tow, tow truck came down half way and got stuck too. Had to winch himself to a light post to get back out. He said don't bother.


The only people who left to work that day were 4x4 SUVs lol. A woman in a camry loaded with 3 kids tried going after see me and the tow truck stuck... she made it a few feet... spun wheels. Parked the car. Walked home with the kids.

+1 for Michelin Xi3. They're not the best winter tire for snow but they'll get you through it without any issues. The major advantage over the others is that they're very good on dry roads which is 95% of the winter for me.

I believe they're the only winter tire with a tread wear warranty as well.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

In TireRack's testing, the car equipped with winter tires stops in literally HALF the distance of the car with all-season tires on an icy surface...



Defensive driving is always the most important aspect in preventing an accident, but no amount of good driving can make up for a lack of grip in ALL situations. Even the best, most defensive driver cannot account for every eventuality, and having twice as much traction can sometimes be the difference-maker. I, for one, also pride myself in driving defensively... but that doesn't mean I also don't want to have twice as much grip in winter conditions

there's almost never any ice near me. which would explain why i see no massive benefit to snow tires.

[AnUnusedUsername]

I'm in Ohio and have gone two years on Pirelli Sottozero series 2s, sold as 'performance' winter tires. We don't get much snow here but it's always either cold or raining, so summer tires year round isn't an option.

Dedicated snow tires like blizzaks would wear out really fast on four months of cold and dry pavement. Performance winter tires can handle dry conditions better than snow tires and are better the rest of winter than all seasons. I wouldn't want them if it snowed every week, but they're great if you just need something that isn't summers.

You won't see the TPMS light if you store your summer tires in the garage. It only comes on after you've driven about 45 miles with no sensors, so if your commute is less than that the car will just pick up the sensors when you get home at night and never show the light.

[why?]

Originally Posted by AnUnusedUsername

I'm in Ohio and have gone two years on Pirelli Sottozero series 2s, sold as 'performance' winter tires. We don't get much snow here but it's always either cold or raining, so summer tires year round isn't an option.

Dedicated snow tires like blizzaks would wear out really fast on four months of cold and dry pavement. Performance winter tires can handle dry conditions better than snow tires and are better the rest of winter than all seasons. I wouldn't want them if it snowed every week, but they're great if you just need something that isn't summers.

You won't see the TPMS light if you store your summer tires in the garage. It only comes on after you've driven about 45 miles with no sensors, so if your commute is less than that the car will just pick up the sensors when you get home at night and never show the light.

Sorry but that is just totally false. They do not wear out faster on "cold and dry pavement." Maybe they did a few decades ago, but now they are designed for that.

[soundman98]

the softer winter compound does in fact wear faster.




but it's not a tire problem.

[why?]

Originally Posted by soundman98

the softer winter compound does in fact wear faster.




but it's not a tire problem.

they also handle better than a bunch of all seasons, which unfortunately tends to magnify that need.

[8inchAzN]

Originally Posted by Stang70Fastback

The Bridgestone Blizzak WS, for example, are indeed a regular all-season compound once you wear past ~50%,

Do you have a source for this?

[Sasquachulator]

Ive only ever used Michelin X-Ice (first generation) and they were awesome when new....they kinda sucked when they started to get worn though. There were clear traction differences between new and a few winters worn.

I've also used Continental extremecontact DWS. Winters where I live are too unpredictable to rely on pure summers when its approaching transition time.
(snow may still come even if the weather has been warm for 2 weeks for example). I actually felt like these were working better than the semi worn Xice at some point.

The DWS so far has been my favorite tire. They're softer than other HI-PO tires so the ride is not as bumpy, and the snow and ice traction are pretty damn good for an all season. Not actually sure how long it'll handle the snow and ice (once it gets worn down a bit its effectiveness obviously drops to almost nothing, eventually making them pure summers before completely being useless). Its easy to tell though, they put a DWS indicator on the tread which wears out each letter one by one as the tire is worn down. DWS stands for Dry, Wet, Snow. S wears away first, so the tires only really become useable in wet and dry. W goes next, so then the tire becomes pure dry condition summer tires. Once the D is gone the tires are pretty much useless.

That would lead me to give Continental wintercontacts a try (haven't yet). But I really want to use the Nokian Hakkapellita. Apparently those are still the best winter tires. They're just expensive tires compared to other brands.

[Jordanwolf]

Tbh, as much as I hated the Michelin x ice 3, they worked, and in some seriously deep conditions too.

Prefer the Hankook ipike though, never had to seesaw my way out of parking spots with these tires.

[qcbaker]

Originally Posted by 8inchAzN

Do you have a source for this?

Description for the WS80 on TireRack.



To be fair, this doesn't explicitly say that the remaining 40% of tread is only as good as an all season, it only says that it isn't the multicell compound.

[Tcoat]

This is simple.
ANY winter tire is better than summer or all seasons if you regularly experience temperatures below 40 degrees with deep snow or ice.


ANY all season tire is better than summer tires if you only occasionally see 40 degrees, light snow and slush.


NO summer tire should be used if you hit temperatures below 40degrees even if you never see snow or ice.


Yes some winter tires have "better" abilities in one category or another but as long as it is indeed a winter tire it is going to perform better than none at all.

[qcbaker]

This thread has me thinking that maybe I should try a different winter tire this year instead of the Blizzaks... If the General Altimax Artic has 100% tread depth of the winter compound instead of just 60% like the Blizzaks, wouldn't that mean I could get away with 2 winters of hooliganism rather than just 1...?

[Pedro13]

My personal choice is Michelin X ICE. Have a good grip and also very quiet.