Help me decide on a winter tire

[zerosoma]

Ok, so thinking of three tires now... Continental Extreme Winter Contact, General Altimax Arctic, and the Firestone Winterforce.

I have the Hyundai in my sig with all wheel drive. I live in South Dakota so you can imagine about 2-3 feet of snow, sometimes on unplowed roads. A sheet of ice is usually underneath that snow because it rains before it snows.

Ok, GO!

 

[09_GXP]

The General performed the best is the tests on Tirerack.

 

[lewdwig]

The Winterforce should be the most economically attractive. I have those on my daughter's Forester (come November). Kind of noisy, but other than that OK.

 

[ridgerunner]

I've had the Winterforce on my grand am and they did ok. Traction was good but tire wear wasn't. They didn't wear even at all and I got rid of them when they were half worn.

 

[sciphi]

Altimax Arctic. They're excellent snow tires, especially considering their price.

 

[zerosoma]

Has anybody tried the Continentals? How do they hold up over the life of the tire?

I can hardly find a review on them but they did great on Tire Rack's tests.

I was originally leaning towards the Winterforce but if it's a tire that wears out fast it's not really a value, imo.

I haven't had any luck finding Generals around here but I might try and check local cities nearby. Are the Altimax Arctics good about even-wearing and staying strong over the life of the tire?

This is a tire I plan keeping on year-round...I know most people don't do that with their winter tires but I don't want all-seasons because they don't perform well in this weather during the winter. The Conti's almost have me sold because of their product demos and the tests.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: zerosoma

This is a tire I plan keeping on year-round...

Year round? Any winter tire will tend to wear out fairly quickly when driven in warm temps.

If you want something that you can run year round, look into Nokian WR. They're classified as "all weather", but handle winter conditions as good or better as many dedicated winter tires. Then again, considering their price, you may be better off just having two separate sets tires: for winter and for the rest of the year.

 

[zerosoma]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: zerosoma

This is a tire I plan keeping on year-round...

Year round? Any winter tire will tend to wear out fairly quickly when driven in warm temps.

If you want something that you can run year round, look into Nokian WR. They're classified as "all weather", but handle winter conditions as good or better as many dedicated winter tires. Then again, considering their price, you may be better off just having two separate sets tires: for winter and for the rest of the year.



Yikes! Those are a little pricey...not crazy, but maybe more than I want to spend, closest relative size I could find to my OEM was $172 a tire. I guess if the wear gets too bad I can always throw my Kumho SR21s on there for the warmer months...they're just worn un-evenly and realistically only have about 10k miles left on them or so.

 

[Vikas]

I am using Gislaved NordFrost in my Maxima year around in New England. I put four snows 3 years ago and never rotated them. The front worn out but rears are still great. I just purchased a pair from TireTeam (HIGHLY recommended!) and had them installed today.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: 09_GXP
The General performed the best is the tests on Tirerack.

Yup. Beat out the Winterforce.

 

[Rand]

order them up on cheap steel rims. it will save you the 100$ for roadforce mount and balance.
use them for 3-4 winters instead of 1 good winter and one winter when they are worn down and almost done due to hot weather driving.

The continentals are a studless design. They most likely are better than the generals if you dont stud the generals.

I've had both and I really liked both but they arent really similar tires.

Running winter tires in the summer is fairly terrible. You wear off all the "precious*" tread that you should be saving for winter at 2-4x the wear rate in the heat.




*Precious because once you get below 6/32 tread your snow traction goes down dramatically because the tread cant take big enough "bites" out of the snow.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: zerosoma
Yikes! Those are a little pricey...not crazy, but maybe more than I want to spend, closest relative size I could find to my OEM was $172 a tire.


I had considered those Nokians, too, but events overtook my needs and I went to a different, all season option, but that's another story. I know here how everyone loves Hankooks.

They do have an Optimo 4S all weather tire now. They just started getting advertised here in Canada. I'm not sure of their availability in the States. Their price up here appears to be acceptable. However, considering how new they are, performance and treadwear are likely still relatively unknown.

 

[lyle]

I've driven on both the Altimax and the Winterforce (without studs each) on my dearly departed Expedition. The Winterforce is better in unplowed snow and slush, the Altimax is better on packed snow. Both were the same on ice, and both wore pretty evenly for me. Treadwear on the Winterforce was outstanding, I had virtually no wear after 3 winters and 7000 miles, and only had to get rid of them after a kid put a filet knife through two sidewalls. I got the Altimax after that just to try them out. Truth be told, I would take either again, and I would buy based purely on price.