Is there a tire that's tougher than a normal all season, but not quite A/T

What ever you decide, keep in mind that if you get one non-repairable flat on that Subaru AWD, you're buying another full set of tires. A tire warranty will cover only the non-repairable one at best.

This scenario just played out on our 2019 Nissan Pathfinder. My wife came back from the gas station saying her tire light just went on. I could hear the hissing to find a little triangular piece of box cutter blade sticking out of the shoulder of the right rear. Ugh.. If fact I'm dropping it off at the tire shop today, rollin' with the donut on. The crosswind HP010's I had on it were just about needing to be replaced anyway w/29K miles on them. Another set of ~$118/ea crosswinds are going on.
If you get a reasonably common tire, a new or used one can be shaved to match the set you've got. If we sidewall flatted one of our newish Xice2's I'm not buying a whole set with 2-3 seasons left in them.
 
I know you said no AT tires, but I would give Cooper AT3 4S tires a look. Put them on wife’s Jeep Cherokee and they don’t look bad. They will handle every condition you mentioned. From the drivers seat, your wife won’t even notice they are an AT tire other than the fact they will go through the snow without drama. They were amazing on a trip to rye beach in the middle of a snow snow storm.

While I'll agree they're a good tire as I have a set on my truck, they are probably not the best fit for the OP. They ride somewhat rough and will get noisy as they age. The sipes also do not go down the entire tread, only about 1/2 way. They make a Discoverer EnduraMax that's more suited twords a Subaru, but likely is not aggressive enough for what the OP wants, even though it's a severe snow rated tire.
 
If you get a reasonably common tire, a new or used one can be shaved to match the set you've got. If we sidewall flatted one of our newish Xice2's I'm not buying a whole set with 2-3 seasons left in them.
I've heard of this, but don't know of a shop in my area that would do this.

For most shops around me, the best you can do is bring in just the single effected tire/wheel and have a new or used tire mounted on it. If you bring the 4x4 / AWD vehicle in, they'll claim for liability reasons they have to replace all 4.

I do have a few smaller mom/pop shops that will do what ever I want, especially if I supply them the tire/wheel.

If those crosswinds on my wife's pathfinder had much more tread life, I for sure would have been hand carrying in the bad one for replacement.

FWIW, total out the door for the 4 new Crosswind HP010's is $670. This includes $100 mount/balance, $10 "tire tax" and they suckered me into "stem rebuild kits" which are like $7/tire.
 
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We put the Cross Climate 2 on our ‘17 Forester and it is an excellent all season tire . You won’t be disappointed!
 
Bought these for the aramid sidewalls. Ended up getting a sidewall puncture after speeding past a small pothole on a dirt road.

They've been great otherwise so I'm on my second set.
Ugh.. so even they are not "bullet proof" it seems. I was considering the WRG4 but the sidewalls aren't reinforced.

Hope you had a spare and didn't get caught flat-footed in the back country. That must have been some pot hole. Nokian warranties their sidewalls. So hope you got a free replacement.

I like the fact that Nokian now produces tires in their brand new Tennessee plant and the tires stamped "Made in USA". Their plant looks really cool. I was talking to my tire store a few days back and he told me that the Tennessee plant was in the making even before the war. Luck was on their side as apparently, Nokian was forced to close both their Russian and Ukraine plants (for obvious reasons).
 
Ugh.. so even they are not "bullet proof" it seems. I was considering the WRG4 but the sidewalls aren't reinforced.

Hope you had a spare and didn't get caught flat-footed in the back country. That must have been some pot hole. Nokian warranties their sidewalls. So hope you got a free replacement.

I like the fact that Nokian now produces tires in their brand new Tennessee plant and the tires stamped "Made in USA". Their plant looks really cool. I was talking to my tire store a few days back and he told me that the Tennessee plant was in the making even before the war. Luck was on their side as apparently, Nokian was forced to close both their Russian and Ukraine plants (for obvious reasons).
Do we know which ones are made in TN?
 
Ugh.. so even they are not "bullet proof" it seems. I was considering the WRG4 but the sidewalls aren't reinforced.

Hope you had a spare and didn't get caught flat-footed in the back country. That must have been some pot hole. Nokian warranties their sidewalls. So hope you got a free replacement.

I like the fact that Nokian now produces tires in their brand new Tennessee plant and the tires stamped "Made in USA". Their plant looks really cool. I was talking to my tire store a few days back and he told me that the Tennessee plant was in the making even before the war. Luck was on their side as apparently, Nokian was forced to close both their Russian and Ukraine plants (for obvious reasons).

It wasn't even a deep pothole. Was shocked when I drove past it on the way back. I was speeding though..

I've run over much worse on the Nokian R3's which don't have the reinforced sidewalls.

Had a donut spare but was caught 300 miles from home. Put the spare on the rear and took the back roads home so the speed limit never exceeded 50miles/h.. It was not a fun day and I hope nothing got damaged from driving the spare for that long.

Nokian only warranties their sidewalls for 1 year and this happened 13 months from the date of purchase.

Tire shop felt bad and gave me half price on a new set. I also ordered a new spare..

Old set was made in Russia and new set in the USA.

It has to be a placebo but the USA set drives so well. I don't remember them being this quiet either.
 
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I've heard of this, but don't know of a shop in my area that would do this.

For most shops around me, the best you can do is bring in just the single effected tire/wheel and have a new or used tire mounted on it. If you bring the 4x4 / AWD vehicle in, they'll claim for liability reasons they have to replace all 4.

I do have a few smaller mom/pop shops that will do what ever I want, especially if I supply them the tire/wheel.

If those crosswinds on my wife's pathfinder had much more tread life, I for sure would have been hand carrying in the bad one for replacement.

FWIW, total out the door for the 4 new Crosswind HP010's is $670. This includes $100 mount/balance, $10 "tire tax" and they suckered me into "stem rebuild kits" which are like $7/tire.
Actually I did a search around me and no one advertises tire shaving either... Some of the performance shops probably do it, since a few race classes I think require DOT tires, which aren't very good at full tread depth.
 
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My brother is driving on construction sites with the Michelin CC tires on his rav 4 hybrid

I’d probably look at michelin AT2 or similar.
 
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Actually I did a search around me and no one advertises tire shaving either... Some of the performance shops probably do it, since a few race classes I think require DOT tires, which aren't very good at full tread depth.

I live in Ottawa and the only place in my region who would sell shaved tires is Talon Tire in Montreal.

They ship via Canpar for great rates (cost me $12) so if you're in Ontario, it shouldn't be an issue.

They don't do it themselves - they send it off to a truck repair shop who does it for them so the only downside is the wait.
 
While I'll agree they're a good tire as I have a set on my truck, they are probably not the best fit for the OP. They ride somewhat rough and will get noisy as they age. The sipes also do not go down the entire tread, only about 1/2 way. They make a Discoverer EnduraMax that's more suited twords a Subaru, but likely is not aggressive enough for what the OP wants, even though it's a severe snow rated tire.
Had a different experience with mine, sipes seemed to be deeper. Didn’t ride rough and remained quite on my Ram 1500 Bighorn as well as wife’s wife’s Cherokee. Didn’t get the mileage I expected , 35000 miles on truck, but doing fine on wife’s vehicle.
 
1. Kumho Crugen HT
2. Michelin Defender
3. FIrestone Destination LE

I have tried more aggressive for winter but keep coming back to these because of the quiet smooth ride the other 9 months of the year.
 
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