Hi all.

Sorry to hijack this thread. It's related and I didn't want to start a new one.

I'm starting to look at winter tires and don't know which would be the best option in terms of performance and longevity. I am hoping some of you might have personal experience or second hand opinion. I drive 50/50 highway/city. Ontario Winters so a few major dumps.

These are the options I have:

235-70-16

Hankook RW07
Bridgestone (Firestone) Winterforce
Yokohama Geolander G072
Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow
Dunlop Grandtrek SJ6
Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1

Thanks in advance.

This post has been edited by Rikardo: Aug 27 2009, 08:03 AM

I purchased the Blizzak DM-Z3 235/60-18 with Borbet type CA wheels from Tirerack last year and love them both. I run Blizzaks on all three of our vehicles to include a full size pickup and swear by them for extreme winter conditions...much better than any studded tire I used to use. The Borbet wheels almost match the factory wheel in appearance at a lot less money than a second set of factory 18" aluminum wheels. The freight cost to Alaska is crazy, but with Tirerack's prices it still worked out better in the end once you include the mounting, ballancing, lug nuts, etc included in Tireracks tire/wheel combo prices.

For those who are concerened about the tire life of Blizzaks, I have ran Blizzak Revo-1's on my Volvo for the past four Alaskan winters and can easily get another year out of them before wearing past the first 55% of the tube cell compound.

Bridgestone Blizzak all the way in my book - two cars with WS60s on them both - one for two winters in OH, and one with one. - feel free to search the posts by me for my writings on snow tires if you wish Sir. (or M'Lady)

FYI - WS60s "Blizzaks" two winters on an Accent - bout 16K miles in OH (lots of dry pavement) still good for 2-3more winters before out of the good stuff.

WS60s on my Tucson one winter - 11K miles in OH - no wear visable to eye (have not measured them)
HTH

no the wheel studs do not center the rim perfectly. The holes for the wheel studs are a little loose so when you put the wheel on, it "hangs" down a bit (just a few millimeters) but this is enough to make it seem as though they weren't balanced properly. Some aftermarket summer wheels use a plastic snap ring to fix this problem, but I've not found one to fit in steel wheels.

The wheel nuts are tapered to match the holes in the wheel. That should align all 5 nuts to the center of all 5 holes in the wheel and lift the wheel from it's hanging position on the studs.

My Limited came with 18" tires and wheels. Is it recommended to stay with 18's for winter tires or better to down size to 16's (similar to those that comes with the GLS trim)? For you guys that put on 18" winter tires... would you say the performance in snow was significant enough to go to a smaller size?

I've not had 18" wheels...but mostly it is a cost factor.

Say you decide on a tire. You price it out to mount on your current 18" wheels, and it costs out at XXX.XX for a set of four. Now, go price (hopefully) steel wheels in 15", or 16" with the same tire, but a different size (while maintaining the same overall dia.) - most find the second way to be less costly, AND, it's proven that a 'narrower' tire is better in the snow, and having them mounted on their own wheels saves you like 60-90 bucks twice yearly (dismount, mount, balence - twice yearly).

The ONLY reason to stay with the original wheel size is if you can not find any other wheels at a reasonable price - the ultimate KEY is to keep the "REVs" the same between the OEM summer tire, and the new winter tire (however you do it). REVs = Revolutions per mile

"REVs" - if you have a stock tire with '792' REVs - that tire will rotate 792 times in one mile. If the next tire only has 740 REVs, it will not rotate the same number of times in a mile - therby changing the calibration of your speedo, and *possibly* other sorta important stuff, depending on the car.

So, at a place like The TireRack, they will teach you the REVs for your OEM tire, so you can find a tire, or a wheel and tire set that will give you the same REVs (or very close to it) - so that when you swap tires, the car will basically drive the same - Tread squirm, compound type, and other stuff WILL make the car drive somewhat different, but nothing that driving it for a day or 2 won't cure.

On my Tucson - I got the REVs within 4 per mile - might as well say ZERO difference, as the REVs WILL change on the SAME tire as it ages and loses tread depth.

Hope this makes sense to you - PM or email me if you want a better explaination or - call the TireRack as those nice guys taught me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

This post has been edited by PeterC: Aug 28 2009, 10:17 PM

I had used a set of Winterforce 225/75/16 - with good luck driving in Northwestern Ontario in the winter - my only thought was should I have had them studded - Tire Rack has them for like 80$ and the local tire places sell them for 2x that - this was last year - they have lots of thread left - should last a while as they are on the vehicle for 5-6 months

I thought studs were illegal in Ontario?

Congo

Thought I heard u can have studs in Northern ontario now.. could be wrong

You are correct.

http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GONE/2005/...mp;lang=_e.html

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I do plan to have separate winter rims - I was undecided on the whether to stay with the original 18" size. I see what you mean that with the 18"s the tires would be more, as well I'd have to get alloy rims in that size. Hmm... definitely more economical with 16" steel wheels and rubber. The REV measurement is interesting to keep a note of (I didn't really look into that before).

Every model under the Limited has 16" wheels and rubber.. save some money (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I looked back through my notes from wne I did both my Tucson, and my boss's (err...wife's) Accent. On mine, wnt from 16" to 15" and for the same tire - saved $119.34 net by going done a size, and they are on their own wheels. On the Accent, we went from 16" to 14" and on the same tire (buyinf 16" tire only, VS 14" wheel and tire combo) we saved exactly 147.00.

Plus no mount and dismount to worry bout twice yearly.

And on mine the two different tire sizes the small was 1/2 inch narrower (still had the same weight carrying CAP) - narrower = better in snow.

HTH

Redflagdeals.com has a group buy going on with simplytire.com. This is the quote I got from them for a 2007 SF:

Santa Fe
Option 1 - $710.00
4 x 235-70-16 Hankook RW07 - $700.00
4 x 16x6.5 Hyundai Steel Wheels
4 x Toyo Tire Bags
4 x Mount, Balance and Install

Option 2 package with Bridgestone Winterforce - $760.00
Option 3 package with Yokohama Geolander G072 - $920.00
Option 3 package with Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow - $920.00
Option 4 package with Dunlop Grandtrek SJ6 - $940.00
Option 6 package with Bridgestone Blizzak DMV1 - $1,080.00

You can deduct the $50 GB discount from these prices.

Phantom,

Which ones are you going with?

I'd be interested also in knowing which one to buy, particularly here in Ottawa. I got an offer of 137/tire including installation and balancing for Hercules Avalanche Extreme from a local tire shop here. Just don't know anything about the tire.

Also, does the rfd deal expire? ie. if I wanted to go to Toronto in a month and get it, would that be okay?

They said prices are good until they run out of stock. Guess it's best to buy before the first heavy snowfall cause everyone will be flocking to the shops after that.

As they say, a cheap winter tire is better than a good all season when it comes to snow. So keeping that in mind I will be looking for something reasonable in price as I don't really drive that much to begin with but will be doing some trips from Toronto to Ottawa.

I'll check tirerack on reviews of the tires mentioned and go from there.

Skanji,

Once you decide on which tires, you can leave a deposit to guarantee that they hold them until you are ready for the install. Deadline is October 15th to leave a deposit and reserve your tires.

I'm also unsure of which tires to get. There's not much in terms of real driving reviews for the Hankook RW07 which is what Simply Tire is recommending for light truck/suv.