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New Choices in Winter Tires


praedet

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The studless ones of the WS-50/WS-60 variety... Anyone have any experience with these...?

 

I do not have experience but common knowledge.

 

These tires are Q (50) and R (60) rated. They wear very fast on dry roads. If you add warm temperatures (like last January in MA in 50s) they wil wear even faster.

 

"When the Blizzak WS60 is 50-percent worn, a tread depth indicator molded into the tread design lets the driver know that only 10 percent of the remaining tread is the Tube Multicell compound."

 

It would mean that only 50 + 10% of 50 = 55% is multicell coumpoud.

 

"NOTE: The first 55% of the Blizzak WS-50 tread depth features the Tube Multicell Compound while the remaining 45% features a standard winter tire compound."

 

R rated tire would probably last a little longer than Q but it is a guess not knowledge.

 

If you mostly see plowed roads I would buy high performance winter tires.

 

If you see ice or want a tire that handles ice the best (excluding winter studded tires) then studless snows are perfect; just remember about their tradeoffs.

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The studless ones of the WS-50/WS-60 variety... Anyone have any experience with these...?

 

The WS-50 are absolutely incredible in deep snow and on ice. My 95 Civic Coupe with about 3-4" of clearance had no issue going down 15" powder snow streets. My Civic felt more solid on snow/ice than my AWD WRX with Nokian WR's.

 

However my New England winter(seacoast NH) is only 10 days of real snow the rest wet or bone dry. They are absolutely abysmal in the dry handling and even worse in wet traction. The worse all-seasons(RE92's oem on 95 civic) were absolutely superior in wet road traction. I despised the WS-50's on wet days and warm days(>50F) were you felt you were driving on sponges. Lots of tire spin on wet days out of that torque less Civic.

 

The special winter tread on WS-50's only lasts about 20k miles and then the tire turns into actually a mediocre all-season tire.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another new winter tire to consider is the Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3.

It tied for 1st place with the Wintersport 3D in this test:

 

http://www.oeamtc.at/refresh/frameset.php?p=http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seiten/reifentests/winter2007/205/uebersicht.htm

 

The Michelin had better dry traction, and lower tread wear, than the Dunlop. The Dunlop had better wet traction. They had identical scores for ice and snow traction.

 

Of the 16 tires tested, the Michelin had the best dry traction scores, and the Blizzak LM25 had the best snow performance scores.

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My current snow tires should have lasted 4 winters.

When new the tread depth was 12/32".

I destroyed a tire at the end of last winter (March 2007 - 3rd year).

Now 3 tires have a tread depth of 8/32".

I need to buy a new tire and have it shaved to 8/32”.

Here in Ontario & Quebec, I cannot find a place that will shave a passenger tire. So, I have to buy new winter tires.

 

I will buy my winter tires from TireRack since they can shave a passenger tire.

 

 

P.S. Is there a place in upper NY that can shave a passenger tire?

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  • 2 weeks later...
I'm far from an expert on the roads there, but...

 

(1) wouldn't all-seasons be "good enough" for most roads out there that your LGT can actually clear?

 

(2) that said, it would seem to me that a "low" LGT simply would be problem in terms of height, not so much traction. Clearing drifts, obstacles and what not. No? Sounds like a truck is called for or at least an Outback or something with more ride height.

 

 

My 2 cents to your questions: The snow tires really have advantage in:

 

a) Snow (no duh...): If you're really plowing though deep stuff (you'd be surprised how deep of snow the LGT can get through...or should I say plow through!).

 

b) Ice and very low temps: This is why I'm going to get some. It stays around 0 deg F here in the dead of winter (or colder!) and all-seasons just can't hack the ice well in those temps.

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See what I wrote above :lol:

Yup, you're asking for user experience and test results on newly introduced tires, before Winter starts.:lol: Good luck with that!

 

Nokian has introduced a new version of the WR, as well, called the WR G2. I already have WR's and RSI's, so someone else is going to have to get them!

 

http://www.nokiantires.com/en/images/big_wrg2.jpg

Who Dares Wins

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Yup, you're asking for user experience and test results on newly introduced tires, before Winter starts.:lol: Good luck with that!

 

Nokian has introduced a new version of the WR, as well, called the WR G2. I already have WR's and RSI's, so someone else is going to have to get them!

 

http://www.nokiantires.com/en/images/big_wrg2.jpg

 

 

VVG, could you please give as comparision review between WRs and RSIs. I have WRs and they are suprsingly great in dry and wet, but I think they are not that great in snow, which is understandable - it's not real snow tire. Now, how bad RSIs in the dry/wet (i.e. no snow) in terms stability, steering response, overall performance.

 

Thank you.

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New from Yokohama: W.drive.

 

A winter tire, not a "snow" tire, but earns the severe snow service symbol.

 

http://www.duemotori.com/foto/2007/19258/thumbs400/1.jpg

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/product/tires/yoksv2.xl.jpg

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