So this discussion started as a tangent from another thread so I figured I would start a new one instead of hijacking the other. I also felt it was appropriate since up here the leaves are mostly off the trees and we’ve already had snow in the mountains.
I think a big misconception with vehicles is good off road ability correlates to good on winter roads. Which is not true. The best preforming winter vehicles are AWD cars. Subaru (except BRZ), Audi quattro cars, MB 4matic cars, ... these are light weight, have a low CG, narrow tires, and weight is relatively balanced f/r. Pretty much the opposite of a Big heavy SUV. Some of the worst vehicles for winter driving are almost anything RWD, pickups, and wranglers. That is not to say many people don’t drive those up here year round but they don’t preform nearly as well as the pre mentioned “best” given equal tire set ups. I’ve been planning on doing a winter driving “vs” video with our vehicles: LX 570 vs Tesla vs MB e320 4matic vs Subaru Legacy.
I will say as well my expectations for winter driving safety is to me as close to summer as possible. I buy summer tires about every 4-5 years and winter tires about the same interval so that is 1 set of 4 and 1 set of 5 tires (I do a 5 tire rotation on my summer set) every 8-10 years. I change my summers when I’m down to ~20% and winters when I’m down to ~40% and sell my old set. I figure if it saves me 1 collision, guard rail tap, nose in a ditch/snowbank, it’s well worth it.
I have spent 40 of the 44 years of my life in long winter regions: Tahoe, CO, UT, BC Canada, and Alaska. We were in NE TN for 4 years but I don’t count that as a winter region. The difference between the others and AK is most all season tires do ok on fresh snow and moderate temperatures. AK is huge, some areas get a lot of snow (Girdwood, Valdez) most places don’t get all that much as in the <100 inches a year range. However unlike many other places up here it doesn’t melt and we don’t salt. What that leads to is roads covered in very cold compressed snow and ice that is much slicker than fresh snow. In addition to that as the temps drop all seasons compound gets harder and the tread tends to freeze up.
I guess I’m a bit of a tire enthusiast but think of how many people on their 200 run off-road, AT, MT tires for the “look” alone. Or my question would you plan a trip to Moab or the Rubacon and not have an appropriate tire set up?
I think Nokian are by far the best winter tire and have been running them on all our vehicles the last 10 years. Over the years I’ve also had blizzaks, x-ice, general, hankook, and coopers. My least favorite were the Hankook studded iPike that The dealer talked me into (for I think $500) when I bought my LX. They really were terrible, slightly better than all seasons. I ran them for about a month and sold them on Craig’s list.
So for those who live in areas that have snow on the ground a significant portion of the year what tires do you like? If you don’t switch out why not?
I think a big misconception with vehicles is good off road ability correlates to good on winter roads. Which is not true. The best preforming winter vehicles are AWD cars. Subaru (except BRZ), Audi quattro cars, MB 4matic cars, ... these are light weight, have a low CG, narrow tires, and weight is relatively balanced f/r. Pretty much the opposite of a Big heavy SUV. Some of the worst vehicles for winter driving are almost anything RWD, pickups, and wranglers. That is not to say many people don’t drive those up here year round but they don’t preform nearly as well as the pre mentioned “best” given equal tire set ups. I’ve been planning on doing a winter driving “vs” video with our vehicles: LX 570 vs Tesla vs MB e320 4matic vs Subaru Legacy.
I will say as well my expectations for winter driving safety is to me as close to summer as possible. I buy summer tires about every 4-5 years and winter tires about the same interval so that is 1 set of 4 and 1 set of 5 tires (I do a 5 tire rotation on my summer set) every 8-10 years. I change my summers when I’m down to ~20% and winters when I’m down to ~40% and sell my old set. I figure if it saves me 1 collision, guard rail tap, nose in a ditch/snowbank, it’s well worth it.
I have spent 40 of the 44 years of my life in long winter regions: Tahoe, CO, UT, BC Canada, and Alaska. We were in NE TN for 4 years but I don’t count that as a winter region. The difference between the others and AK is most all season tires do ok on fresh snow and moderate temperatures. AK is huge, some areas get a lot of snow (Girdwood, Valdez) most places don’t get all that much as in the <100 inches a year range. However unlike many other places up here it doesn’t melt and we don’t salt. What that leads to is roads covered in very cold compressed snow and ice that is much slicker than fresh snow. In addition to that as the temps drop all seasons compound gets harder and the tread tends to freeze up.
I guess I’m a bit of a tire enthusiast but think of how many people on their 200 run off-road, AT, MT tires for the “look” alone. Or my question would you plan a trip to Moab or the Rubacon and not have an appropriate tire set up?
I think Nokian are by far the best winter tire and have been running them on all our vehicles the last 10 years. Over the years I’ve also had blizzaks, x-ice, general, hankook, and coopers. My least favorite were the Hankook studded iPike that The dealer talked me into (for I think $500) when I bought my LX. They really were terrible, slightly better than all seasons. I ran them for about a month and sold them on Craig’s list.
So for those who live in areas that have snow on the ground a significant portion of the year what tires do you like? If you don’t switch out why not?
so I will get pricing on the Nokian Hakkapelitta R3's from my dealer.
