Anvanter

Hello I thought I would post here to start up a tire thread in assisting people on their tire choice.
I'm in central Canada and I've had quite a few winter set ups on various vehicles. On top of that I store usually a dozen or so of my friends/families winter/summer tires/wheels in my garage and assist with purchasing and selling their new/old combinations. This has given me a good amount of hands on experience with trying out quite a few vehicles and tires over the years, with a good amount of feedback from my inner circle.

My default for the most part have been Hakkapeliitta factory studded tires, I've ran a few different set up's including the current LT3 version on my King Ranch Powerboost and Hakkapeliitta 9's on my GV70.

I'm just outside the city and having the factory studded set was always the default, but I started noticing that as winter tire technology has progressed, the non studded tires have been making leaps and bounds and deserved another go.

This brings me to my new to me B8 Avant and the Toyo GS-i non studded tires I just installed, very impressed and they definitely feel as confident on the ice as the Hakkapeliitta 9's studded that are on my GV70 and surpass them in the city with mixed snow/pavement/dry conditions. Having said that, the GV70 has 255's on 19's and the Avant has 225's on 17's, so the GV70 tire looks more aesthetically appealing and the Avant has less tendency to float around on the slushy white stuff.
My two cents on winter tires is that the most important thing to consider are the conditions you use them in, your intended use and what vehicle they are going on. Tire test are fantastic, but they are clinical in nature and only give you a baseline for the available conditions during the test, one type of vehicle and nothing on the intended use.
Please share your conditions, use and vehicles here and hopefully this will help others in making the right choice.
Thanks.
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SuperG1965

I cannot seem to find (affordable) winter tires for my 2016 A7 (265/35-20), especially studded. I found some at Canadian Tires starting at >$500/tire. I am in the Colorado Rockies and studded has been the way to go for my other vehicles!

Any ideas?

mikeru

I went with a tire wheel combo from Tire Rack for my A4 Allroad. Total cost was right around $1700 USD. I'm able to swap between winter and summer tires myself, and since there are no TPMS sensors on this car I didn't have to worry about that. The tires are Bridgestone Blizzacks and they are fantastic in low traction conditions. They're a little noisy on wet pavement, but it's worth the trade-off for me. As mentioned above, tire technology has advanced to the point that makes studs obsolete IMO. So I avoid studded tires.

Another advantage of having dedicated winter wheels is you can go with smaller wheel diameter and narrower wheels. Narrower tires work better in winter conditions, and a taller sidewall helps to protect the wheel if you hit a curb or pot hole. Another advantage of smaller wheels is lower tire cost and usually a better tire selection. Work with the tire store to find a size that will work with your car.

acpRS3

You're going to be extremely challenged to find snow tires in that size, especially studded tires. The width is very wide, the aspect ratio is small, and the diameter is big for snow tires, so you have everything working against you. Searching tire rack shows two options, neither studded. Looks like you can get these from Discount Tire in 275/35/20, but they're $471 each (https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tir...tta-10-studded)

Your best bet is probably investing in a dedicated set of winter wheels so you can go down in width / up in aspect ratio / down in diameter. For example if you get 245/50R18s, the rolling diameter is only 1% different, and the cost of those tires goes down to $250 each. And you can use the savings to get some cheap (but decent) winter wheels which also prevents you from having to swap tires on the rims every winter. anything between 17-19 inches should easily clear the brakes.

SuperG1965

Ah, yes, I think you're right about changing sizes! Thanks to both of you for helping out!!

tripleblackA4

I just got a set of Vredstein Wintrac pro on black 7 spoke 18” rims from tire rack for around $1500. 245/45-18 for my A6. Factory's summer size is 255/35-20. Going narrower will help in the snow an increased sidewall height will help smooth out some of the potholes.

plus Vredstein was offering a $150 rebate ending today.

here in Pennsylvania, we haven’t gotten terrible snow in a few years. I’m most concerned with squalls that can pop up, slushy crap left over from snowplows, and ice.

SuperG1965

Nice find on that combo - I may consider that; it appears a new tire just popped up for the 265/35-20 at 1010Tires - Nexen Winguard Sport 2 for $846 shipped (with a mail-in-rebate) + $80 to install. Then again, for an extra $600 I'd have a permanent set of winter tires/wheels - In the end, I think that's a better deal PLUS it really does appear the thinner width is better for bad weather traction.

mikeru

For sure narrow tires are better for winter tires. Wider tires tend to act more like skis. Having mounted snow tires in addition to mounted summer tires means I can do the change over myself. Tire stores in my area are so busy right now that they're booking appointments in late December if you want your snow tires put on. I can put mine on in my garage and not have to deal with any of that mess. It was definitely worth the $600 the wheels cost. Plus, Tire Rack mounted and balanced them for no charge. All I had to do was unwrap them, check the pressure, and bolt them on the car.

Anvanter

As far as having dedicated wheels with the winter tires, my vote is a huge yes. I've had both set ups at once and definitely saw the benefits of a dedicated set.

Less hassle IMO.

1. switching out summer's and winters on the same wheels costs more

2.tires have a higher likelihood of being fatigued by stretching them more then once (not 100% on this, had a couple of tire techs mention it)

3. wheels can be damaged by the techs mounting tires on them twice a year

4.in case of a winter storm or waiting too long to switch to winters and having to wait weeks on an appointment, you have the option of doing it yourself

5.if your roads are nasty, it's nice to downsize. I'm running 19's in summer and 17's in winter. Typically I try to have a sidewall of a minimum of 45, I've also ran 19" to 22" winters on other vehicles, but with a 45 or above aspect ratio-sidewall.

SuperG1965

I am also seeing that studded these days are better, but not that much over these new rubber compounds.