Snow Tires

NOcageRus

NOcageRus

Well-known member
Forum Sponsor
Sorry to be the one to bring up cold weather talk, but the snow is coming soon:mad:

Which snow tire do you recommend? brand name and model

If you're feeling in the mood can you rate it out of 10(10 being the best 1 the worst)in each category:snow,ice,slush,noise,rain,tire tread wear.

don't give me ratings from sites I want personal experiences.

thanks
 
I don't always have snow tires on my car but I owned one briefly and it came with two sets of tires. (winters/all seasons)
It was a 93 Integra with Michelin X-Ice snow tires. Little old car, not a whole lot of clearance and that thing never gave me trouble, it doesn't matter how much snow was on the ground, never had problems braking in wet/slushy/icy conditions.
They were quite noisy, almost sounded like a wheel bearing was going off (lol could of actually been a bearing too) but I felt very confident when I was driving the car and felt like I had good control of it.

It was just a winter car so I can't comment on the tread wear or how long they will last, only drove it for one winter.

With that being said, even if you have the best/most expensive snow tires, it does not make you invincible, drive accordingly.
Any other car I have owned, I had all season tires and never had an issue or close call... *Knock on wood!
 
I've had 2 sets of hancook Ice bear W300's for my car and loved them. No complaints. Very affordable.
 
Our shop installs literally hundreds of sets every winter. In my experience the Toyo GO2 winter tires have had really good feed back.
Michelin ice are very good also but the rubber compound goes hard after 2-3 years.
Bridgestone Blizzaks are excellent but wear very fast.
Hakapalita tires are the best but are twice as much $$$
I've tried them all and the GO2's are the better all around tire as far as performance and value for your dollar.
I compare them to the Michelin PR2's of winter tires, they don't excel at any thing in particular but are well rounded at everything.
 
It depends alot on what car you drive, and what kind of driving do you do. If you drive mostly in the city then your going to want to get something with a little more siping and a closed tread. If you do alot of driving out of the city in rural areas, you may want to go with a more open agressive tread pattern for deeper snow conditions.

Personally, I've had a set of Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice's on my car then my wifes car for the last 5 years. This will be season 6 and they have about 50-65k on them mostly commuting. They have been excellent winter tires. Good in deep snow, good in slush or on ice. A little bit noisy going down the highway, but not that bad. I bought them originally because they are the OPP winter tire of choice, or at least they were at the time. I figured since they were not the cheapest they must run them because they were effective.. and I seem to have been correct.

I have also had Hercules Polar Trax on a car. Super super cheap winter tire that is actually decent in the snow. They don't wear that well, but for the price who cares. Much better then any "all-season" tire out there.

Next year when im looking to replace the Goodyears, im going to look into a set of Nokians.
 
general altimax arctic... for the price and the performance you simply cannot beat them. previously i had hakalapita or however u spell it and michelin
 
I run hankook i-pikes on my rsx. Great in snow, slip a bit on hard compacted snow or ice. But all around a great winter tire. Price is great, I paid 105 a tire. Ill be buying another set when these wear out.
 
Are you going to mount the snows on your stock rims or are you going to purchase a set of winter rims and mount the snows on them?
It makes a difference in tire selection depending on your stock tire size. My old Grand Am GT had 225/50-16 tires and there was a very limited selection of snow tires in that size
 
I faced your dilemna last winter. Did a lot of research on the subject and decided on the General Altimax Arctic. Best bang for the buck, awesome reviews and made in Germany to boot! Wait for Crappy Tire to have a sale (they will) and you can get them for a very decent price. Picked up some rims as well and now just swap them out every season easy peasy! Downgrade the tire/rim size for winter to save even more $. I went 205/55/16's summers to 195/65/15's winter.
 
I got a set of used Dunlop Grandtreks for my Ford Edge for $300 off Kijiji. Plenty of meat left on them, they should last me three winters.
 
i've been using ipikes on my vehicles the last couple years. before that i had x-ice, general altimax, pirelli, and ultra grips.

the ipikes have the best performance from my eperiences.

the vehicle you put them on makes a difference too. i have toyo g02's ready to go on my highlander for this year. im looking forward to using them.
 
over the years, have owned:

pirelli scorpions, winter ice
blizzak mz-01, ws50
dunlop grand trek sj6
ct nordic ice
goodyear nordic
nokian hakkapellitta

best value: nordic ice
best performance: blizzak
best durability: nokian
 
f1mauro said:
I faced your dilemna last winter. Did a lot of research on the subject and decided on the General Altimax Arctic. Best bang for the buck, awesome reviews and made in Germany to boot! Wait for Crappy Tire to have a sale (they will) and you can get them for a very decent price. Picked up some rims as well and now just swap them out every season easy peasy! Downgrade the tire/rim size for winter to save even more $. I went 205/55/16's summers to 195/65/15's winter.
Click to expand...
+1 to all of the above except canadian tire. couple years back i purchased a brand new set of general altimax arctic for 425 out the door. canadian tire wanted 680 for the exact same tire. go on kijiji and google tire places, and call around places such as brampton tire, tires23 and other shops that only deal with tires. kipling tire is also a good place, got a set of michelins for summer from there this past summer. a little more expensive then the others however
 
arent_we_sarcastic said:
It makes a difference in tire selection depending on your stock tire size. My old Grand Am GT had 225/50-16 tires and there was a very limited selection of snow tires in that size
Click to expand...

You can always go with a tire that isn't as wide as long as you do the calculations correctly. I also have a Grand Am and though the stock tire size is 225/50R16 for Winter I use 205/55R16.
 
slowbird said:
You can always go with a tire that isn't as wide as long as you do the calculations correctly. I also have a Grand Am and though the stock tire size is 225/50R16 for Winter I use 205/55R16.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily better unless you drive in allot of deep snow.
 
boooya said:
Not necessarily better unless you drive in allot of deep snow.
Click to expand...

True but it opens up more options. OEM size for my Edge was 245/60/18 but its a sort of uncommon size. Most SUVs are either 255/55 or 235/65. I ended up getting the Dunlop Snows in 235/65/18. They were used for one winter on a Caddy SRX. Very minimal wear on them, close enough to OEM size, and fookin cheap.
 
My bro swears by the Michaline X-Ice winter tires. I refused to pay $1000 for tires for $3000 vehicle and ended up buying a cheaper brand and they were great. Payed just over $500 with the taxes. I even drove to Blue Mountain the day they shut down all the roads, didn't slip once.

Mind you his winter tires will last him 4-5 seasons before he needs new ones. I've only had mine the one season so we'll see how long they last.
 
I've used quite a few brands of winter tires (Michelin, Toyo, Bridgestone, Goodyear Nordic) through the years and have been satisfied with most of them. I am currently using General Altimax Arctic on two vehicles and they are great! They offer good grip in slippery conditions, aren't too noisy, and they wear well. I bought them from Green & Ross who price matched a sale at Cdn Tire. Consumer Reports tested winter tires a couple of years ago, and if I recall correctly, Michelin X-ice was their top tire, and the Altimax was #3 on the list (there were about 12 tires on the list in total.)
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom