"All weather" tires in place of winter tires

**anotherVTskibum** · 10-28-2019, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by steved

So anotherVTskibum, like where have I not been turning off #2(from Bangor) to get to those lines in your pic?

Head west. Continue through Canada when you run out of U.S. 2, then pick it back up in St. Ignace. Bang a left in either Williston (and pick up US 16 to I-94 to I-90 to US-212) or stay on 2 a bit longer and pick up US 191 S to US 87 to I-90 to US-212. Bring extra snacks, it's a long drive and there a really boring flat part in the middle.

I'd take I-90, it's a bit shorter. I'd still bring extra snacks.

**Shorty_J** · 10-28-2019, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by steved

So anotherVTskibum, like where have I not been turning off #2(from Bangor) to get to those lines in your pic?

You quoted me... are you wondering about my pic? I'm confused.

My avatar pic is at Sunshine Village in Delerium Dive.

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**Peruvian** · 11-01-2019, 06:32 AM

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**Vt-Freeheel** · 11-01-2019, 07:26 AM

Haha
Coming to a location near you soon.

**Shorty_J** · 11-17-2019, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by Summit

I think it was that 300lbs... Or your old winter tires sucked ass. These at51s do not compare to any snow tire I've driven in any slippery winter conditions.

At51 are not any better than all seasons imho.

Goodyear wrangler silent armors are waaaaaaay better all arounder at that handles winter conditions. I got the at51 for the forerunner because they were cheaper than gysa we had previously. regrets, will replace them with GYSA as the summer/fall at tire once the at51 wear out.

I'm taking this personal experience to heart and I'm looking to buy a full winter tire set for my truck but I'm having a hard time... specifically that I dont want to spend a bunch of money on another winter tire that sucks but my budget doesn't allow for purchasing a set of new Blizzak DMV2.

I bought a full winter tire before that may have sucked and dont want to do it again.

Any other recommendations for good winter tires that may fly below the radar?

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**El Chupacabra** · 11-17-2019, 06:59 PM

^^^ If you don't need a true winter tire, you could consider doing a second set - but making that second set just another all terrain or all season with good snow characteristics. This is what we do with Mrs C and her Xterra. The set of tires with the deepest tread is used in winter; the more worn out set is used the rest of the year. Since it doesn't even rain here from May through September, she can run a worn set down pretty low in the summer months, without much concern about tread depth.

**Shorty_J** · 11-17-2019, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

^^^ If you don't need a true winter tire, you could consider doing a second set - but making that second set just another all terrain or all season with good snow characteristics. This is what we do with Mrs C and her Xterra. The set of tires with the deepest tread is used in winter; the more worn out set is used the rest of the year. Since it doesn't even rain here from May through September, she can run a worn set down pretty low in the summer months, without much concern about tread depth.

What I have now is all weather tires that I felt were comparable to my previous winters.

Summits comment about the exact tires I have made me think my frame of reference for what is a good winter tire is not very good.

My plan would be to use the all-weather for 8 months, and for the worst of winter get a really good winter tire for December through March and my all weather should manage the shoulder season.

I found an ad for a blizzak model I'm not familiar with and I know they have different technology for different models and really the thing I want to avoid is spending a bunch of money on a tire that's no better than my all weathers.

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**whyturn** · 11-17-2019, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by Shorty_J

I'm taking this personal experience to heart and I'm looking to buy a full winter tire set for my truck but I'm having a hard time... specifically that I dont want to spend a bunch of money on another winter tire that sucks but my budget doesn't allow for purchasing a set of new Blizzak DMV2.

I bought a full winter tire before that may have sucked and dont want to do it again.

Any other recommendations for good winter tires that may fly below the radar?

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Discount tire has good price on nokian Hakkapelita 8 non studded and 0% for 6 months and $50 rebate

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**bodywhomper** · 11-18-2019, 01:39 AM

Originally Posted by Shorty_J

What I have now is all weather tires that I felt were comparable to my previous winters.

Summits comment about the exact tires I have made me think my frame of reference for what is a good winter tire is not very good.

My plan would be to use the all-weather for 8 months, and for the worst of winter get a really good winter tire for December through March and my all weather should manage the shoulder season.

I found an ad for a blizzak model I'm not familiar with and I know they have different technology for different models and really the thing I want to avoid is spending a bunch of money on a tire that's no better than my all weathers.

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i posted this a few weeks ago in the truck tire thread, "Shortlist for me: general grabber artic LT, hankook ipike (116 load index), cooper discoverer m+s (116 load index). All other brands/models are a lot more $$ [as far as my online research shows]. I do not find the trade off of short wear life of blizzaks worthwhile (I’ve run sets blizzaks on several cars over the past 10 yrs)."

if you need it, i think all of those models ^^ can be studded or are available studded (as a more expensive option). i still haven't bought the truck tire new shoes yet.... i'm waiting for a used cheap set of wheels to pop on CL or FB marketplace, and it's still hella warm in the tahoe area.

**Shorty_J** · 11-18-2019, 02:34 AM

Anyone have experience with Blizzak LT? The local price I can get is way below market on discount tire or 1010tires.

Sounds like it's not the multi-cell compound but supposed to wear better for heavy vehicles.

I drive a 1/2 ton and wonder if multi-cell is the way to go.

Edit: fuck it... it was a good deal so I bought them and will report back later.

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**Shorty_J** · 11-18-2019, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by anotherVTskibum

Those are the factory "all-terrain" P-metric tires with less than 1,500 miles on them. I had been planning to run them down before springing for better AT tires, but I had enough time changing that tire at 10,000 feet to contemplate how lucky I was that the weather was good.

I'm now running E-rated both summer and winter.

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What pressure do you run your e rated tires at?

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**anotherVTskibum** · 11-19-2019, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Shorty_J

What pressure do you run your e rated tires at?

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I had gone with 43 front / 41 rear based on a chalk test, but when I reinstalled my Nokians this fall, I noticed that the had-been-rear tires had more shoulder wear than elsewhere, so I've got it a few PSI higher now (49 front / 46 rear). I do have an off-road style bumper and winch on my truck, so it's quite a bit nose-heavy; if I didn't, I suspect the front might be closer to the rear.

**Shorty_J** · 11-19-2019, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by anotherVTskibum

I had gone with 43 front / 41 rear based on a chalk test, but when I reinstalled my Nokians this fall, I noticed that the had-been-rear tires had more shoulder wear than elsewhere, so I've got it a few PSI higher now (49 front / 46 rear). I do have an off-road style bumper and winch on my truck, so it's quite a bit nose-heavy; if I didn't, I suspect the front might be closer to the rear.

I didn't know about a chalk test until you mentioned it and I googled it... thanks!

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**blackalps** · 11-21-2019, 03:40 PM

trying to decide what to do for tires this year. I had Blizzaks on my truck last year. The snow/ice grip was phenomenal, but the tire life was really bad. Put them on in November. completely bald by May. And that was living in the mountains and driving on snow a lot. My current stock new 4runner all seasons aren't cutting it in the snow, but i'm pretty reluctant to spend another $800 on tires that only last one winter. Plus I'm living down in Denver now and am injured so I won't be driving in snow as much as last year.

**The SnowShow** · 11-21-2019, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by blackalps

trying to decide what to do for tires this year. I had Blizzaks on my truck last year. The snow/ice grip was phenomenal, but the tire life was really bad. Put them on in November. completely bald by May. And that was living in the mountains and driving on snow a lot. My current stock new 4runner all seasons aren't cutting it in the snow, but i'm pretty reluctant to spend another $800 on tires that only last one winter. Plus I'm living down in Denver now and am injured so I won't be driving in snow as much as last year.

Anytime you need better tires (more than 2”), I70 closes because of fucktards. So don’t bother!

**blackalps** · 11-21-2019, 04:51 PM

I won't be skiing until march or later anyway. torn ligament in my knee. Maybe I'll just get some good A/T tires that are snowflake rated.

**reid** · 11-21-2019, 05:00 PM

Found this thread a bit too late, thanks LightRanger.

Nokian product line is perplexing me a bit, but I definitely know I ended up with the wrong tire on order.

Was at America's Tire today for an unrelated tire issue, and the manager was looping me in on a 10% off deal they're running, so I impulse-bought some tires for the crotchfruit taxi X5. I said I was looking for performance snows. I had done most my looking on Tire Rack and hadn't been able to find find PA4 or Sottozeros in my size (255/50/19), so I had been thinking something like the Pirelli Scorpion winters, but was undecided.

Sales guy pulls up the WRG3. They're listed as performance snow tires, saw the tread pattern, etc. I hadn't been looking at Nokians 'cause I hadn't been quite ready to pull the trigger, and of course they're not on TireRack.

Cool, looks great, specs are right, price is right, do it.

Turns out there are passenger car WRG3 in both symmetric and asymmetric tread patterns that look totally different. And the WRG3 SUV is different still. I was definitely seeing the asymmetric passenger car WRG3 tread pattern on the sales guy's computer as we were looking.

Well, okay, regardless, maybe the WRG4 would have been better, but the WRG3 is fine too. Even though the tread patterns look radically different, the description for their uses is very similar. Should be fine.

Except, now I look at my receipt, and they *actually* ordered me Hakka R3 SUVs. Which of course look like the WRG3 SUV but are decidedly *not* (which is why it took me awhile to unwind the differences searching online).

And on top of all of that, there are WRG4 SUV tires that are called the "4th generation" while the WRG3 SUV are called the "latest addition" to the family of tires

**SumJongGuy** · 11-21-2019, 05:04 PM

3rd set of Continental Control Contacts ordered and appointment to install Saturday. Of Duelers, regular Mich M+S, Ecopia Duelers and a couple others I've used the CCCs are the best no season tires on snow by far. Not quite as good as a legit snow but I get 50k out of them in all conditions .. more if I want to eek another summer out of them. But, definitely no winter mountain trips after about 50k miles.

**whyturn** · 11-22-2019, 07:39 AM

This is why I buy snow tires. Pow days like this

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**SumJongGuy** · 11-22-2019, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by whyturn

This is why I buy snow tires. Pow days like this

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That's awesome! I've only driven in conditions like that twice in the past 20 years. Lucky if I see more than 4 days of true winter weather driving per season and most of those are only for the last 20 minutes up and down the mountains. The other 300 miles of my day trip travel is flat, low, and warm pavement. I still replace tires WAY before they are down to the wear bars to have some meat under us for those rare occasions.

**skaredshtles** · 11-22-2019, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by whyturn

This is why I buy snow tires. Pow days like this

That right there looks good.

Glad we had snow tires for this trip to Jackson:

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**Jonathan S.** · 11-22-2019, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by reid

I said I was looking for performance snows. I had done most my looking on Tire Rack and hadn't been able to find find PA4 or Sottozeros in my size (255/50/19)[...]

PA4 is very rare in almost any size.
I then started reading great reviews of the Vredestein Wintrac Pro, which came out last year in Europe, yet is absurdly rare here.
A regional sales rep checked inventory at U.S. hq and then hooked me with a place in Florida (!) to essentially broker the deal:
http://www.305tires.com

Ordered wheels from Tire Rack and was all set:
https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...#post113894961

(Previously I'd always gone through my local Town Fair Tire outlet but they really dropped the ball this time...thought I was all set when I set up an order in person on October 25, then stopped by again two weeks later to try to confirm everything, spent a lot of time time on hold, directed to overly full voice mail box, then today, almost a full month late on November 22, finally received a call back with a status update... whoops, sorry, the status is that you guys lost a sale of almost two grand!)

**steved** · 11-22-2019, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Vt-Freeheel

Haha
Coming to a location near you soon.

...just another Sunday morning following a full moon...

Shorty_J: Yeah, has to have been!

anotherVTskibum....pretty similar to what my on-the-fly woods odometer notes used to look like...

**ScarffnBarff** · 12-01-2019, 01:50 PM

My $.02:

Have driven Michelin X-Ice on an 01 Forester Manual and on an 05 Outback (4 cyl) auto. Worked well, was especially pleased with ice grip and like the (probably worthless) fact that they had a warranty.

Also had Blizzaks on 05 Outback. Very impressed, particularly with deep snow/slush performance.

Now have GoodYear WeatherReady Assurance on the Outback. They are "four season" passenger tires with the 3pmsf symbol. So far, not impressed. Had my first slide out on an icy corner that I am pretty confident the X-Ice or Blizzaks would have handled just fine (have driven that same icy corner close to 1000 times). Dang, I was so hopeful for these.

**reid** · 12-11-2019, 02:37 PM

Got the Nokian WRG4s on the X5, and holy hell, they're a lot burlier looking than the stock photos make them look. (That's a good thing; the stock photos made them look a lot more passenger-car-ish than the WRG3).

I ran Xice3 on my Golf in the winter, then Michelin PSS in the summer.

I was hoping to have a single-tire solution for the X5, which is why I went with a performance snow instead of a full-on snow tire; this is just for getting to the mountains and getting around on highways and the like. I have confidence that a tire in this class will get my anywhere I need to go on any roads that are open or close to open; I don't need to be breaking any trails here.

The car will only get a couple thousand miles a year in the off-season, and so far, driving them in the dry and wet, I'm really impressed with the performance for how chunky they are. Driving on the Xice3, even on a much lighter hatchback, was like driving on jello blocks. Surprisingly, those tires held up just fine in plenty of high speed warm weather highway running; they lasted a really long time, but I expect these Nokians to do even better. They certainly corner better and are much more confidence-inspiring in the dry. And if they give up anything in snow grip to the Xice3, I don't expect it to matter much. Regardless, with more ground clearance, I won't have to worry about beaching the car as easily.