Who uses snow tires? What about "high performance" snow tires?

[Ajax]

We are allowed to run studded tires in Iowa from Nov to Feb I believe.

 

[viprez586]

At Lexus I see a lot of the blizzaks coming in for a swap, most of the customers either have them stored at the dealer, or bring them home for swapping when the time comes.

The ride is quiet for a snow tire, can't say it's snowed here yet so i can't give you a performance rating while actually driving in snow. Dry traction is okay - With a LS460 I broke them loose till traction control kicked in. Take into consideration I'm on a test drive so I'm not beating the snot out of the car(turning off Trac) and this maneuver was done on the last ~60 degrees of a U-turn. Also take into consideration the LS460 isn't exactly a feather with all that weight transfer.

I'd give it a 7/10 but still would have to see how they perform with a RWD or AWD car in the snow so I'm still skeptical.

Hope my rambling gives you some insight.

 

[DSMunknown]

Called around to several tire shops today. All claim the RSi is being discontinued. Supposedly the Nokian R is taking its place. Anyways, got some very nice Evo 8 Enkei rims to put some snow tires on. Had one place get back with me about the RSi. For 225/50 I was quoted $225 per tire! Probably will have to look into the cheaper Graspic tires (seeing them currently @ $111).

 

[twicks69]

Called around to several tire shops today. All claim the RSi is being discontinued. Supposedly the Nokian R is taking its place. Anyways, got some very nice Evo 8 Enkei rims to put some snow tires on. Had one place get back with me about the RSi. For 225/50 I was quoted $225 per tire! Probably will have to look into the cheaper Graspic tires (seeing them currently @ $111).

I paid ~$150-160 per tire for the 215/55/16's, and paid around $130 per tire for the 205/55/16's on the GVR4. As well, the Nokian WR's (I think the WRG2 is the replacement) are nice too and are cheaper, but they are no where near the performance level of the Hakkapeliitta RSi or Hakkapeliitta R. You are getting hosed with those prices.

I just checked with Marty at Big Bear Tire in Oconomowoc, WI -- Untitled Document

235/45/17 - Hakkapeliitta R's $201 each
Dunlop Graspics are $138 each in the same size.

 

[DSMunknown]

Have been talking privately with luv2rallye. He wouldn't personally run anything less than a 60 aspect ratio. The tallest I found for the RSi was 50 for a 17" rim. Click here for a quick link.

Forgot to mention the Hakka R was offered to me at 191 each.

With the new R line I see a 55 aspect ratio currently offered. Click here.

 

[bmoha2]

Yeah yeah I know Firestone but they are great winter tires and come really close to performing as well as the Blizzaks and they are cheap! My local tire company quoted me 40 bucks a tire! I couldn't pass that up.
I was a little skeptical of snow tires. I went out to my friend's house in the winter. I rolled into his parking lot going slow as it looked slippery. He's another car fanatic so he wanted to take me for a spin in his Honda (highly modified and sitting on Blizzaks) to show off his latest mods. He took off like dry pavement and braked to halt with no problems in his parking lot. After we got back of course I had to show off in my AWD Talon on all season tires. I blipped the throttle when I took off and proceeded to slide completely out of control 80 feet or better stopping finally just short of hitting one of those big green garbage dumpster! AWD be damned, his FWD Honda CIVIC with a limited slip front diff and Blizzaks embarrassed my car!

 

[eclipsh]

Just my $0.02 on local tire shops but their prices are usually MUCH higher than the big boys online like Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels and Home - Discount Tire Direct. My local prices were about $40-50 more per tire on summer rubber. That more than covers the cost of shipping and mounting/balancing.

Also, if you have some narrower wheels for snow tires (I use my stock wheels) you'll be better off. Snow tires should be narrower than summer tires as you'll get better traction in powder (think ski's sinking through vs a snowboard floating on top). You will loose a little dry traction with a narrow tire however so it is a trade off. It just depends on where you want to sacrifice. Personally I never push the car hard in cornering in the winter (too much risk with ice) so I stick with the stock 205/55/16 and am perfectly happy.

 

[matthewdesigns]

Just want to pop in here and say thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to this thread. This is exactly the discussion I was hoping to see when I started it. I have not sprung for any winter tires yet, as thus far, Winter hasn't really arrived yet (it was 73* here yesterday ).

I tried my old ASX tires in a little snow and they are worthless compared to snow tires. I don't know any tire shops that will sipe used tires either and I suspect it is for a good reason.

I just siped my ASX's last weekend, and will try them out when we actually see some snow/ice around here. They did OK the last couple of years in the snow, but I don't have anything to compare them to directly. I only siped the center section, cutting parallel to the original diagonal channels there, and at the same interval, so there are about 120 diagonal cuts around the circumrefence. Might suck, might fall apart, might not. We'll see. Either way, I was going to retire ( no pun intended) that set of tires next Spring at the latest, sooner if I buy a set of dedicated winter tires, since I have a second set of wheels now, on which I'm still running summer tires.

 

[pukrnukr]

I've used Nokian WR's and Hakkapeliitta 1's. They both were awesome tires for the winter. Don't be scared to fork out a little extra cash for the winter tires, they are well worth it. It's a little extra insurance when driving your car in the winter. Also don't forget to check craigslist. I picked up my Hakkapeliitta 1's used for $150 for all four and they still had plenty of tread on them. I don't know if the Hakkapeliitta 1s are similar in tread to other Hakkapeliitta's people use on here but they came off some guys BMW. The WR's are considered all season tires but also have the winter tire logo on them. I thought this was nice because they had a good warranty on them and at the time I wasn't sure if I was going to have the extra money for summer tires. I used them in the winter only, but kept them on my first season until mid spring when I had the money to purchase a nice summer tire. I think the WRs worked my third winter just as well as my first one. I think the WRs costed me around 150 for each tire for the stock 16 inch rims.

 

[citrys]

I'm sure you don't need winter tires because ziemas riepas (winter tires) working temperature is from +7C and lower temparatures. In summer condtitions they will last very fast, your braking distance will be much longer (about 4m on the wet if your speed is about 80km/h). Maybe it is worth to explore Michelin Crossclimate tires - summer tires, but with winter certification, these tires work very good even in winter conditions when it is -10C and snowy. In summer Crossclimate is better than most of summer performance tires. Sorry for my English, I think you got it.

I searched and found a few useful posts, but most of them are older. I thought I'd throw this back out for more timely info.

Just like everyone else here, I'd guess, I want the most out of my car year round. I've driven for years on high performance all season tires, right now Kumho Ecsta ASX. I like them, they have decent tread life and dry grip, but I know I give up a little warm weather performance in the summer and a lot of cold/snow/ice performance in the winter by doing this. I now have 2 sets of rims, and I think I would like to go to dedicated summer and winter sets. This will of course allow me to swap over if the weather is good, but I don't see myself doing that every other week to keep up with the forecast. However, I don't want to give away the farm handling-wise with the winter set, and would probably not run them at all if handling goes totally in the crapper.

It's a given that snow tires will make a difference in snow/ice driving. That's all well and good, but during the other 95% of the time when it's dry, is it annoying to have winter tires on?

Does anyone have experience with a "performance winter" tire that's actually good? Or are those terms mutually exclusive? Is spending $$ for anything other than a utilitarian winter tire a waste?

Any input is appreciated!

 

[1LE]

I'm using the Nokian WR G2s. I appreciate the fact that I can use them year round. I'd say they're about 95% of a top end snow/ice only tire... Good enough for rallyes in MI in Winter time as long as I'm careful!

 

[motomattx]

I would hope that at this point nobody is running a Dsm in the winter anymore, there arent many left and they arent making any more of them.

 

[twicks69]

Even though this is a decade old revived thread, there are several excellent studded / non-studded ice racing / snow tires still made that are totally worth the money.

I have been using General Altimax Arctic non-studded tires on the last several cars we have owned. I think I have gone through 6 or 7 sets on 4 cars in the last 10 years. I typically get around 60,000-70,000 miles per set with minimal rotation of the tires. They ride quiet and have been excellent for year-round usage in all temperatures. The price is also spectacular. The set on my wife's Kia Sorento is a 235/60/R18 and was $147.00 per tire. My Subaru Outback is a 215/60/R16 and is about $110.00 per tire.

The tires have been excellent in all weather conditions. If I still daily-drove my DSM in winters I would have these tires on it. Best bang for the buck for a long lasting ice tire.

 

[rEclipserGST]

I have a winter set of Glaciers I rode on for two years no swap. Still great tread, I put them up. Currently on summer BFG.

Glaciers were quiet. Terrible on wet roads in corners. Performed flawlessly in stop & go heavy or light snow or slush.

The car was a rocket. I loved red light pulls. Blew peoples minds haha.

225/45/17 mounted on factory 17" gsx wheels