Yokohama Iceguard IG52C?

[IndyIan]

Has anyone found a review of these yet? I've already bought a set for the Focus based mostly on the decent reviews of previous iceguard tires and they were quite inexpensive for semi premium ice/snow tire. $94 each after the mail in rebate, and shipped for free from PMC tire out of Quebec. They have the best rating/dollar by far on the PMC website but who knows how they came up with their ratings.
They even come marked with the points of minimum weight and minimum radius to mount by rim runout or by weight by lining up with the valve stem. This is a first in my very limited new tire buying experience.
http://winter-tires.pmctire.com/enw/yokohama-iceguard-ig52c-185-65r15-88t-fn.tire
I like the tread pattern as it doesn't have a huge centre rib without some larger grooves in it. I also went with the 185/65 instead of 195/60 for a narrower tread, and slightly larger diameter to help with gearing. 1st and 2nd is quite easy to light up on wet pavement, so in snow it will be a bit of a challenge to not have the TC working for every start.
I am going to get them mounted up this week and then maybe watch the weather for a bit to decide when to put them on as the all seasons are at full tread depth for one light snow atleast.

 

[dparm]

Tread design looks very similar to the Michelin X-Ice series. If they are indeed rated for ice traction I'm sure they'll work well, but post your feedback on here as the winter progresses.

 

[SatinSilver]

Go for it! Then report back on here with the results.

 

[wolf_06]

I had Iceguards on my hyundai accent, very good in snow and ice, they were close to the good old blizzak WS 50, very good tire and durable too.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: wolf_06
I had Iceguards on my hyundai accent, very good in snow and ice, they were close to the good old blizzak WS 50, very good tire and durable too.

Good to hear! After I ordered them I kind of had second thoughts, but I figured that the older ones were rated pretty good, so I would assume their latest tire must be better.
The tread surface has actually has micro ribs on it, so the initial few miles on hard packed snow must be amazing, but after a couple days commuting they will wear off and it will be a normal winter tire.

 

[Ken2]

Quote:
They even come marked with the points of minimum weight and minimum radius to mount by rim runout or by weight by lining up with the valve stem.
Common with many tire brands. Let us know if the tire shop lines these up without you asking...I've never seen it happen.

To facilitate proper balancing, Yokohama places red and yellow marks on the sidewalls of its tires to enable the best possible match-mounting of the tire/wheel assembly. There are two methods of match-mounting Yokohama tires to wheel assemblies using these red or yellow marks:

Uniformity (red mark)
Weight (yellow mark)

When performing uniformity match-mounting, the red mark on the tire, indicating the point of maximum radial force variation, should be aligned with the wheel assembly's point of minimum radial run-out, which is generally indicated by a colored dot or a notch somewhere on the wheel assembly (consult manufacturer for details). Radial force variation is the fluctuation in the force that appears in the rotating axis of a tire when a specific load is applied and the tire rotated at a specific speed. It is necessary to minimize radial force variation to ensure trouble-free installation and operation. Not all wheel assemblies indicate the point of minimum radial run-out, rendering uniformity match-mounting sometimes impossible. If the point of minimum radial run-out is not indicated on a wheel assembly, the weight method of match-mounting should be used instead.


When performing weight match-mounting, the yellow mark on the tire, indicating the point of lightest weight, should be aligned with the valve stem on the wheel assembly, which represents the heaviest weight point of the wheel assembly. After match-mounting by either of the above methods, the tire/wheel assembly can be balanced.
http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires_101/tire_care_and_safety/match_mounting/

 

[IndyIan]

I actually printed that section out for the garage, they are a two bay mom and pop, so tires are not their main line. The rims I have for them aren't marked for ecentricity, so I'll just have to go with lining up the valve stem.
Crazy as it sounds, in 32 years of combined vehicle ownership, we have only bought 5 sets of new tires, 3 of them being Canadian Tire house brand cheapie goodyear snow tires, one set of $50/tire firestone all seasons for the old '81 Omega, and now these yokohama's. Non of the others had any sort of markings for balance on them.

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Has anyone found a review of these yet? I've already bought a set for the Focus based mostly on the decent reviews of previous iceguard tires and they were quite inexpensive for semi premium ice/snow tire. $94 each after the mail in rebate, and shipped for free from PMC tire out of Quebec. They have the best rating/dollar by far on the PMC website but who knows how they came up with their ratings.
They even come marked with the points of minimum weight and minimum radius to mount by rim runout or by weight by lining up with the valve stem. This is a first in my very limited new tire buying experience.
http://winter-tires.pmctire.com/enw/yokohama-iceguard-ig52c-185-65r15-88t-fn.tire
I like the tread pattern as it doesn't have a huge centre rib without some larger grooves in it. I also went with the 185/65 instead of 195/60 for a narrower tread, and slightly larger diameter to help with gearing. 1st and 2nd is quite easy to light up on wet pavement, so in snow it will be a bit of a challenge to not have the TC working for every start.
I am going to get them mounted up this week and then maybe watch the weather for a bit to decide when to put them on as the all seasons are at full tread depth for one light snow atleast.


It's a new tire for this season, so at this point, you're not going to find much info yet.

 

[cp3]

Thanx for posting!

Looks like a decent tire. Have no experience with Yokohama myself. Pricing is excellent! These come in a fair bit cheaper than the Hankook W409 for the Charger, even at my son's price.

The online price + rebate & no shipping is quite a deal!

 

[IndyIan]

Well, I had them put on yesterday and they even lined up the yellow dots on the stems for me, and they didn't need much weight to balance which I guess is the point of lining them up.
To put my remarks in context, the 3 season tires the Focus came with are nearly new Cooper "Starfire" SF340's. They ride very smoothly, but are a bit noisy, kind of vague in the corners, and don't have great grip in the wet or on old polished pavement. Also the Tracker has been on snow tires for the last 3 years too, so I'm used to a bit of tire noise and tire squirm and below average wet pavement grip.

Back to the IG52C's, so far I have driven them in 0 to 5C on dry pavement, but they seem about the same noise level as the SF340's, but the difference in grip is quite remarkable and the tires feel more responsive to steering inputs and they didn't roll over onto the sidewall in a 7/10's slalom simulation. I don't want to thrash them any more than that to keep all the treads and sipes nice and sharp for actual snow and ice.
So good, so far. I just haven't recieved my rebate yet from Yokohama to cover the mounting costs.

 

[cp3]

Good stuff! I might have to give them a spin. They don't look like they are going to be terrible in the snow. Hard to think that a big brand tire is going to be bad.

 

[cp3]

Thanx again IndyIan, put my order in last night and filled out the mail in rebate today. I'm actually getting the IG52V as they don't make the C in my size. Apparently the Charger uses a CUV/SUV tire size!

Service seems decent, projected delivery is tomorrow.

 

[cp3]

Tires arrived yesterday. Great service.

My son is going to mount them up today and I'll get them put on tomorrow. Will be nice to have it done before the white stuff is falling for a change.

Oh and typo in the above post, they are IG51V, not IG52V.

 

[GenSan]

My 245/65/17 Yokohama IceGuard IG51Vs' and MB Weapon wheels w/ TPMS kit just arrived at my local Toyota dealership today and will be bolted on tomorrow and TPMS synchronized on a 2013 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited. I ordered them from Discount Tire phone order and is went smooth.

From all the reviews I've read they are supposed to be even better than the previous generation ice guards.

Will be putting 6,000+ miles roundtrip from NJ - Vancouver, B.C. and back for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. I'll be comparing them w/ a set of Blizzak DM-V1s I have which are excellent in all winter conditions and treadwear has been very good.

 

[IndyIan]

We got 6" of fairly heavy snow this morning at -2C. The tires got me up the driveway with no drama and had very good grip on hard packed snow. They are not as good as the 155 skinnies I ran on the Neon for cutting through slush but that's to be expected I guess.
So good so far, this is a typical snow situation for us and they did very well. I'm waiting to see how they do on real ice, but the little test on hard packed snow went quite well, so I have high hopes.

 

[GenSan]

Just put nearly 7,000 miles on a set of Yokohama Iceguard IG51Vs in 245/65-17 traveling from Midwest-East Coast-Vancouver, B.C. and back over 2 weeks in a 2013 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Limited.

Conditions the Iceguard IG51Vs traveled through:
-Temps from -5F to 48F
-All types of snow(slush/soft-packed/hard-packed/fluff) from 1" to a foot
-Ice
-Heavy rain
-Dry conditions
-Speeds up to 125mph(parts of Montana)

I'm impressed with the IG51Vs in ALL winter conditions. I turned off the nanny controls(traction and skid control) on the said vehicle during my snow/ice driving to see how they truly handled and they handled ALL winter conditions I listed with excellent traction. They are quieter than the stock Toyo Open Country A20's in 19". Only treadwear to report were the mold spikes being worn down otherwise still at 13/32nds.

Two-thumbs WAY UP for the Yokohama IceGuard IG51Vs for keeping us safe during our travels especially after witnessing a Chevy Malibu hit an ice patch on Ohio SR-7 collide with the guardrail and flip over on its roof as I braked and swerved to avoid the upside-down vehicle blocking the right lane. I set up a few flares, as the vehicle was around a blind bend, and helped extricate the gentleman and his young daughter from their vehicle as my wife was on the phone with Emergency Services. No injuries to report just a terrified 9yr. old litle girl. That was the highlight aside from the dozens of vehicles in the ditch(Minnesota) and several over-turned tractor trailers(North Dakota) throughout the journey.

Winter tires FTW. I never leave home without them when the weather drops.

 

[IndyIan]

I thought I'd post an update as its been a few thousand km in actual winter conditions.
The good:
Crazy grip on hard packed snow, even around freezing temps.
Barely noticable wear, still remenants of the casting whiskers on the rears.
Great wet pavement grip.
Relatively solid and direct feel on pavement, at least equal to my 3 season tires.
The OK:
Pure ice grip is decent, better than my goodyear snow tires, but ice still requires alot of respect(maybe true of all ice tires?).
Low speed deep snow performance is acceptable, not great and sometimes I need to turn off the TC to get some spin to cut through the snow. I can see the need to add some grooves as these, as they wear to maintain deep snow performance.
The disappointing:
Slush clearing is not great on these for some reason, even at very low speeds with very little slush depth. They don't cut down to the pavement even with a little sideways slippage. The goodyear nordics I have/had seem to excel at this, especially if you got some slip angle on them.
Driving on the highway in slush isn't a white knuckle experience though, but I have to remember the difference in grip between hard packed snow and hard packed snow with some greasy slush on it.
I think this may improve if I groove the tires like this in the future.

I may even groove the center tread for better deep snow and slush performance like my old nordic tires.

You can see the difference between an ice capable tire (IG52C) and a pure snow tire like the nordics. For my driving I'm not too sure which would be better overall. I do like the yokohamas on the highway but for my hilly sometimes snow covered driveway, I miss the aggresiveness of the nordics, but not the noise.

 

[supton]

Necroposting, I know.

How did these IG52's work out? I just picked up a set off CL. I wasn't planning on running snows on my Camry, but wasn't against it, and came across a deal that got me the full spare(s) that I wanted.

 

[Bgallagher]

Have them on my Malibu and love them. Good road manners and rock solid traction. My car doesn't have any fancy features like traction control etc. doesn't even had ABS. Those tires have helped me a lot in some sticky situations.

 

[IndyIan]

Last year was the 3rd season on them and they still were hanging in there, wet grip is starting to fall off a little and they are getting down to 8/32. They still are quiet on the hwy and work well on hard pack snow. The main reason to get these over the Xice is the square edge shoulder profile, if/when you start to slide sideways the edge cuts in and gets down to find grip on just moves more snow sideways instead of sliding over it. On an empty backroad I can pitch the car sideways and the tire just digs more with more slip angle, where round edge tires go so far and then sign off giving you no directional control.