GET YOUR DEDICATED SNOW TIRES NOW !!!

I do too, but that's based on my experience of using Xice on Gen3 and PRIME and comparing that to only two other much lesser-known brands of snow tires on totally different cars I have had in the past. I've never driven a car with snow tires by Nokian, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Conti, Yokohama, Kumho, Hankook, and many, many, many others. When I am in a market for a new set of winter tires, my past sampling number is way too small to make a good comparison shopping.

 

One thing to consider is the difference between studded and studless. x-ice are studless tires and are much better for most conditions. Studded tires have a slight advantage at freezing on ice. It's not a huge advantage but it does exist. In almost all other conditions the studless tires have a pretty big advantage.

The things that matter, braking and cornering, are measurable and the difference between the best and the rest is pretty dramatic. That said, the difference between the lesser brands and All Season Radials is far more dramatic. A mediocre snow tire is much better than a good all season in the winter conditions. Well maybe except the Nokkian WR3 but even that tire is prone to excessive wear in the summer months.

Here's what they don't advertise though. Studded tires SUCK on bare wet pavement. And it only makes sense, little metal spikes on a wet road are a recipe for terrible traction. Studless are also at a disadvantage but not as dramatic. So if you live in Western Washington or Western Oregon studded tires are a terrible option for winter traction. 95% of the time you'll be using them in the conditions that they are abysmal at handling. Personally I will never buy studded tires again. Last winter we went up to Mount Hood and all these SUVs were stuck in the (not very deep) snow over ice and the Prius Prime just kept trucking along. I finally gave up on my destination because I couldn't get around all the stuck SUVs with All Seasons.

 

I've owned Blizzaks, Hankooks, Nokkian, and X-Ice. The X-Ice seem like the best balance but the studless Nokkian are bomber in the snow. Hankooks were meh and the Blizzaks were almost as good as the X-Ice but not as good for my driving. I've also owned some lesser brands and they were decidedly lesser than the top dogs. Of course they were so much better than the All Seasons that were on the car that they still were a great change.

 

I agree completely. I lived in snow belt all my life, but never used snow tires until our son started driving my car. For most part of my driving, living in a city, I never felt needs for snow tires, at least until I first tried them on my car. The first set of snow tires I had on our old Civic was studded. I don't even remember the brand or model, but I know they weren't Nokian. It did fantastic job on icy road, but that was the only good thing. Everything else, I never liked studded tires. The problem is that the situation that called for studded tires, that is driving on icy road existed only a few days out of entire winter.

Part of me is wanting to try other brands of tires myself to see the difference, but then when it come to picking a set, the price and availability and name recognition always becomes the main deciding factors. After having two sets of X-ice on two cars and knowing what X-ice can offer, when I can buy Michelin X-ice for ~$50 as shown on my comment #43, I just can not justify switching to another brands, either cheaper no name (at least to me) brands at below $50, or very expensive well known brands at above $100.

Looks like I will be buying another set of Michelin X-ice, this time Latitude X-ice Xi2 for our SUV. The price difference between X-ice ($135 after all discounts and rebates) is bit more than the cheapest snow tires I can find, the Sumitomo Ice Edge ($97), but way more affordable than the most expensive snow tires I really want to try, the Nokian Hakka R3 ($235).

 

my hub rings delivery date was Fri Oct 11 now looks to be Wed Oct 23 - we shall see, no biggy, I don't have new tires to mount yet anyways.

typically, from what I've seen when getting tires mounted, there are 2 toilet bowl type brushes in two cans attached to the mounting machine. One can contains a dirty water / soap mix that gets used to brush both tire bead and inside the rim lips before the tire is dropped onto the wheel secured in the mounting machine. If you're lucky that is all that gets done to the wheels and tires. If you're not so luck and the guy mounting your tires believes he may have issue(s) seating the bead the other can and brush will get used.
rinse and repeat.
LOL
"good enough for government work"

 

I think that's a factor: if you get a snow tire that's noisy, killing your mpg, less grippy on bare/wet pavement, and making it feel like a truck, it's going to put you off, drive you back to your all seasons.

 

Ru-Glyde tire mounting lube is widely used. Bead damage can sometimes happen when a dry bead is stretched over a rim.

One huge advantage of real winter tires is that it makes one much more able to dodge out of the way of some fool sliding toward you.

 

Just ordered my snows today. I'll report back when they arrive by early next week.
I hope yall can endure till then.

 

Well, it's that time of the year. ChuggyPig was serviced yesterday, his snow-shoes will go on at the end of the month, and if I can find some spare time, the autumn ProlongGridShortie will happen in the next week or so! I look forward to hearing about your new snow-shoes!

 

I used to work with a guy who lived in a town in Norway, on the coast, above the arctic circle. Sheet ice on their roads was normal all winter. The standard practice there was to go to the tire shop yearly to get their studs renewed. Year old studs with worn rounded tips were pulled out and new studs of the suitable length with sharp edges were put into the tread. Ask for that in North America?...Can't be done.

If a tire with the molded pockets for studs is driven without studs installed, that's different. The holes may pick up pebbles that can't easily be removed and which may damage the stud insertion gun or keep the studs from fully seating if studs are subsequently installed.

 

My local garage is directing me towards Yokohama IceGuard iG53's. Anyone have any input on these?

I've been very happy with General Altimax Arctics for the past 10 years but the size is in limited supply for the Prime.

I'm in Canada, Canadian Winters laugh at crappy Winter tires!

 

Thanks for the feedback on the IceGuards. Honestly, I don't have a top 5. I was just going to get another set of General's as I have done for my last 5 cars. Glad to see the Yokohama's have worked out well for you. The worst conditions I will ever see are on my poorly kept city street here in Montreal, that will be "forgotten" to be plowed several times this winter!

 

Our Sienna has the R3s on it because I couldn't get the X-ice for it at the time. My local point S tire company sold them to me for ~100 each while they were listed well over 200 online. You might call around locally if you want them. They've been great on our Sienna.

 

Yeah, I have been wanting to try Nokian on my cars for some time. Every time I am in a market for a set of winter tires, Nokian is always the most expensive and less available brand. If I can find R3 for our SUV for $100/tire, I would go for it in a heartbeat. I did find Nokian Nordman 7 and WRG4 in our SUV size at the price less than Xice at around $140. (Xice with $165 price tag will be $135 after rebates and discounts). However, Nordman 7 is studded while WRG4 is All-Weather, not a real snow tire. At about the same final price, I have to stay with Xice.

How is your R3 doing on tread wear? Are they comparable to Xice? I want any snow on my car to last at least 5 seasons (that's about 30k miles).

 

Hakkapeliitta R3 s are $ 105 today at Discount Tire

4 tires with local mounting and balancing is around 448.50

I just got my 4 Nordmen 7 studless yesterday. I still have to weigh the tires and steelies and decide if I'm gonna get TPMS or Schrader.