"All weather" tires in place of winter tires

[3PinGrin]

Put studded Hakka LT3’s on the sprinter for this winter. So far pretty great. Reasonable squirm on the dry


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You mean sidewall squirm or stud squirm?

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[Djongo Unchained]

Anyone have experience with Firestone Winterforce 2? They’re like half the price of blizzaks that I usually run, they have the Xtreme snowflake / mountain icon on the sidewall.

Just bought these for the Sportwagen, Under $350 delivered iirc.

No, but I had the old winterforce 10 years ago and they were solid

Arguably my favorite SUV/truck snow tread, you can still get this in the LT version/sizes...

[3PinGrin]

Some of us grew up poor and in snow country. Running balding tires and dusting folks with fancy new tires was a sense of pride, ya wanker.

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Apologies for my balding tire shit talk, lol (mine were nowhere near that bad cuz that would be damn near impossible to get anywhere on icy roads I would think). But I was young, stupid, and fearless back then. I was doing cabinet installs for a living at one point with the same truck, let the boss borrow the keys to run an errand for some items we needed at the job site, had a good storm the night before. He came back in and handed me the keys all frustrated said he couldn't even get out of the parking lot without sliding. I went out with him, hopped in the truck, and gave him a ride to the store, ha. I was sliding too but just kept the rpms up and let the truck squirm where it would fishtailing out onto the road. Young and dumb can mostly get you in trouble, but once in a while it got me out of a jam.

These LT3s should do me right though. Pretty excited to get them out tonight on the same USFS road as last night. Warming trend meant heavy melting snow on top of a very slick surface and a steep road, it was definitely touch and go to get up the hill on my Falkens. A couple butt clenching moments for sure, had chains if needed though.

[summit]

Walmart:

"We can't but 245s on your Forerunner"

Fine, will take somewhere else

[El Chupacabra]

Walmart:

"We can't but 245s on your Forerunner"

Fine, will take somewhere else

If you can just drop off the wheels, they'll mount anything.

[Name Redacted]

Walmart:

"We can't but 245s on your Forerunner"

Fine, will take somewhere else

Pizza cutters even the Walmart guys have better taste than that!

[3PinGrin]

I'm running 245/75R/17 with the new Hakkas, waltzed right through stuff like this tonight without even getting the heart rate up. The Falken Wildpeaks definitely out perform the LT3 in squirmy mud, but the Nokians just destroyed anything snowy and icey. Clearance is the only issue, definitely left some differential troughs in places, ha. Sidewall flex on the highway was noticeable compared to the Falkens, but they have less sidewall (275/65R/18).

[gaijin]

Wow, you’re paid for posting that shit? This is your marketing skill?

Damn.


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[El Chupacabra]

I just want to share that I got my winter tires from 4wheelonline. The price are great, the people are great and the service is great.

But do they sell Frosted Flakes?

[grrrmountainman]

update to my other post. i now have about 50,000km on my Hak 3 studded on my silverado 1500. bullet proof and tank like. I'll run them the rest of the year and get new tires for winter 21/22. impressed with the mileage (3 seasons for my driving) but way more impressed how good they are on snow and ice. I drive a road thats literally ice covered for most of winter and the studs shine. I'll get the same when I go with new tires. the other sets i have on 2 fleet trucks will go one more season each making that 4 winters each (less miles than mine) so I think good value for where we live. i don't regret having studded tires at all when it turns dry or the shoulder seasons fwiw.

[grrrmountainman]

my $0.002 on the G015's - our fleet runs these as the main tire (1/2 ton 4x4 pickups) and they are awesome for durabilty on highway and gravel and if they are new enough, for the fresh snow. for mountain towns or anything slushy, icy, hardpack, etc, if you slow down a bit, they do the job but the hak 3's shine, nothing to do with pissing contests. If i could only pick one tire, G015's are a great all season tire just drive to the conditions.

I agree with your overall assessment. Studded hakkas vs Geolandar G015 aren't really a comparison, but the Geolandars do fine in snow. Especially if you're fine slowing down a bit. Ice and nasty icy slush are really where the studded Hakka shine, IMHO.

It's been mentioned before, but also consider that if you have an all-weather, you might be in the situation where the tread is fine for summer but not winter. So you might have to replace early. I noticed a definite drop off in snow/ice performance with the G015 after like 15-20k miles (or by the second winter, as was mentioned above), and we recently put our Hakkas on earlier than usual because the G015s are down to 4-5/32 and the snow traction was not great. I'd say it was worse than a new M+S in the snow at that point.

[XXX-er]

) but way more impressed how good they are on snow and ice. I drive a road thats literally ice covered for most of winter and the studs shine. I'll get the same when I go with new tires..

while almost every snow tire thread involves a buncha people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing

[Shorty_J]

Let's add more to this debate...

Does anyone have any direct experience, more than just what they have read online, as to whether or not narrow tires do better in winter than wider?

I've done the googling but it all sounds like something someone said once and passed down and nothing all that scientific or measured.

My, new-to-me car last winter came with off-brand winter tires and it was ok in snow and ice, but on slush I lost all control and felt like I was hydroplaning. My truck didn't have that issue but it was A LOT heavier for the width of the tire.

I'm going to buy some real tires this season but it's tough to find anything that's even 20mm narrower without buying new wheels... trying to decide if that's worth it or not, or just stick with the stock wheels and width.

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[Pinned]

Let's add more to this debate...

Does anyone have any direct experience, more than just what they have read online, as to whether or not narrow tires do better in winter than wider?

I've done the googling but it all sounds like something someone said once and passed down and nothing all that scientific or measured.

My, new-to-me car last winter came with off-brand winter tires and it was ok in snow and ice, but on slush I lost all control and felt like I was hydroplaning. My truck didn't have that issue but it was A LOT heavier for the width of the tire.

I'm going to buy some real tires this season but it's tough to find anything that's even 20mm narrower without buying new wheels... trying to decide if that's worth it or not, or just stick with the stock wheels and width.

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My 2c from living in New England most of my life and owning a lot of light, powerful cars: narrower is better in the snow. I wouldn't go out of my way to get super narrow tires, stock size is usually fine. But 245 width snows suck on the same car compared to 205 width.

[Shorty_J]

My 2c from living in New England most of my life and owning a lot of light, powerful cars: narrower is better in the snow. I wouldn't go out of my way to get super narrow tires, stock size is usually fine. But 245 width snows suck on the same car compared to 205 width.

Thanks.

My stock are 235 and I'm having a hard time even finding 215 without buying new wheels, let alone even narrower than that. And 215 isn't super narrow.

The problem is that my stock tires are already 70 aspect ratio and it's tough to find tires that go past that without getting into a few LT C-rated tires.

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[BCMtnHound]

X2 on the narrow tires are superior in soft snow and deep slush. On hardpacked snow and ice, a wider tire is better. Issue with the old narrow tires now is that most stock rims are wider than they were 40yrs ago - 6.5"+ instead of the old 5" wide rims from back then. Even worse when you get the modern low profile sidewalls on 18"+ diam rims.
I remember going hunting wit an old family friend that had an old stock range rover with pizza cutters. It would laugh at a foot of fresh snow on 20%+ grades that the old family 80's toyota pickup would need to chain up for. Not all due to just tires, but still impressive. Of course max speed on the highway for either vehicle was 100kph. Different era.

[snowaddict91]

I went one inch narrower in width on my old Montero Sport, it was already a beast in the snow and was unstoppable with the skinnys. On my F150 I dropped from 285s to 275s and it did help, but I was replacing shitty tires so not apples to apples.

[Shorty_J]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Maybe it's worth getting some cheap new rims to get down to 215.

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[Caucasian Asian]

I’ve found that as winter tires wear, you notice the lack of performance in slush first. While they’re ok in snow and ice, they’re crap in the slop.


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[XXX-er]

I’ve found that as winter tires wear, you notice the lack of performance in slush first. While they’re ok in snow and ice, they’re crap in the slop.

do they still work > non-winter tires in the slop ?

[Sessiøn]

I’ve found that as winter tires wear, you notice the lack of performance in slush first. While they’re ok in snow and ice, they’re crap in the slop.


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I really noticed the same this past season. I was pushing mine out a season longer than typical. The ice and snow performance was still quite good but they were fucking abysmal in the slush.

[Pinned]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Maybe it's worth getting some cheap new rims to get down to 215.

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What's the car?

I've had good luck buying lightly used snows that are already mounted - just figure out the bolt pattern and often you can buy something from another car that'll work. With Subarus this is particularly easy.

[Caucasian Asian]

do they still work > non-winter tires in the slop ?

Sometimes.

All-season tires can be good at shedding water, so I've driven on new AS tires that behaved quite well in slushy conditions. But I would still rather have a worn set of winters than a new set of AS tires.

[XXX-er]

I was aware i need new studded winter when late season on wet snow/ ice the Golf couldn't get up the last switchback to the hill even with well worn studded haks

After sliding out sideways the 4th time I just kept sliding around until i was backwards and I backed up the hill to a flat spot,

IME a front wheel drive has more traction going backwards

[jmedslc]

I’ll just point out that I live in a very snowy environment and need my snow tires to be in the upper half of their life to be effective where I live. However, those who live in the less snowy areas, i.e. in the valley, do not need quite as much grip and consequently, I’m able to sell my used snow tires for a pretty good price after I’m done with them. Usually 200 for four. Easy money!!