Simpletire.com is a cheap alternative. Not always the best nor name brand, but cheap off brand snow tires are better than 200$ Name brand summer tires

 

gotta love that snow

 

I'll let you all know how the Xi3's get along... but until then, I've completely covered my car in license plate brackets juuuuust in case.

 

While this next story is definitely stupid and I wouldn't recommend anyone to do this, but luckily, evolution has not claimed its next victim.....yet.

In the interest of getting every last penny's worth out of the A13C's, I drove them down from Toronto to NYC and encountered 2-3 snowstorms along the way. While in NY, I had a shop look at my tires while they changed my oil.



Two tires were almost corded.....gotta love the wear of these tires.

Happily shod with Nokian Hakkapellita R's now.

Summary: Bald Stock Summers are nono in snow and ice.

All you Blizzak and X-Ice guys, try Hakkapellitas. Not only are they better, IMHO, in snow and ice, they are LRR and save you gas! I've had 5 or 6 seasons on Blizzaks and I probably won't go back to them.

I mount them on stock Evo X MR BBS.

 

I considered the Hakkas for the old VIII, but I went with the WRs instead, because MA clears the roads pretty quickly. (And studded was verbotten there.)
The WRs were great in snow, but not as great on ice.

Probably the only tires I've bought in the last 20 years I couldn't get from TR.

That seems a common theme.
I've been looking at the Enkei RPF1s for summer, although black on black on black would be a bit "night fury".
I'm hoping the prices will drop a smidge once the "closeout" PF01s are gone.
(Unless they're clearing the space for newer PF01s. )

The MD dealer gave me the front bracket, but didn't give me the self tapping 10mms to mount the VA plate. (Pity there's no handy Ace Hardware in the county.)

But it looks like Thursday is going to be snowed in before sunrise.
I should top off the tank this AM.

 

If this is going to morph into a thread full of suggested winter tires (which would be good), then people should be clear about whether they usually face plowed but icy roads or unplowed roads (or both). For example, I agree with the suggestion of either Blizzak or X-Ice for plowed but icy roads, but Altimax is better when you hit an unplowed section.

 

Hakka R's (that I have) are studless winter tires, FYI.

I thought studded tires would be better on ice because the studs could grab, and studless tires better are powder. I might have it wrong.

The General's you're referring to are the studdable kind, correct?

I live in two cities, so they're pretty good about plowing. However, I love randomly taking the car out before the plows come, so I drive on a lot of unplowed roads.

I currently use (and recommend) the Nokian Hakkapellita R (The R2 is the successor, which I also recommend, my Mom's BMW has it) which is under the studless winter tire category.

 

IMO, very few if any of us in the lower 48 should be running around on studded. Good ice-oriented tires are almost as good when you hit a sheet of ice, studs do nothing on snow, they are sometimes disallowed on public streets, and are really annoying on clean pavement.

So, yeah, while some of my faves are studdable, I've never had the studs installed.

 

So why the recommendation for the Altimax on unplowed?

 

Slightly larger voids than Blizzaks. A bit better in piled snow.

Of course, the Blizzaks were also 18s and the Altimax Artics are 15s, so take my opinion with copious salt (which you might also use on your driveway ... no charge).

 

There was a thinner selection of Hakkas available a decade ago, when I was equipping the VIII for MA.
It took a month to get the WRs.

Oh, now I remember. I got the WRs for the higher speed rating.