Anyone here have experience with the new Falken 912's

[TimGinCentralNJ]

Try some different tire-pressures.....

 

The 512s are *extremely* pressure-sensitive when it comes to wet as well as slush/snow traction. Two PSI off, and I can spin all four tires (I'm only a very mild "Stage II" setup) taking off from a standstill in the wet, and I don't even have to really try. Four PSI off, and snow traction goes to all hell.

 

In my 5MT, Limited trim, I favor 38/36, front/rear, cold fill - and yes, I'm being very specific here because it seems like the normal differences from vehicle-to-vehicle greatly affects this tire's gripping ability at varying temperatures and under varying weather conditions. A local LERSOCer reports that with those pressures, on his '04 Impreza 2.5RS, he'd essentially be writing his suicide note.

 

Give different tire pressures a try, if you get a chance.

 

Yeah, I started off running factory pressures (32F/30R) and once I realized the squirmy feel wasn't going to wear off, I quickly started messing around with higher pressures. For the last 5k miles, I've been running 38F/36R and during this story--had a full car of people, too. I'm curious about your "the greater the pressure, the better the traction" theory--unless you're saying the smaller the footprint (e.g., the more force exerted against the road surface). Maybe these tires are capable of being decent in light snow--but without any sipes, there's no way they can be that great IMO.

 

I've actually been putting off installing my steelies and studded WinterForce tires for the season 'cause we're heading up to Cape Cod for Turkeyday and the wife hates the hum of the WinterForces. As for me, it's a little more important to have good winter traction when ya' need it

 

Thanks for chiming in....

Tim G.

[TSiWRX]

^ No problem - glad to put in my two cents.

 

I am definitely not suggesting that there's a "greater the pressure, better the traction" response on these tires. I get awful snow/slush performance when I'm up to 40/38 on cold fills.....and this is something that I cannot explain.

 

All that I am saying is just that I've experimented around with my tire fill pressure quite a bit, and this is what seems to work best, with my decidedly pussyfooted driving style (when the slippery white stuff starts falling), on my car, on my setup (225/45/17, on factory '05 LGT rims) - and at the same time, that my pressures, when run on a different car and different tire sizing, albeit the "same" 512s, certainly did *not* seem to work.

 

Our local NE-Ohio Scooby club, LERSOC, has a fair share of members who ride on these economical 512s for the winter season - on everything from their everyday low-powered FWD beaters to Scoobys that are much modified and putting down way more than stock power. For the price, we agree, nearly to a man/woman, that the 512s provide decent-enough winter traction, given that we are cautious enough when the bad stuff starts falling down.

 

No doubt - "no sips" definitely compromises this tire in the slippery white stuff, and betrays the fact that these tires will not do well in snow/slush (or, God forbid, ice....on which I totally disagree with CR's latest findings) when compared against other all-seasons that are built to be more suitable for this purpose.

 

Sorry....had to go to a meeting.

 

Anyway, what I meant to conclude with was that I think these tires - much as the RE92s can be - are "acceptable" if your local driving conditions allow (i.e. mostly readily/reasonably-rapidly plowed and treated urban/suburban thoroughfares), and if you were careful enough with them. Certainly, I would think that there are much better choices if snow/slush or even ice-traction were necessary, when it comes to "all-season" tires, but then again, there are also those, in this same category, for which I would not hesitate to say are definitely also much worse than the 512s. My 512s, combined with our magical Symmetrical-AWD, was enough to get me unstuck from my driveway-to-street "no man's land" this past winter, and the RE92s on my wife's WRX never gave her even a moment's hesitation - but I honestly think that we are also very easy when it comes to being behind the wheel when the slippery stuff is on the ground, and that this, more than anything, probably hid the worst of our respective tires' shortcomings from coming to-light.

 

I truly hope that the 912s do pan out to have noticeable and quantifiable improvements over the 512s in winter traction (as well as the undeniable problem of mileage/tread-life), while maintaining the 512s excellent wet-weather performance.