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Re: How do you use your car in the Winter? Posted by Snowmobile [Email]  (#686)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Snowmobile) on Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:09:48
In Reply to: Re: How do you use your car in the Winter?, Buck60, Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:12:42 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Of the choices and for what you say your biases are, I'd probably look into the Gislaved 5's or xice3, but there is more to it...
So last year I ran on Michelin Primacy Alpin PA3's and they were ok, but would be best for a mainly cold roads higher speed driving situation. They handled great for a winter tire, H rated, have no studs, but lots of siping and contact area instead... however, I was very underwhelmed with their performance in snow and especially on ice. I think this is in part because they are light on tread depth (even though they are not a "performance winter")... it turns out all Michelin car tires are pretty much the same tread depth! Even the XIce series. Even the Pilot Super Sports I have on the 9-5 for summer. They all start off at 10.5/32" (8.3mm)...
I'm used to Nokian winter tires that start off with a little more (iirc 12.5/32", or 10mm).
When you consider that the snow/ice performance of most of these really goes down when they get down near 5mm or so, having an extra mm or 2 of depth to start with is handy. The Gislaveds I think start off at 11/32, so not vastly more than the Michelins, but a little bit...
I guess the other factor is whether or not you use studs (or even can in your jurisdiction). I'm guessing no, where you have the jeep and with your type 3 bias vs 1. The Gislaveds are designed to accept studs, which if you don't put them in, means some of the contact patch that would have been siped is not... otoh, xice tires do not accept studs and have heavy siping and other structures ("pumps") in an effort to make up for the fact that they can't take studs... how well this all works depends but basically people here do like the xice3 as a full on winter tire, so even with the reduced tread depth, you'd probably do fine. I hope it is better than the primacy alpin PA3 though!
The other option to look into would be Nokian R. That's what I put on this year, and so far (dry and cold) it handles pretty well - maybe not quite as good as the H rated PA3, but it has more tread depth... I'll see how it does in winter (but reviews are very favourable, and I have found all previous Nokians to be great).
Especially if you are going without studs, I'd look for the newest tire compounds. The xi3, 5, and R should be good in that regard, but a second source production of the 3 pattern may be sticking with older rubber compounds (hence cheaper)... probably still fine, but the difference may be worth it... it always amazes me to see people buying crappy (but cheap!) chinese winter tires that look the part, with terrible rubber compounds...
, Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:22:32, Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:09:48 <-- Viewing This Message
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