Michelin Artic Alpine studless tires - summer use?

[Crusader]

I have a 2 part question.

#1 I'm currently running a set of Michelin Artic Alpine tires 4th or 5th winter on them however I ran them last summer since my Michelin X -one's are very worn and not worth putting back on the car. Everybody says the Ice tires will wear quickly but in fact they didn't melt away last summer. I have a some concerns about their temperature rating and their safety for summer use. I even called Michelin and talked with a rep. She assured me there was no concern with summer use. So are they really safe to run during the summer?

#2 If in fact the Artic Alpine are safe to run during the summer, hot conditions, can I safely rotate the tires so they spin in the opposite direction of the rotation arrow? I'm assuming the direction arrow is for best winter traction and not an indicator of tire destruction if they are cross rotated to the opposite side of the car? Or will they?

Any help or Intel is appreciated.

 

[Reg# 43897]

Okay...

The directional Alpin's (no 'e') are made that way to channel slush and water out from under the tread. You must install them according to the rotational indicators regardless of season. You could get a nasty fright in the rain! If your Alpin's are worn down enough, the tire may not be that bad in the warmer weather BUT I have found that particular tire to be very loose when installed on my old Jetta 1.8T. That is great for lousy conditions because it has a deep tread that is highly siped. It is not good in the hot and dry. The car's steering is much less sharp. I like crisp handling. I have always been suspect about the continued use of winter tires into the Spring/Summer but perhaps it is less of a concern with more modern rubber. Michelin are not going to give you advice that the tires can be continued to be used in the heat if such was not the case - they wouldn't want you coming after them later with a separated tire & wrecked vehicle...

I like the old Alpin's as a winter tire. Was told anecdotally that they were actually discontinued as they were a sort-of 'lost leader' to entice people to use the newer Micheline winter tire technology while being too expensive to make for the long run. They eventually replaced 'em with cheaper tires that were not as effective once the "Michelin Arctic Whatever" tire recognition was out there. Don't quote me on that - probably hearsay.

John.

 

[y_p_w]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Arctic-Alpin

It doesn't seem all that directional, but there does appear to be a slightly "arrowhead" appearance with the siping and outside tread blocks. Some of the newer winter tires (Bridgestone Blizzak REVO 1) have a winter tire compound that reveals an all-season compound when it wears away to the point where the grooves aren't deep enough for it to serve as a real winter tire.

I doubt that it's going to be great in dry conditions.

 

[GC4lunch]

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I have a 2 part question.

#1 I'm currently running a set of Michelin Artic Alpine tires 4th or 5th winter on them however I ran them last summer since my Michelin X -one's are very worn and not worth putting back on the car. Everybody says the Ice tires will wear quickly but in fact they didn't melt away last summer. I have a some concerns about their temperature rating and their safety for summer use. I even called Michelin and talked with a rep. She assured me there was no concern with summer use. So are they really safe to run during the summer?

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As long as they are properly inflated, you are unlikely to be running them at high enough speeds to make catastrophic failure likely. However, "studless" winter tires tend to have relatively high rolling resistance, so your fuel economy may suffer, not to mention that they probably won't handle that well on hot summer roads.

Quote:

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#2 If in fact the Artic Alpine are safe to run during the summer, hot conditions, can I safely rotate the tires so they spin in the opposite direction of the rotation arrow? I'm assuming the direction arrow is for best winter traction and not an indicator of tire destruction if they are cross rotated to the opposite side of the car? Or will they?

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Don't do it. Either rotate strictly front-to-back, back-to-front, on the same side of the vehicle, or take the tires/wheels to the tire shop to "flip" them for rotation from side-to-side.

 

[Auto-Union]

They are KILLER snows. Pretty much a severe snow tire and imo, not too good for summers. My nephew blew a Yoko snow using it in summer, it had like 4-5/32nds.

 

[rpn453]

A friend of mine has those Michelin tires in the picture. They're the only winter tires I've seen without a severe snow rating.

As others have said, run them in the proper direction only for best results in rain.

Check the speed rating (probably Q). As long as you're driving under that (100mph), there's no problem with using them all summer. They may wear out quickly but that's the only potential issue you'll have.

 

[rjundi]

Winter tires have compounds optimized for cold weather. Running a winter tire during warm/hot weather leaves you compromised in stopping distance(they extend in feet) and dry/wet handling especially in an emergency situation.

Its great you use winter tires in the winter. However if it were me using one in the summer would be too much of a compromise of my family safety to save a few $$$. Not worth it IMHO.

 

[rpn453]

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Running a winter tire during warm/hot weather leaves you compromised in stopping distance(they extend in feet) and dry/wet handling especially in an emergency situation.

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I disagree. The soft winter compound tends to wear quickly, but I've found they provide good traction on wet and dry pavement. Soft rubber tends to do that. Car and Driver recently compared summer, winter, and all-season tires in snowy, wet, and dry conditions:

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The most interesting result was that the snow tire performed better on wet asphalt than did the all-season tire. The snow tire stopped sooner — 150 feet versus 155 — and pulled more g — 0.71 versus 0.69. And its 56.60-second run through the wet autocross course was 0.11 second quicker.

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The all-season did beat the winter tire on the track when dry, but not by enough to say that driver safety would be jeopardized in any way by using them in summer. Plus, they were up against the V-rated Goodyear RS-A which pulled .87g on the dry skidpad test of my Mazda3. Since performance was so close to that of the RS-As on both dry and wet pavement, they likely performed far better than cheap all-season tires that are good for 0.7g on dry pavement.

The winter tire did get chewed up pretty good at the track.

The acceleration attempt with the F1s on snow is amusing.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11899/tech-stuff-a-tire-for-all-seasons.html

 

[y_p_w]

Quote:

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A friend of mine has those Michelin tires in the picture. They're the only winter tires I've seen without a severe snow rating.

As others have said, run them in the proper direction only for best results in rain.

Check the speed rating (probably Q). As long as you're driving under that (100mph), there's no problem with using them all summer. They may wear out quickly but that's the only potential issue you'll have.

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They'll probably feel "squirmy" due to the soft rubber and overboard siping. I believe it was introduced around the time when the RMA "snowflake" symbol was just coming into use. It was pretty much like all-seasons before the standard "M+S" designation was created. In any case, there's no doubt they meet the standard even if they don't have the "stamp of approval".

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The Arctic-Alpin winter radials meet the industry's severe snow service requirements however, not all sizes are branded with the snowflake-on-the-mountain symbol. They feature blackwall styling and are available in 80-, 75-, 70-, 65-, 60-, 55- and 50-series, Q-speed rated sizes for 14" to 17" wheel diameters.

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[ewetho]

Seen people drive them all year and wonder why they are bald come winter again. Anyhow just not a racing tire if you know what I mean.

 

[Crusader]

Thanks for all the replies. I will be buying a new set of Michelin X-Ice studless tires for the remainder of this winter.

The older Artic Alpin I ran last summer and the prior 4 or 5 winters still have plenty of thread for the summer use however they have lost their edge in the slick stuff. Still a bit of margin when losing traction and regaining traction but not anywhere close to when they where new. As for MPG drop from increased rolling resistance I'd have to say I'm skeptical. Last summer I got 34 mpg mixed and up to 40 hwy. Might be a difference from the old X one's I ran the prior summer however not enough to note. Traction with the worn Artic Alpin is very good and they seem to stick pretty well when cornering hard. Granted much of the tread depth has worn away

When I ran rhe Artic Alpin last summer I expected the tread to waste away in one summer season but they did not. Might be able to get 2 more summers out of them.