17/18 Season Snow Tire thread

[Blue Streak]

This is one reason I prefer snow-rated (3PMSF) AT tires. Their compounds are formulated for year round use and still work excellently in the snow. Plus most of them have a good mileage guarantee. They are not as good as studded tires on ice, but short of that they are very good. Other similar options to the Falken are the Copper Discoverer ATW and the Goodyear Duratrac.

I've been running Coopers on my Silverado every winter for years.
Just bring on the snow!

 

[Blue Streak]

Hold on....we're going to hear of every brand made, with good experiences!

There are so many good tires out there.

I have one adult kid who lives in the Tahoe Basin. One who know lives in the High Rockies after four years in Denver. My brother spends a lot of the winter in Steamboat. We live north of Boston, right on the coast, and drive 225 miles to Maine every weekend.

What I am confident saying is that the winter road conditions are pretty different in most of those places, and that is where it can get tricky.

I few years ago, our son had a race group back East for a race series. U16's. The forecast was for a day of "heavy wintry mix". A couple of the girls wondered what that meant. Well....on that one day they saw rain, rain freezing on cold surfaces, freezing rain, sleet, wet snow, and sunshine.

We very often will have a drive home in ALL of that, which can be tricky. So, in my experience {a 60+ year lifetime of doing this every weekend}, matching the tires to the vehicle and the specific locations is key, and not easy.

What our daughter has on her Outback will not work as well as what my son's GF has on hers on Tahoe.

I actually run three sets of tires on my car. Winter studded Hakka snows. Summer high performance, and a winter biased all season for the shoulder seasons {Nokian WR's}. Sounds crazy, but so is NE weather....particularly near the ocean and north.

That's just my explanation of my funding sightly psycho on these tire threads.

The vehicle also matters in terms of selection. SUV covers a wide horizon. Our Land Cruiser and my wife's X3 are completely different, for example.

So many good choices......almost like skis! And like the right tune on your skis, having the tires balanced, and running the right tire pressure {not always what you door jam sticker might say} makes a big difference.

Good luck making a choice!

We live in a golden age for consumers, in almost every possible category.

 

[Read Blinn]

We live in a golden age for consumers, in almost every possible category.

For beer and skis, bring it on!

This is also the golden age of indecision. As @Muleski notes, every brand elicits positive experiences. It's likely any tire would make us happy these days, but we become entangled in micrometer comparisons, hoping to discover which is "best."

Absent an all-seeing product god, best is up for debate, not least because the definition of best is up for debate. These discussions are fun mental exercise, but sometimes I wonder whether the "golden age" was one in which product decisions were simpler and less time-consuming.

 

[Scotty I.]

The problems are that they do wear through the top layer of compound pretty quickly. particularly when it gets warm in the spring.

I sprung for Bridgestone Blizzaks last year. I drive a lot and had the same experience with the top layer. I bought them in October and by early March they were fairly worthless insofar as driving in ice and snow. Wouldn't get them again.

 

[ScotsSkier]

I sprung for Bridgestone Blizzaks last year. I drive a lot and had the same experience with the top layer. I bought them in October and by early March they were fairly worthless insofar as driving in ice and snow. Wouldn't get them again.

This has always been my experience with Blizzaks, they only work for one year for me and then I change them. Of course some of it may be me since my wife has always got a lot longer out of them....

 

[Doug Briggs]

I loved my Hakkas on my Tacoma. Unstudded traction was phenomenal. They were a bit noisy, though. I replaced them with Hancook iPikes which I'm running all year long. Full snow tire, exceptionally quiet, excellent performance.

 

[Ken_R]

VW Atlas so midsize. I'll probably just go with the Generals. It's also the car I commute in and they've held up well in the past with that kind of driving.

Check out the Cooper ATW's. I have the AT3's and they were superb last winter in New Mexico and Colorado through some heavy storms. The ATW's should be even better. With the AT3's you can leave them year round. So far they have proven quite durable. Dont know if the ATW's are the same in that regard.

 

[Tom K.]

I loved my Hakkas on my Tacoma. Unstudded traction was phenomenal. They were a bit noisy, though. I replaced them with Hancook iPikes which I'm running all year long. Full snow tire, exceptionally quiet, excellent performance.

Good to know. Probably significantly cheaper, too?

 

[Doug Briggs]

Yes, I also needed wheels so I economized on the tires as I would have liked another set of Hakkas. I have no regrets and I spend a lot of time in the snow.

 

[ScotsSkier]

Ok getting close to time to pull the trigger on a new set (275/55r20) for my F150 while there is still good availability. Would go with the Yokohamas again but, like skis , I like to keep testing......Looks like it is down to the general arctic or the hankook Rw 11...... hmmm.....

 

[Doug Briggs]

Hankook, Hankook, Hankook.

 

[Tom K.]

Ok getting close to time to pull the trigger on a new set (275/55r20) for my F150 while there is still good availability. Would go with the Yokohamas again but, like skis , I like to keep testing......Looks like it is down to the general arctic or the hankook Rw 11...... hmmm.....

Well, Hakkapelitta is the funnest to say, but Hankook is a close second!

 

[Lorenzzo]

Speaking prophylacticly, it's nice to know so many here practice safe winter driving. Blizzaks aren't getting much love which makes me wonder to what extent performance is regional, as some have addressed. They seem to be the go to locally and I don't hear complaints. I am light on tires but I've used mine four winters each for about five months so perhaps 25,000 miles and I've barely worn the outer soft tread layer such that I ought to get 35,000+ miles out of them before things get...er...hard. Perhaps it's because temps are seldom over 50F when I'm on snow tires. Although this discussion is motivating me to get a quiver.

 

[François Pugh]

My only beef against the Blizzaks is that the first half of the tread is great, but second half of the tread isn't. I prefer to buy new tires less often (Michelins tend to last me five seasons -55-60 thousand miles, albeit with a little extra caution in slush during the last half of the last winter), and I don't feel right selling someone a used snow tire that I wouldn't use myself. Besides the Hakka's blow everything else away; once you try them you'll never go back.

 

[jzmtl]

I feel like Blizzaks are sort of jack of all trade performance wise, barely decent on ice, not the best on dry pavement, and fairly heavy penalty on fuel economy and handling. If I were to do it again I'd probably go with either Michelin or Hakka 8 depends on the situation.

 

[François Pugh]

I feel like Blizzaks are sort of jack of all trade performance wise, barely decent on ice, not the best on dry pavement, and fairly heavy penalty on fuel economy and handling. If I were to do it again I'd probably go with either Michelin or Hakka 8 depends on the situation.

Hakka R2 is pretty good. I prefere it over the Michelin X-ice III. If you can't run studs, that's what I would recommend.

 

[Ken_R]

I just got a set of Hakka 7 SUV's for our Forester. Should be in next week. A bit early to have snow tires but later availability of the Nokians might be an issue. Looked at several tires and the Bridgestones looked pretty rough. Great for the high country but seemed a bit too much for mixed town and mountain driving. Looked at the X-Ice's but the tread just did not seem deep enough.

 

[wutangclan]

How many of these testimonials that y'all are providing are based on a "proper" comparison test in a controlled environment? I.e. test two different sets of new snow tires on the same vehicle, same road, same snow conditions immediately after each other? I contend that perceptions are skewed because most often you are comparing driving with the set of snow tires you just bought vs. your summer tires or the old snow tires you're replacing.

My only proper, like-for-like test was this: based on shop recommendation, I bought 205/55R17 tires (Michelin X-Ice3) for my car ... didn't like how they handled on wet/dry pavement (squishy and squealy). Immediately went out and bought another set of Michelin X-Ice3 but went with the original fitment size 225/45R17 ... was much happier with wet/dry handling that was almost as good as on my summer tires. Dumped the first set on Craigslist at a loss and didn't regret it at all. Wet/dry handling differences aside -- ice/snow handling was almost identical in either size.

 

[Muleski]

@wutangclan, I'm not sure how many "Like for Like" experiences you'll find on here, as I think they are a bit rare among "us." In your case it sounds like you went with a classic size change that many have made {more so in the past}, ended up with a taller and softer sidewall, a smaller footprint.....and made a change. Right? Still good to know that they OEM size was better in the dry, and as good in the snow.

So in your case, it was change in size, and I guess now a recommendation to go with the OEM sizing. For your vehicle, and where you are.

Now, my experience may be more similar to some others in this community. We have driven three Toyota Land Cruisers, a 1998 though our present 2003, a total of about 500K winter miles. We have had a lot of different winter tires. Much of that driving has been the same 500+ mile weekend ski commute. Some has been on cross country trips. Granted the vehicles have had at times freshly renewed suspensions, fresh brakes, and some have had 16" tires, others 17". A lot of variables depending on how deep in the weeds one goes. But I think that the input of why we liked one tire over another is reasonable.

Our son has a V6 Tacoma, and has owned it for nine winters. He runs the exact same tire size as the Tacoma, so he and I compare notes. He has put about 120K of winter tire wear on the truck. He is typically in a more severe winter environment and drives less. Shorter hops.

One of our other cars is a 2005 Legacy GT wagon, our daughter drives a 2007 Outback XT, and our son's GF a 2006 Outback 3.0R. All since new. My hunch is about 180K of winter driving on them. All with snow tires. Multiple sets. So, once again, I feel "pretty good" about talking about various experiences. Two of those cars have spent winters in New England and CO. Denver and the RFV. A lot of I-70. Son's truck has lived in New England, Upstate NY, CO, and Tahoe. GF's in CA, CO.

Our third car does not see much snow, so the input there is of less value. Unless running Nokian WR's in mammal snow is of interest.

So "Like for Like?" No. No scientific data. Plenty of rating agencies do it.......the better ones in Northern Europe. But still, many of us have experience that others hopefully find somewhat valuable. Not that different than the reviews on Tire Rack, where one can sort for an identical vehicle, and by tire. On Tire Rack, you get a lot of people who have driven the tires 500 miles and are in love...or hate. The tire is not broken in. Wax from the tire mold still on the tires, etc. How do you evaluate wear? Or degradation of performance with increased mileage?

I prefer the folks who can more accurately discuss how a given tire performed when new, perhaps 15K into it, and longer, or what happens when the temps are well below freezing, or 60-70 or more, etc. Anecdotal stuff in many cases.

Guess it all could be skewed a bit. I'll take @ScotsSkier's input, given his driving experience and where he lives any day. If I'm thinking about tires for my 6000 lb truck, I can learn a lot from his opinions, and experience, even through the vehicles are different, and we live on opposite coasts.

Just say thinking.......

This is a community and sometimes I think people think it should be a big data depository.

 

[Dadskier]

Our third car does not see much snow, so the input there is of less value. Unless running Nokian WR's in mammal snow is of interest.

I'm curious about this mammal snow?