Vredestein Wintrac Pro Review

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Jul 18, 2020
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For some reason these tires really seem to fly under the radar, so I thought I'd post my own thoughts on them. I currently have them installed on a 2016 BMW X1 (FWD-based Haldex AWD). I'm in the PNW, which is a tricky place for winter tires. I'm on the wet side, so the tires see a ton of rain, but when it snows in Seattle that turns to ice pretty quickly. The car also travels up and down the pass and to some trail heads, so it sees deeper snow, as well as highway driving on mixed snow/ice, compact snow and bare pavement.

Previous winter tires I've used are Michelin X-Ice 2 and 3, and Nokian R2's. Those are obviously different tires, as they are more "studless winter", and the Wintrac Pro is more of a performance winter tire. Still, the comparisons may be useful for some. On a 1-10 scale:

Snow: 8. They can struggle just a bit on really deep snow, with some predictable sliding, but they still have adequate traction to get up some crazy grades in deep stuff
Ice: 9. They are equal to the R2 and X-Ice 3's on ice, which was shocking to me. Only a studded winter tire is going to do better.
Wet: 9. I'd put the X-Ice 3 at about a 5 and the R2's at a 1, for reference. This is what makes these tires a win for a PNW winter. The R2's were downright dangerous in the weather that I actually see 90% of the time, which is cold wet.
Dry: I may never know.... OK, that's actually not true. I had them on for a trip to California last year and they were solid. It's still a winter tire, but more than adequate: 7
Noise: 7. The are not as quiet as the X-Ice, or the Bridgeston A/S that normally live on this car, but they're pretty good.
Fuel economy: 6. There's a noticeable hit on highway miles compared to the Michelin X-Ice 3's, which were strangely fuel efficient.
Wear: N/A. can't tell. Honestly, this is a non-issue though, since time will likely result in these being binned vs. mileage. For my driving, winter tire mileage isn't a concern.

The Michelin Alpin5 would likely be a solid competitor to these, but they have serious limitations in sizes. The other thing to note is price. While the price seems to have crept up on these, they seem to be among the best value in the category, at least based on purchase price (and as mentioned, I don't drive enough on winter tires for mileage to be a concern--I'll likely put about 15K miles over 5 years on them, and at that point I would not trust any winter tire--the compounds just get too hard over time. These will definitely have significant tread left at 15K which is my only concern. YMMV and all that).

Overall, I'm really impressed with these tires. The R2's were incredible in snow and ice, but I honestly thought they were downright dangerous in the rain. Granted I had them on a Golf R, but I was not really pushing the limits in the rain. The Wintrac Pros are their equal on ice, almost as good in snow, and aren't going to kill me in the rain. The only downside may be for folks who drive a lot, as the reviews seem to state that they wear a bit more quickly than some. Strongly recommended!
 
They are top CR rated winter performance tires.
They are probably not as good as Bridgestone LM005 or Continental TS870 but they are available in the USA.

Krzyś
 
Vredestein is still a new brand to the US and so aren't very well known yet. Give it a couple years though. I'm considering the Hypertrac for non winters on my Taos. The Wintrac will be on my list when I need to replace the Nexen Winguard Sport2s I have now
 
Vredestein is still a new brand to the US and so aren't very well known yet. Give it a couple years though. I'm considering the Hypertrac for non winters on my Taos. The Wintrac will be on my list when I need to replace the Nexen Winguard Sport2s I have now
I'd look at the Quatrac Pro as well. I used as 3 seasons on my Golf R, and they were awesome. While it's a curious choice for that car, the reality is that I was never going to hit the limits of the tire in dry conditions without getting arrested. On the other hand, I could hit the limits of the tire in the rain, particularly cold rain. The Quatrac Pros are amazing in the wet, especially when the temps get lower, and dry traction was close enough to a good summer that I never hit the limited of the tire on public roads.

It's funny, I've used Vredestein's bike tires in the past and was really unimpressed, so I've long been familiar with the brand. The 2 car tires I've used from them though have been great.
 
I'd look at the Quatrac Pro as well. I used as 3 seasons on my Golf R, and they were awesome. While it's a curious choice for that car, the reality is that I was never going to hit the limits of the tire in dry conditions without getting arrested. On the other hand, I could hit the limits of the tire in the rain, particularly cold rain. The Quatrac Pros are amazing in the wet, especially when the temps get lower, and dry traction was close enough to a good summer that I never hit the limited of the tire on public roads.

It's funny, I've used Vredestein's bike tires in the past and was really unimpressed, so I've long been familiar with the brand. The 2 car tires I've used from them though have been great.
Considered the quatrac pro, but I already have a set of winter tires and the hypertrac seems to be a nice balance of handling and ride quality, it also has a higher UTQG which I'm hoping will translate to better real world tread life since its not as soft for low temperatures. I'm also considering the Nokian One but I haven't been able to find much in the way of reviews for that one yet. If only Tirerack carried Nokian too...
 
Vredestein is still a new brand to the US and so aren't very well known yet. Give it a couple years though. I'm considering the Hypertrac for non winters on my Taos. The Wintrac will be on my list when I need to replace the Nexen Winguard Sport2s I have now
Vredestein has been a Scandinavian car owner secret for a number of years, which back then distribution was limited to certain Saab and Volvo dealerships, and some select tire stores.

I got introduced to them from a Co-worker who got them for his wife's Audi through https://www.eurotire.com/ around 20 years ago, which that tire sales company sponsored the local Porsche club.
 
I used them back in 1983 on a 82 Datsun diesel pickup and they were amazing snow tires. Back then I would order them from vendors in the auto mags. I put three sand bags on the rear axle and that 2wd truck would go through bumper high snow without issue.

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Vredestein is still a new brand to the US and so aren't very well known yet. Give it a couple years though. I'm considering the Hypertrac for non winters on my Taos. The Wintrac will be on my list when I need to replace the Nexen Winguard Sport2s I have now
Small, perhaps. Not really “new”.

I’ve seen them around since the 80s. My first set of real winter tires was a set of Vredesteins on my Mercedes in the 90s, so, not really new. Those were great tires, by the way.
 
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