Winter tire discussion for grown ups thread.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by supafamous

I'm shocked at how many people are running their winters year round nowadays. Not the WRG4/CrossClimate stuff but Blizzaks and X-Ice tires.

We do that with the X-Ices on my wifes Rav4 because it makes no sense to have summers. The old summers and winters were both way over on date and had ~50% tread left with about 80k km on each. It now gets driven even less. Only once have I actually worn a set of tires down before they got too old or started showing weathering so idgaf about increased tread wear because it'll never matter. I'm not paying for and storing a second set just so I can throw them both out with 90% tread in 10 years lol.

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by underscore

We do that with the X-Ices on my wifes Rav4 because it makes no sense to have summers. The old summers and winters were both way over on date and had ~50% tread left with about 80k km on each. It now gets driven even less. Only once have I actually worn a set of tires down before they got too old or started showing weathering so idgaf about increased tread wear because it'll never matter. I'm not paying for and storing a second set just so I can throw them both out with 90% tread in 10 years lol.

It's always a problem looking at tires from an economical perspective. But from someone who tries to educate people about tires, sorry, but that just makes me cringe.

In an emergency when one needs to steer or panic brake to avoid a collision, having the appropriate tires can make all the difference bewteen an accident or a near miss. Considering summer tires are actually better known as 3 season tires, people that run winters year round are essentially running "inappropriate" tires 3 season of the year. They are literally inferior in every way besides when there's snow or it's very cold.

When something as important as braking and steering (and acceleration) depend greatly on the tires. I know tires aren't cheap... but I personally would advise that tires is the one thing to not skimp out on. If you do the math on the cost of tires over a 10 year span, is that really so much for the sake of safety?

[Great68]

I hear ya, but the loss of performance of a winter in the summer vs the other way around is not even close to the same in magnitude.

Here's a good video testing the performance of summer vs all seasons vs winters. At warm temps (15C) the full winters are still very close to the all seasons. For example at 15C there's less than a second difference in dry braking from 80-5km/h between winters and all-seasons

YouTube

[underscore]

Winters in the summer may not be ideal for grip, but neither is driving on tires that are really old (which loads of people do when a 12 year old tire still has 60% tread), or those "eco" tires with low resistance, or any all season. I could slap some ultra sticky track tires on it for maximum safety, but then it'll just fall over during the emergency maneuver instead of hitting the other car because this is still just a small SUV with mushy suspension designed for comfort.

Also to clarify this thing spends 95% of its time driving in town at <70km/h. The only time it's on the highway it's going to the ski hill or going over the passes, where for 8-9 months of the year it gets cold enough that all seasons start to lose grip.

[CorneringArtist]

Decided to throw my snows on in mid-October to both beat the rush and get ahead of any shenanigans once wet weather hits more consistently.

On the topic of winter tire traction vs summer tire traction, the OE Pirelli Cinturatos that came with my car in 225/45/17 had less dry grip than my 205/50/17 Continental VikingContact7s. It was way easier to reach the limit on the Pirellis than it was on the Contis somehow.

[Badhobz]

Daily hive so take it with a grain of salt. But they are saying whistler could potentially have snow next week.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-s...snow-next-week

[westopher]

Snowed up top already. False fall has begun.

[wreck]

so.. Blizzak DMV2 or Michelin X-Ice Snow?

[westopher]

When given the option of comparables. I’d always pick Michelin.

[wreck]

I’d be curious to know the difference in snow/ice performance between the x-ice (snow) and the crossclimate 2 (all weather).


My 3 choices are:

1) Buy X-Ice tires and switch them with my current all-season tires

2) Buy X-Ice tires and buy a set of winter rims and do a full swap

3) Buy Crossclimate 2 all-weather and run them year round

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by wreck

I’d be curious to know the difference in snow/ice performance between the x-ice (snow) and the crossclimate 2 (all weather).

My 3 choices are:

1) Buy X-Ice tires and switch them with my current all-season tires

2) Buy X-Ice tires and buy a set of winter rims and do a full swap

3) Buy Crossclimate 2 all-weather and run them year round

I've done a fair bit of reading on the CC2 as I have thought about going to a single tire year round and from what I can gather you can expect snow performance to be somewhere in between a full winter (X-Ice) and a performance winter (Alpin).

One review I found: https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/...ossClimate.htm

Edit: https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/...-Tyre-Test.htm - There's a lot more all weather tires in the EU so more testing data and more options as well.

[supafamous]

2022 test results just came out for all weather tires from Tyre Reviews: https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/...-Tyre-Test.htm

Key comment:

I know the original CrossClimate wasn't always the best in snow as it was really focused on the dry and wet, but they have significantly improved the snow performance for the CrossClimate 2. It was literally a league of one, and was as far ahead at the front as the Bridgestone was at the rear in terms of grip and driveability. The CrossClimate 2 has winter tyre levels of snow grip.

[twitchyzero]

1 set to finally rule them all for a street car?

hope that grip level is still there 5 winters later

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

1 set to finally rule them all for a street car

Sure looks like it. Seems all the tire makers are converging on real all season tires now - the tech is there to make it happen - and soon all non-enthusiast cars will be best served with an all weather tire like the CC2 or similar. 10 years from now I bet even most enthusiasts (spirited driving) will be best served with an all weather tire and it'll just be the extreme cases (like deep snow or track driving) where a specialised tire is needed.

[ssjGoku69]

Spouse bought a new CUV right before COVID so it has 3-year-old all-season tyres with ~6,500 km on it since she has been working from home since covid.

I was looking to buy new wheels with winter tyres (guessing ~$3,500), but maybe going CrossClimate2 and ditching the oldish (but still newish) rubber would be a good move too...

[twitchyzero]

try selling them dismounted from the wheel
those still have lotsa life

[Great68]

I want to replace my X-Ice's with Crossclimate 2's for shoulder & winter seasons, but they don't make them in my car's stock size (215/45r18)

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by Great68

I want to replace my X-Ice's with Crossclimate 2's for shoulder & winter seasons, but they don't make them in my car's stock size (215/45r18)

225/40R18 is 2% off, which is an acceptable margin of error. I believe the CC2 is available in that size.

[Badhobz]

costco's got crossclimate2's right now and you save 130 bucks off 4.

i just ordered 4 for my wife's RX

[68style]

The tread pattern on those tires look just like I imagine her eyebrows look every time you open your mouth

[Badhobz]

Hahahah so true. Had this exact conversation this morning.

Me: hey I’m going to buy you new tires. Your existing ones are under half tread and I’ll sell the old ones on Craigslist for money afterwards

Her: why

Me: cuz revscene boys showed me how great cross climate 2’s are

Her: who cares.

Me: but you’ll be safer and the low rolling resistance will save some gas

Her: *already walked away* with angry furrowed eye brows.

[fliptuner]

PSA

M+S/snow tires required, outside the lower mainland, starting this Saturday.

[westopher]

Lol and it’s going to be 25 degrees in whistler next weekend. Then in April when they are no longer required it’s going to be a snowstorm.

[HonestTea]

Originally Posted by fliptuner

PSA

M+S/snow tires required, outside the lower mainland, starting this Saturday.

I hope they aren't checking this weekend cause the temperatures are still pretty warm.

[underscore]

It's getting pretty close to 0 at night over the summit on the Connector.