Snow tires!!! X-Ice's, Blizzaks, SJ6's, and...?

With snow starting to fall at some resorts, now would be a very good time to pick up a set of new snow tires for the subcompact SUV.

Any opinions on Michelin's X-Ice's, Bridgestone Blizzaks, Dunlop SJ6's, and other winter tires? How well have your snow tires worked in ice & slush? Also, how many miles were you able to get out of the various snow tires you've had?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have had the xice for a while and they are really good. Have lasted for like 40K miles but need to be replaced soon.

While I did not use them in snow yet, I recently purchased Goodyear Fortera TripleTred tires for my Jeep Liberty that are Severe Weather/Snow Mountain Rated. They are excellent in wet/dry weather and can only imagine that they will be superb in the snow...

I picked up some Revo1's last year, they have been good. My wife's Hankooks are also good. IMHO, any named brand snow specific tire is fine for the east. I cannot speak for the west.

I've had three sets of Blizzacks. They may not last as long as some other things, but when everyone else is sliding all around, I just keep going.

I also have some Dunlop Graspic on the other car, and they're nowhere near as good on ice, but maybe a little better on snow.

Bliz

I had a couple sets of Blizzaks when I lived in snow country, and I've never experienced anything like them before or since. Just amazing snow/ice tires, and a huge improvement over generic "mud-snow" rated rubber. Downside is very rapid wear on asphalt, so it's economical to use them only when there's snow on the ground.

Another vote for the Blizzaks, Had them for the past 2 winters and love em

Toyo Observe -- the best, and they last!

I find cheap studs work as well as Blizzacks at half the cost!

Good feedback. Thanks for taking time to reply. Any more opinions?

I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so a trip to the mountains means a long (50mi) drive on asphalt followed by a few miles on snow and ice as the elevation increases.

Thanks again.

I believe the X-Ice's have replaced the Artic Alpin. I used the Alpin's on my Subaru for 3 seasons, and will be picking up a set of X-Ice this season. The Alpin's were great on both ice and snow here in the pacific northwest. BTW they will be going on sale at Costco on 10/8

Note that the Blizzacks wear terribly on WARM asphalt (ie take them off as soon as the average temp hits above 35.

But they are still wear quick.

I got 4 or 5 seasons out of my last set of Arctic Alpins which were great on ice (I do about 25,000 km/per year so guessing about 50, 000 km per set) and to my surprise snow as well. My current set of X-ice (which replaced the alpins) is on its 4th season. The X-ice seem to be a little better in straight-ahead traction, but not quite as good in side-to-side traction compared to the Alpins.

Quite often I've driven somewhere when roads were icy, and didn't realize how bad it was until I saw other drivers sliding around, or got out of the car and walked. The X-ice really are very on ice.

Truth be told though, nothing beats a modern set of studded snow tires from a major brand, like Michelin, Nokian, Bridgestone, etcetera (not the brand of out-dated studded tire that they used for the comparison test advertisements). If you can get them with studs do so!

I have usually gone for studded tires. My Subaru has a set of tires off a Canadian National Team car and sure enough, they are studded.

I've seen the hockey rink tests touting Blizzaks etc. and I believe them, but I wonder how they compare when half worn? Studs always protrude, but I would think the high tech tires would lose some grip as they wear. Does anyone have some experience, or better yet, data on that?

Some/many of the good studless tires only have the "good" ice compound for the first half of the tread depth. If you drive a lot they probably should be a replace-each-year item. Great for when you are living in northern New England or the mountains, not so great if you pound a lot of dry warm pavement.

I haven't come up with the primo solution for where I'm living yet. Cheap studded tires? Good studded tires? All season tires and a prayer? I went through two sets of Graspics in the last two years...what snofun says about them is right, a little better on snow than Blizzaks, worse on ice, worse cornering grip too. I'm getting one season out of them at about 50 bucks a tire...but I'm driving laps to SLC and back and so on on primarily dry roads.

I drive an open-diff RWD sled, so decent tires are kind of helpful.

I think that tires are a little like skis in some respects. Some perform better than others in different types of winter conditions (and, of course, there is brand partisanship).

For tires that perform very well icy conditions you may want to consider,

Gislaved NordFrost -Swedish

Nokia Hakkapelitta-Finnish

Studded, if your state allows.

As you might imagine, both countries know a lot about winter driving conditions and black ice which in parts of those countries lasts quite a long time.

I've been on Gislaved tires for four winters now and am very happy with them.

For what it's worth, here's the latest from Consumerreports.org (I subscribe), ranked top to bottom (top is highest rated). Some tires not tested include my fave Toyos. Also, this test doesn't take wear into account and these are all tested unstudded:

• Michelin X-Ice
• Viking SnowTech (Conti)
• Goodyear Ultra Grip Ice
• Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50
• Mastercraft Glacier Grip II
• Gislaved Nordfrost
• Nokian Hakkapeliitta 2
• Cooper Weathermaster
• Kelly Wintermark Magna Grip HT
• Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSI
• Hankook W404
• Dayton Winterforce

What's the difference? Do they still howl like crazy - any legal issues (season) etc?

I could be interested.

Fyi...
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/f...tiretests.html

http://members.shaw.ca/trafficsource...dded_tires.htm

I have been very happy with the Goodyear TripleTread on my Subie. I live in CO and have a similar issue with lots of dry pavement driving in the winter, while driving on snow/ice less frequently. They got very good ratings on TireRack for dry, wet, snow, ice. In my experience, they won't do as well as a true snow/studded on icy roads, but for me, they are a great compromise, while giving up very little on the adverse weather side. I've had them for two years and couldn't be happier. I'll probably sell the Subaru before I have to buy another pair for it, but will definitely buy them for another car. I see them all over town (they have a distinctive tread pattern), so they must be pretty popular.

These X-Ices are appealing. 285 bucks shipped from Tire Rack for my ride. Highly rated at tirerack and by CR (thanks Trotski.)

http://www.greendiamondtire.com/

That would be interesting too, and the price is reasonable. I like the idea of a remanufactured winter tire. Done right reman tires are great, the problem is that a lot aren't done right.

I know studded tires are way better on ice...but how are they going to hold up to 80mph freeway cruising on dry roads?

Depends on the type of driving you do. I do a lot of driving between NYC and Vermont, most of it on dry highways and the last mile and a half to the house on a steep snow covered dirt road - on my car, an Audi A8 (196,000 miles on the odometer) I'm running Dunlop M3, excellent balance between snow and dry performance - not quite as much snow grip as the blizzak ws-60's on my daughters A4, but much better dry road performance and better tread wear.
By the way blizzaks are not one tire but a line of snow tires - the WS-60's have a soft multi-cell construction - great cold weather grip but they are somewhat squishy on dry pavement particularly as the temps start to rise, and they do not wear particularly well. I blieve the Blizzak LM-25 is more along the lines of the Dunlop M3, somewhat stiffer tread that is less temp sensitive, wears better, and the stiffer tread provides better road feel and dry road handling.
Good place to check out is tirerack.com

Conventional wisdom is that studded tires are not recommended for speeds over 70 MPH or so without risk of some of the studs dislodging (I don't know what the actual science is).

There is no question that studded tires will stop much more quickly than any non-studded tire on ice. In Sweden and Finland icy conditions are a winter norm and 80% plus of drivers use studded tires there. Studded tires do sacrifice performance in rainy and dry conditions, noticeably at higher speeds compared to good unstudded winter tires and studded tires do not offer as smooth and quiet a ride.

It really comes down to what your local driving conditions typically are. If you are mostly driving on wet or dry roads with forays into the mountains on well plowed roads with some slush one type of tire may do best for for you. If you drive a four wheel drive or all-wheel drive other tires may do best. In icy conditions with a FWD or RWD, still others and so forth.

This may help explain why unstudded Blizzaks, for example, have fared poorly in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet's winter driving tests which are the largest and most meticulous conducted in Europe. However good Blizzaks are, they can not stop nearly as quickly or hold a turn as well as some of the top studded tires tested. However, if you are driving 85% of the time in Portland, Oregon where roads are wet or dry most of the time they might be the tire for you.

Studded tires are not P/C in certain communities. However, as Ghost's links point out, road wear and tear is not nearly the factor as they are thought to be by some and improvements in studs have been made to reduce such impact as they have.

You really need to analyze your typical local winter driving conditions in selecting a set of winter tires.

Here is some good info from the German auto club:
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3468684

In their rankings a lower number is best. Because you're in the Columbia River Gorge, look at the Eis column first. I don't think any of these are studded, and studded Nokian winter tires are always to be considered with ice. I have the Dunlop SP3 tires on one car in the family fleet and like those a lot. Any of the German-made Goodyear winter tires under either the GY or Dunlop labels are among my favorites. I don't have experience with the top Michelin. Some of the tire models they list are either not available in North America or carry a different name.

I used to work with a guy who lived in Norway. He said that standard practice there was to renew the studs in the tires yearly. Here it is unheard of. The coastal area he lived in gets serious ice on the roads and studs were the best. I'm not a fan of studded tires generally, but they are the best on ice. My experience with modern studless tires is that I usually can't tell the difference on ice, and the studless tires have better wet & dry traction. Studs make no difference on snow. I'm satisfied with my Blizzak pickup truck tires and Dunlop Winter SP3 car tires.

I buy the studless tires for the latter reason, plus noise, plus not worrying about the stud laws, but I can absolutely tell the difference on ice. Its a huge difference at the limit.

I'd like to see some independent testing of these Green Diamond tires.
95 percent on dry roads. I think I'm going to switch brands and try tese Michelin's for a season.

Check out Costco, if you have one in your area. they specialize in Michelin and currently have a $60 off deal when you buy a set.

they have X-Ice and Alpin PA2's. Their prices are usually better then Tire Rack & there is no shipping and you don't have to find a different place to install them. They guarantee the installation use nitrogen and give you lifetime rotation & balancing.

i am running Pilot Sport A/S M+S on my '05 S4 Avant, my sons A4 1.8T Q and my younger sons Jetta GLS 1.8T

I had a tire Pilot A/S damaged on my S4 and had to buy a whole new set. the existing A/S's had 32k on them and still had 5/32 of thread. (about 1/2 the thread) Although not a dedicated snow tire, the Pilot sport A/S's have been amazingly good in the snow /ice/slush when combined with Quattro and I am talking about 235/40/ZR18" tire and I don't drive the V-8 S4 daintily!

Hey, thanks for that tip. Their website says they only do authorized fitments, and since no one builds the OEM tire size for my van anymore that might make things interesting. I'll call them up and give it a shot!

Nice tip!

I put Goodyear Fortera Triple Treads on my '06 Toyota RAV4 (all wheel drive, V6) to replace the factory Geolanders which did not look like they would be very good in snow. The Triple Treads are not a winter specific tire, but they performed very well for me during the most severe winter we've had in 24 years of living in Colorado. They have the advantage that I don't have to switch tires for summer.

I've had a few studded snows on RWD cars, but I never liked them because they compromise handling on dry pavement.

call 'em. they have been very helpfull and customer service oriented.

Also have Michelin Cross Country's on our Denali XL. Second Set. 1st set were factory OEM 2nd set Costco installed and they did the 2 Audis and the Jetta also