Dedicated winter/snow tires
#21
I have used these exclusively, but not on SUVs. However I also have not lived in a snowy climate since the 90s but these were wonderful.
These days the Nokians have the highest ratings from my research, something about the folks up in Finland being more experienced with snow than others
These days the Nokians have the highest ratings from my research, something about the folks up in Finland being more experienced with snow than others
The following 3 users liked this post by GavinC:
#22
Agree with the comments regarding the Goodyear off road tires in the snow - downright embarrassing if not dangerous. I tried to find the Nokians but had no luck. Sprung for the Blizzaks. Nice, quiet tires, handle well in the dry and wet. No snow yet, but its coming. We get around 120 inches per year.
#23
Curious if the bad experiences on the Goodyears relates in part to the factory tire pressure (50ish). Drove to a ski hill last year in a blizzard where they wound up closing the mountain. Tons of FWD and FWD biased AWD SUVs were stuck on the way up. Running 35ish psi on the Goodyears and had essentially no slip. With that said, I still put snows on the car.
Had Nokian Hakkas on my last car in New England, they're great. Better than the Conti Vikings I currently have.
Had Nokian Hakkas on my last car in New England, they're great. Better than the Conti Vikings I currently have.
#25
#26
I have a Defender on order and have been reading everything I can on this forum. The most common topic is probably how bad the factory off-road tires are in the snow. But, I haven't seen much (if anything) about how the standard all-season tires fair in winter. I live around Boston, and am coming out of a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon with 35" K02's. I never thought twice about driving in bad weather, and have actually always enjoyed it. Are the stock all-seasons sufficient for on road driving through a New England winter? Or, will I want to swap out to something else? I have no desire to swap tires or wheel/tire combos for winter / summer.
#27
All season road tires are not going to be any better than the GY Adventures in a New England winter. Meaning they won’t be very good at all. Nokian makes a winter rated all season road tire you can run all year if you don’t want to swap. Otherwise there are several 3peak rated AT’s on the market to choose from that will be better.
#28
I live in New England and have the GY adventures on 18s and I thought they were OK - so I suppose it depends on what you plan to do. I drove to and from VT a few times last winter to ski and never had any issues in the roads or ski area parking lots. They are not as good as Hakkepelittas or Blizzaks on a road car but I don't think they are as terrible as some people are making out. I'll probably replace with KO2s when the time comes, but I'll put at least another year on these tires before that happens because I don't like taking off tires at 10-20% of their treadlife and throwing them away.
Maybe it depends on driving styles / expectations - if you want to be able to do 40mph on unplowed roads or pass everyone in the unplowed third lane of I81 heading north you probably want hakkepelittas on steelies for winter. If you just want to be able to get out of your driveway to get to the grocery stores in a few inches of snow - the stock tires will be just fine
Just another data point / opinion
Maybe it depends on driving styles / expectations - if you want to be able to do 40mph on unplowed roads or pass everyone in the unplowed third lane of I81 heading north you probably want hakkepelittas on steelies for winter. If you just want to be able to get out of your driveway to get to the grocery stores in a few inches of snow - the stock tires will be just fine
Just another data point / opinion
#29
All season road tires are not going to be any better than the GY Adventures in a New England winter. Meaning they won’t be very good at all. Nokian makes a winter rated all season road tire you can run all year if you don’t want to swap. Otherwise there are several 3peak rated AT’s on the market to choose from that will be better.
Some of the newer All weather tires can compete with true snow tires but crush true snow tires in rain, wear, dry, breaking.
Some common quotes on some of the new all weather (Not season)
"Having gone on the whole journey from CrossClimate through CrossClimate Plus to CrossClimate 2 on three different cars over the last few years I'm still extremely happy with this family of tyres. Before that I always used to have separate sets full winter tyres and now I really don't need that. While heavy snow has been fairly infrequent I often have to tackle work trips as far as northern Scotland at short notice so I am happy being slightly over-provisioned for snow. Wear has been good too."
Nothing will beat pure road tires in the summer or pure winter tires in the winter. But most of the time the tire is on pavement even in the winter even in Michigan. further north you might be able to drive on packed snow longer but true winter tires will get some road wear.
The CC2 on my LR3 are way better than the Pirelli in the snow ice and rolling resistance and wear. And I don't have to spend 4 hours per year in the tire shop waiting for them to swap them out. I'm running one set year round now. If I went off road more I would get a set for that.
Take a look at these two reviews on all weather tires with some compared to dedicated snow tires.
#30