The Winter's Coming Winter Tires Thread

[Canadianman]

I ran dedicated winters on my truck for 3 years (Goodyear Ultra Grip WRT). Never seemed to be that much better than the normal all-season (Michelin LTX AT/2 with a snowflake rating). They seemed to slip on snow and ice equally. I ended up selling the Goodyears 2 years ago.



Did I just have crappy winter tires? Would Blizzaks or Hakkas make that much of a difference??

[Old Yeller]

My wife talked me into getting decent rims for our winters instead of the ugly steel rims and I'm really glad she did.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Yeah... people are just dumb. If you look at it as 10 years for ~$1200 per set, on your car from October to end of April, that's 200 bucks per year, $29 per month. Even if you only drive 4 days per week, it's $1.47 per day. And then you deduct the wear on the tires you'd otherwise have on the car and it's probably closer to a dollar.

Originally Posted by Canadianman

Did I just have crappy winter tires? Would Blizzaks or Hakkas make that much of a difference??

Yes.

Edit: although Goodyears generally don't suck so I don't know own what to tell you about that. I've never used those tires

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

I ran dedicated winters on my truck for 3 years (Goodyear Ultra Grip WRT). Never seemed to be that much better than the normal all-season (Michelin LTX AT/2 with a snowflake rating). They seemed to slip on snow and ice equally. I ended up selling the Goodyears 2 years ago.

Did I just have crappy winter tires? Would Blizzaks or Hakkas make that much of a difference??

Honestly, trucks just fkn suck in the winter. I had Blizzaks on my F-150 for three seasons and finally just said, screw it, and bought all weathers. They work just as well. There's nothing you can really do about that super light ass end (obvs throw some weight in there, but they still suck). Plus, truck tires are pretty wide, which works against you on ice.

I say that as a guy with winter tires on my car, my wife's SUV, and both my kids' cars. I'm a huge proponent. On trucks, though? Save your money...the physics of the vehicle work so much against you that winters don't make a significant difference to bother with over just running all weathers year-round.

When I had my FWD Sienna with Blizzaks we'd take it to the mountains over my 4x4 F-150 on snowy/icy days. The van was a bazillion times more stable, predictable and safer. Hell, I've driven my daughter's FWD Golf Sportwagen to the mountains over my F-150 because it, too, is way better.

I'll never understand truck people unless you need one for towing, hauling or work. As a personal vehicle they suck balls.

[Fuzz]

My small truck is absolutely useless on all seasons in the winter, I do get a benefit from winters, particularity stopping. Going can still be a challenge, but 150 pounds right in the back helps.


But we mostly use the Impreza in the winter. If we didn't have that, and I needed to drive regularly I wouldn't have a truck as a main vehicle.

[PepsiFree]

The braking benefit alone is worth it for the truck, and the cornering benefit is still high despite a looser ass, in my opinion. But weight distribution definitely impacts the benefits on the backend.

The obvious solution is to just to buy more vehicles that you can use in more situations… as god intended.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I'm actually doing an impromptu tire test on these this week:

https://blackcircles.ca/en/tire/rove...-677-studdable

I have a rental for the week as I have some work being done on my summer car (which started on Monday, so yes, the timing of this snowfall is entirely my fault). The rental shop only had one car with winters, and they're the above cheapies. So far I've driven downtown and home twice, and they've been quite good, but I haven't had a full opportunity to try them and compare to the Blizzaks I put on my Audi last month.

If I have an hour to spare this weekend I might just mess around with both cars in a parking lot and see how it goes... if you can get serviceable winters brand new for ~$120 per corner, not doing so makes even less sense.

[bagofpucks]

One nice thing about a truck is the extra clearance for tons of snow or ruts in side streets. We have a long driveway and there have been a few times that I can’t get it plowed before I need to commute and the truck has no issues with deep snow. That said, we also have a Sienna AWD and that thing has to be the best winter vehicle ever. Heavy AF, decent clearance, and wide stance just make that thing stick to the road.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Yeah... people are just dumb. If you look at it as 10 years for ~$1200 per set, on your car from October to end of April, that's 200 bucks per year, $29 per month. Even if you only drive 4 days per week, it's $1.47 per day. And then you deduct the wear on the tires you'd otherwise have on the car and it's probably closer to a dollar.

Yes.

Edit: although Goodyears generally don't suck so I don't know own what to tell you about that. I've never used those tires

I appreciate and agree with the sentiment, but at $1200 over 10 years, it would be $120 per year, and for 6 months of the year, it would be $20 per month, etc etc... Regardless, meaningless cost to keep you second largest asset and self/passengers safe(r).

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Right, I'm saying you don't get a full year's value out of them because they're only on your car for at most 7 months of the year. 7/12 is 0.583. $120 divided by .583 is $205. I think I might have done the 7/12 part twice though when I got to $1.47. But yeah, point remains, despite the irony of me calling people dumb and then doing questionable math.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I didn't, till I became the oldest I've ever been and the damn things started going to R18-19. Doing two cars back to back gets tiring for that specific alignment part. Plus BMW like being weird, so I have to lift a tire on this middle lip thing to screw in a bolt/nut thing vs being able to lift the tire over and basically hang the tire on the bolt to pivot/align, then tighten it with a nut.

Originally Posted by timun

FYI all of zee German cars use lug bolts instead of lug nuts, not just BMWs. I've helped friends & family with VWs swap tires around, and they're the exact same way: dumb ####ing lug bolts that according to the "official" procedure you should use an alignment tool—a glorified pin—to line the holes in the wheels and hubs up.

God forbid you cross-thread a bolt. Instead of getting a new stud put through the hub, unless you're lucky enough to be able to chase the threads you need to replace the hub entirely. Hooray.

I've been changing tires for 40 years and had never heard of lug bolts until yesterday (in this thread). Then my daughter texted me yesterday to see if I could her here friend put her winters in her Mini Cooper (dad had promised to do them on the weekend and then left town for work). Being the awesome dad that I am went over last night to help and the damn things were lug bolts! At least I was somewhat prepared from reading this thread (thanks CP!) but what a PITA those things are. Or maybe I just don't know the trick to them. Just glad they were small tires so easy to maneuver.

I'm going to check out those tire trolleys. Changed 4 sets of tires this fall and my 56 year old back and knees are protesting.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Canadianman

I ran dedicated winters on my truck for 3 years (Goodyear Ultra Grip WRT). Never seemed to be that much better than the normal all-season (Michelin LTX AT/2 with a snowflake rating). They seemed to slip on snow and ice equally. I ended up selling the Goodyears 2 years ago.

Did I just have crappy winter tires? Would Blizzaks or Hakkas make that much of a difference??

I had Goodyear Ultra Grip tires for a while on my car and thought they were terrible. The car slipped on any ice with them on. I replaced them with Hakkas and it was an enormous difference. Night and day for me.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Right, I'm saying you don't get a full year's value out of them because they're only on your car for at most 7 months of the year. 7/12 is 0.583. $120 divided by .583 is $205. I think I might have done the 7/12 part twice though when I got to $1.47. But yeah, point remains, despite the irony of me calling people dumb and then doing questionable math.

I wish it was $1200 for 10 years. I got 3 sets of tires (two sets winter) in the last two years and it's closer to $1500-2100 for 5-6 years after labour, TPMS and whatever is necessary for the tire excluding wheels and storage. That comes out to a wee bit over $300-350 per season total, but it's still well worth the cost.

Originally Posted by Mazrim

I had Goodyear Ultra Grip tires for a while on my car and thought they were terrible. The car slipped on any ice with them on. I replaced them with Hakkas and it was an enormous difference. Night and day for me.

I had a similar experience. The Goodyears felt like an all weather tire at best. I wouldn't do a non-studded Goodyear ever again. I'd buy a tire above or below the Goodyear if a decent set on the same tier wasn't available.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

OK... well like I say I just got new Blizzaks from Costco a month ago, and they were $299 per corner, including installation, but they were on sale for $40 off per tire. So it was actually less than $1200. As far as the 10 years goes it depends how often you drive, I don't put much mileage on my tires, especially as I am going to the mountains far less due to my knees having decided to abandon me.

It would have been more than that if I got Hakkas, sure, but if you want the best you pay extra for it and Blizzaks are still good tires. And like I say, if these "Rovelo" things turn out to be decent, you might be able to do it for half that!*

*I remain skeptical but open minded

[Hack&Lube]

I got my first set of Winters last year so I wasn't set into the rhythm of getting them mounted ahead of time. I chose to store them at Kal Tire over the season and unfortunately they are all booked up. Its going to be 3 weeks until I can get them on!

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

^This is why you need winter rims, too... makes it trivial to do a swap.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

^This is why you need winter rims, too... makes it trivial to do a swap.

I have winter rims as well. Just in a 1 bedroom condo. No storage, no garage, no tools, no space.

[WhiteTiger]

Well, after the last couple days, my wife is really liking her new Hakka 5's over her old WRG4's on her SUV.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I have winter rims as well. Just in a 1 bedroom condo. No storage, no garage, no tools, no space.

Oh, well that's different - are the tires already on the rims? If so just tell Kal Tire you want to take them out of storage and do the swap yourself. Or hell, you could probably get a Jiffy Lube to do it for you, takes 20 minutes. Certainly not worth waiting 3 weeks for.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I've been changing tires for 40 years and had never heard of lug bolts until yesterday (in this thread). Then my daughter texted me yesterday to see if I could her here friend put her winters in her Mini Cooper (dad had promised to do them on the weekend and then left town for work). Being the awesome dad that I am went over last night to help and the damn things were lug bolts! At least I was somewhat prepared from reading this thread (thanks CP!) but what a PITA those things are. Or maybe I just don't know the trick to them. Just glad they were small tires so easy to maneuver.

I'm going to check out those tire trolleys. Changed 4 sets of tires this fall and my 56 year old back and knees are protesting.

Ya, lug bolts are the worst. The install pin helps(some of these vehicles include it in the tire change kit). Putting the parking brake on for the rear wheels helps, too, if they keep spinning. It's all backwards!