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Snow tires - recommendations?

François Pugh

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My recommendation kinda depends on the vehicle but I run Hakkas and Blizzaks and both have been great but I give the edge to the Blizzaks in deeper snow. While the Hakkas have better handling on dry roads while still being secure on ice and snow.
Which Hakkas?
Better dry road handling than my Hakka R2s is what I would call damning by faint praise.
 

Jerez

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Well you can sell the current tires, then you’ll save say $200/year not switching tires…

Doesn’t appear to be a Blizzak that works for you in 265/50R20. Only one is the DM-V2, but that load rating is only 107, and yours seem to be 111.

So far in your size there’s
Nokian R5 SUV (latest)
R3 SUV
Michelin X-Ice Snow SUV
Yokohama Iceguard G075
Vredestein Wintrac Pro

Other option is to get rims. You could downsize to 18’s, 265/60R18. Looks like only the Nokian, Vredestein meet the 111 load, though the Michelin is 110.

Hey @anders_nor , the Nokian Hakka R3/5 is only R speed rated, 106mph/170km/h, others are T or V rated. Thoughts?
Ack. Too confusing.
Took the new beast in for its first oil change and asked the Jeep Dealership what snow tires they recommended, and it was the Blizzaks. Go figure.

They are having a buy 3 get one for a dollar next month. I like the Jeep dealership in CO better than the one in NM, so next time we are up there, I'll stop in and see what they say. Then I'll check Discount Tire for comparison pricing. From what I see online they are pretty similar, but Discount's seasonal change fee is only $70 and I am not strong enough to load the wheels with rims on our storage rack. :dig: (I don't know what this emoji means but it looks confused so ...)
 

James

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Ack. Too confusing.
That's why one gets the Falken A/T Trails and doesn’t think about tires other than getting them rotated. Done.

Tire Rack recommended those Blizzaks too. Likely fine. It’s hard to know your load spec from here. Open the drivers door and look at the sticker on the opening. It’ll have 265/50R20 followed by a number and letter. The number is the load rating. The letter is the speed rating of the tire. (You can look them up to see exactly what value it is if you want)

You want to stay near the load spec for your vehicle. Preferably at or above, esp if you load it with passengers and stuff.
 

wiread

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Long time Blizzak users here in the midwest. Still use them on my truck and last year got Viking contact 7's for the minivan. Both excellent tires for our conditions. Though lately we seem to rarely need them. Everything is plowed off and salted to hell within hours it seems so 99% of the time we're on dry roads anyway. But for those times we have to travel for holidays or family and we need them, it's money well spent as far as I'm concerned.
 

johnnyvw

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If the Pirelli Soto Zero is available in your size, I can vouch for them. It was pretty much the only tire available in the standard size for my wife's Alltrack when we first got it, and they work as well as the Michelin X-ice we had on her Golf, in fact better in snow and ice. And since we are now in a pretty much snowless area, I left them on this summer to use them up. 12k miles since last November through the summer heat, they still have plenty of tread left, and that's after 4 winter seasons. So probably around 30K miles total on the tires and "still going". I doubt you would get that much from Blizzaks (and I'm a big fan of them)
 

firebanex

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I say similar things to people... Cold temps on hard snow gives you a remarkable amount of traction. Add salt and slush and all bets are off..
Ice gets quite tacky at -40. Driving in Interior Alaska means I really do have to drive on snow, packed snow, and ice for 5 months at a time. Last winter we quite literally had 3 inches of ice on the roads for about 6 weeks before DOT finally was able to get it down to pavement again. For the conditions up here, I really like the oft mentioned Nokian Hakka for my subaru and are gonna replace the worn out Blizzaks on my wife's subaru with a set this winter as well. I haven't bothered with studded tires for quite sometime because our roads stay frozen and we don't really have to worry about ice being slippery. It's really a weird sensation to have tacky ice.
 
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bbbradley

bbbradley

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If the Pirelli Soto Zero is available in your size, I can vouch for them.
Which Sottozero? The 2nd looks much more like a capable winter tire than the 1st.
1662201389553.png
or
1662201430724.png
 

wiread

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We were out at little river bar/restaurant for fish last night where one of my son's wouldn't take no for an answer and stuck his arm up in a toy machine and got stuck. Just like in the movies, who woulda thunk it. But the craziest part is, we parked next to a car running what looked like pretty new Michelin Ice-X's on a smaller sports car. It was 83 degrees yesterday. Those things are going to melt right off of there. he should be ready for new tires by December.
 
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bbbradley

bbbradley

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I am between the X-Ice Snow and Sottozero 3 right now. Sotto are "Performance Winter Snow" and the X-Ice are "Studless Ice & Snow." Price is close enough to call it a wash.
 

James

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I am between the X-Ice Snow and Sottozero 3 right now. Sotto are "Performance Winter Snow" and the X-Ice are "Studless Ice & Snow." Price is close enough to call it a wash.
There’s also the Michelin Alpin Pilot 5 - in the Sottozero category, but not in that 225/40/19 size. You could if you go 225/50/17.

Since you’re going to spend most of the time on dry those are probably good choices, much better than a summer or all season tire.
Interesting that on wet braking from 50mph, the Pirelli, Michelin, and Dunlop stopped 30ft shorter than the Blizzak.
 

tball

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Also, think about the CrossClimate2. Treadwear will be better than winter tires. From CR:

1662244085803.png
 

tball

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I'm on my second set of X-Ice's on my RWD G35. Handling is OK, not horrible. It gets better as they wear, while winter performance gets worse. I even drove them through the summer when they were worn beyond winter duty and didn't hate them enough to switch.

X-ice with RWD on a relatively steep slick hill where I'd be stuck with all-seasons:

 

Jerez

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That's why one gets the Falken A/T Trails and doesn’t think about tires other than getting them rotated. Done.

Tire Rack recommended those Blizzaks too. Likely fine. It’s hard to know your load spec from here. Open the drivers door and look at the sticker on the opening. It’ll have 265/50R20 followed by a number and letter. The number is the load rating. The letter is the speed rating of the tire. (You can look them up to see exactly what value it is if you want)

You want to stay near the load spec for your vehicle. Preferably at or above, esp if you load it with passengers and stuff.
Load rating is 107 Speed T.
 

tball

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Sottozero 3. Having had both these and the X-Ice (not to mention almost every iteration of Blizzak), if I was buying for my car, I would go with the Pirelli. But either one isn't a bad choice.
I bet the Sottozero's handle much better than the X-Ice. I'm curious how much, as I've never had high-performance winter tires. Any insight?


@bbbradley, I'd consider waiting until this year's winter tire reviews are in a month or so from CR and Tyre Reviews:
 

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