Why isn't the General Altimax RT43 3PMSF rated?

Everything is a tradeoff-I wonder if deep sipes might have more squirm and wear faster than if they only went halfway. Hard to say, and I bet average temperatures would alter the results anyhow.
 
Hello

I have been doing a ton of reading about snow / winter performace All Season tires.

From what I have read the General Altimax RT43 has much better stopping in snow compared to tires rated with 3PMSF (Falken Wildpeak, Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, and Cooper Discoverer Enduramax.

This begs the question why doesn't the RT43 have the 3PMSF rating?
Since you did ton of reading, can you provide us some data?
 
Everything is a tradeoff-I wonder if deep sipes might have more squirm and wear faster than if they only went halfway. Hard to say, and I bet average temperatures would alter the results anyhow.

Worse performance when it's dry as the tread blocks get weaker. You will heat the tyre up more aswell so if you drive too fast for it it'll wear like crazy. But if you drive sedately you mainly loose braking distance in the dry in case of emergency
 
Just an FYI:

One way Tire designers deal with the problem of full depth sipes being desirable, but them causing rapid wear and squirrely handling when the tire is new, is to make the sipe only partially full depth - like only partial at the ends, or a saw tooth pattern.
 
Hello

I have been doing a ton of reading about snow / winter performace All Season tires.

From what I have read the General Altimax RT43 has much better stopping in snow compared to tires rated with 3PMSF (Falken Wildpeak, Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, and Cooper Discoverer Enduramax.

This begs the question why doesn't the RT43 have the 3PMSF rating?
They seem to be doing a good job on wet and snow covered roads since I had them installed on my Cavalier. All around good tire.
 
While winter traction is great for an all-season they are not winter tires.

I do like the tires for what they are including price point on our 2018 VW Tiguan. No issues in winter events with them.
 
Hello

I have been doing a ton of reading about snow / winter performace All Season tires.

From what I have read the General Altimax RT43 has much better stopping in snow compared to tires rated with 3PMSF (Falken Wildpeak, Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, and Cooper Discoverer Enduramax.

This begs the question why doesn't the RT43 have the 3PMSF rating?
Are the RT43's tested on the same SUV as the 3PMSF All-terrain tires? If no, apples to oranges.
 
Everything is a tradeoff-I wonder if deep sipes might have more squirm and wear faster than if they only went halfway. Hard to say, and I bet average temperatures would alter the results anyhow.
My pre-12 Altimax Arctics have considerable tread squirm. It's not a problem... it's just weird.
 
Just so everyone knows: In some places - I'm looking at you Europe! - the Mountain/Snowflake symbol is regarded with disfavor. Instead of taking the symbol for what it is - passing a test - it is looked at negatively and hurts sales.
Must be a different Europe than the one I'm from.
 
Just an FYI:

One way Tire designers deal with the problem of full depth sipes being desirable, but them causing rapid wear and squirrely handling when the tire is new, is to make the sipe only partially full depth - like only partial at the ends, or a saw tooth pattern.

Germany recently started requiring 3-peak tires for the winter season. Previously, they allowed M+S
 
Just so everyone knows: In some places - I'm looking at you Europe! - the Mountain/Snowflake symbol is regarded with disfavor. Instead of taking the symbol for what it is - passing a test - it is looked at negatively and hurts sales.
Why would some consider the Mountain/Snowflake symbol with disfavor? What are the short comings and why is it looked at negatively with hurt sales?
 
RT43's are not, and never will be a true winter tire period. It gets you by.
I live in San Francisco. I am not looking for a winter tire. I am looking for an All Weather 3PMSF tire or similar that has excellent snow traction. Some call this type of tire All Season with Severe Snow Service Rating.
 
I live in San Francisco. I am not looking for a winter tire. I am looking for an All Weather 3PMSF tire or similar that has excellent snow traction. Some call this type of tire All Season with Severe Snow Service Rating.
Excellent and all season and all weather cannot go into same sentence.
My Michelin Xi2, Continental Viking7 and Nokian Hakka R2 have excellent snow traction. When you buying "ALL" tires, you are making bunch of compromises, 3PMSF or not.
 
Hello

I have been doing a ton of reading about snow / winter performace All Season tires.

From what I have read the General Altimax RT43 has much better stopping in snow compared to tires rated with 3PMSF (Falken Wildpeak, Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, and Cooper Discoverer Enduramax.

This begs the question why doesn't the RT43 have the 3PMSF rating?
Maybe because RT43 doesn't perform as great on ice?

If we look at the TireRack's winter measurements:
and

then, among other things, one can see that RT43 needs 54 ft to stop from 12mph on ice. Whereas "all-weather" tires like Goodyear WeatherReady and Firestone WeatherGrip (both properly rated with snowflake peak), take 46 ft and 42 ft respectively.

I think snow is very tricky to test against: its properties may vary greatly depending on numerous factors, all affecting tests repeatability. Ice must be much much simpler to deal with. Wondering which exactly substance and conditions do they use for the 3PMSF certification...
 
Just snow traction, no ice.
Ice is not as simple as you think buy still simpler than snow.

Russians did tests on "warm" ice and "cold" ice.
"Warm" was 32F, not surprisingly.
"Cold" I think was 5F or below.

They got different results. Studded tires did much worse on cold ice than warm.
Studless beat the studded in cold (or at least they narrowed the gap to 0).

With snow it is much more interesting but I suspect 3MPSF test regimen specifies the snow (temperature, maybe specific weight) to make results repeatable. But I do not know.

Krzyś
 
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