Snow tire question
 

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I need snow tires, I like the Kumho brand. What's the difference between the $160 one and the cheaper ones? First time snow tire buyer......the pics show a more agressive tread on the higher priced tire.

Vehicle is a Yukon, 2WD, Quad-steer with traction control.....are these tires OK to run year round? We get 100+ temps in the summer....

TIA

They are noisy as heck. Get a set of extra rims and swap them out in the summer.

In canada the summers are not that hot most of the time and a set of snow tires will only last 2 years of commuting if driven year round. If you swap them out you can get 4-5 years out of them.
It's a softer compound and you don't want wide snow tires.

Whatever you do, don't search for 'snow tires' here.

It will be nothing but frustration.


KT

lol!

Joe Bob,

As a guy who grew up in the snow belt, here is my take. If your roads are going to be covered for many months with snow, ice and slush, snow tires are definately the way to go. Get a spare set of rims and mount them. Swap them at the first snow, take them off when you feel the snow will be gone. The cost of the rims will be paid for in the first two seasons of having the tire gorilla swap them on your primary set of rims. This is what I did when I lived in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

If you see only a few days of ice/snow, go with normal all season tires and get some chains for the bad days. Cheaper and more effective. Here in Oregon, that is what I do now.

The downside of snow tires is lousy traction on wet (not icy/snowy/slushy) roads, excessive noise and since the compounds need to be soft below freezing they do not tolerate heat very well.

If you want to go the snow tire route, look into the newer studless designs like Nokian etc. Most of the benefit of studs without the excessive noise and damage to our raods.

[rant on]
Here in Portland, Oregon, it never ceases to amaze me how when we get a dusting of snow, a huge number of folks put on STUDDED snow tires. Some, as soon as ODOT says its; ok, put them on with out waiting for a snow fall. When the snow subsides (about a week later), they leave them on until ODOT tells them to take them off. The studs destroy the roads, reduce traction, and when you run them on dry roads, the stud tips eventually get ground off by the pavement, leaving you with a tire that has lousy traction from the little steel dots to increase slip and worn studs when you really need them.
[/rant off]

My vote is for the Kumo all season tires. You can run them all year around and they aren't as noisy as all terain or snow tires. I put Toyo AT's on my F-150 a couple years ago and couldn't wait to get rid of them. They were noisy and rough. They also, wore bad between rotations and after the first year, they had no better traction than an all season tire.

I have Firestone destinations on my truck now. They are a nice quiet, smooth 50,000 mile tire.

I drive up to the Lake every day year round.


Gary

Dedicated tires for each season is the way to go.

The biggest tire myth the North American consumer has swallowed in the last three decades is that of the all-season tire.

Our Protege5 is unstoppable with Michelin snows on it. My M3 (with LSD) is nearly so.

interesting - I haven't noticed that (on my Subaru Outback), but haven't really put them to the test either

is this on your 911, or a winter beater?

Our roads are mostly wet all winter (with occassional big dumps of snow) -- and I haven't noticed poor traction. Temperatures are around freezing, and the softer compounds of the snows grip much better than the frozen, or nearly frozen compounds of all-seasons I've driven on.

Nokian makes an all weather (not all season) tire for SUVs that look pretty good.
I would have bought them for my wife's X Trail but I was unimpressed with the tire chain that sells them in my area. (that is another story, but her car has Michelin Alpins on it now)
Go to the Nokian website the tire has SUV in the name.

We may need to separate studded from un-studded snows. When I used to use Studs, I noticed that my car had better traction on wet (non-freezing) roads when I switched back to my summer tires. Unstudded snows (which I have never used) may be a differrent story and closer in wet traction to the "all season" tires.

IMHO, All season tires are really 3-season tires that offer adequate perfomance year round as long as there is no ice/snow on the road.

For snow conditions, you need snows or chains to keep going.

As I have not personally ever driven the new "studless" ice/snow tires, I cannot speak for their performance in ice but based on what I see, I would think they were fine for snow. IMHO , the only way you get traction in ice is to hit it with something harder (stud or chain) to break the surface so you have some grip.

Mike
We don't get that much snow here. Unless you are heading up to the lake all weather is fine. What car are you shopping for?

It's for the Yukon.....
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From the opening thread...."Vehicle is a Yukon, 2WD, Quad-steer with traction control.....are these tires OK to run year round? We get 100+ temps in the summer...."
>>>>>>>>>>>>

Washoe between Carson and Reno tends to be it's own micro climate.

BTW, do studded tires get you out of using chains in chain required areas?

Harry, how many of these folks like to brag on trips to Timberline (ski resort) on weekends?

Modern winter tires are pretty amazing. The classic American snow tire was to get you unstuck, or to drive in fresh snow, but otherwise drove poorly. These new tires have European and Japanese roots (where they plow less and drive on snow packed into ice..) and handle and brake much better.

I use Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires on my winter cars and they are very effective and inexpensive. Buy a spare set of steel rims and change them out in the spring. Don't use winter tires for all year driving...

Here in BC the signs say "carry chains or use winter tires". Studded winter tires would exceed requirements in most areas.
BTW, studs are only useful for ice or compacted snow... no benefit on deep snow.

I have had Nokian Hakkapelita Qs on my Talon for 11 seasons now, same set with >80,000km:eek:. (Luckily they don't get much UV in our winters.) They still have 50% of their tread left . The guys at KAL Tire are surprised. Probably has a bit to do with the AWD system that has LTD slip center diff coupling: true AWD, not on demand, so tires all involved with acceleration.
Anyway, I highly endorse Nokian Hakkapelita winter tires ( also available for SUVs)

In Washington state, 4wd gets you out of chains required, but everybody else has to do it. Traction tires required means snow tires. Traction tires advised means you can use your "slicks".... The worst guys out there are the 4wd guys with summer tires on 22's on their Denali's.

I run Hankook w409 Ipike studded on my 4wd Suburban, 2010 Outback, and our Passat. We've got 2 kids in different age groups doing ski racing all winter long, so we're usually going different directions on many weekends. We've run Cooper, Michelin X ice, and Hakepelitta (sp), and the Hankooks are by far the best we've had so far. We run separate sets of rims for the winter tires, but we're literally in the mountains EVERY weekend during ski season.

I'd be tempted to run studless as the new tires are pretty good, and the local State Patrol also runs studless, but I've got a driveway from hell at my cabin, and the sun can shine on it in the afternoon, and then it will ice over. I've literally had situations in front of my cabin where I couldn't stand up due to the ice, and a car will slide across the parking area into a snow wall on a very slight grade. Studs go on Nov 1st...tomorrow.

Seems plausible. My Conti WinterContacts are awesome in the wet and drive great everywhere else too - they just wear out too fast in warm weather to leave them on year-round...