Winter is coming, time to get some snow tires!!
 

Those stock tires have been with me for more than 10 months, i'm planning to get some snow tires this winter.. Do u guys think if i should go for 16 inches tires?? or stay with 17'' with stock rims?? i dont mind getting those ghetto black rims for my winter tires.. =)

what brand and model do u guys prefer??

Definitely avoid driving on the salty roads with your stock rims. The 16" steelies will allow for snow tires that will cost you less, and will be the best insurance policy against the oxydizing of your OEM rims.

As for snow tires, I like the Michelin Pilot Alpins which are a good compromise between performance in slush, traction and dry weather driving conditions.

I don't know the models exactly for other brands of tires, but many here love the Pirellis as well, and tireguy will probably tell you to go for Nokians.

But this has been well discussed last fall, so if you search, you could find some valuable info.

Nokian is really good. I used to have them on my lude for 5yr and it still handle the snow like a champ on the 5yr. But it seems like no one sell it in Toronto ne more! I am looking for a set of snow to put on my oem rims since I have 18" for summer and I really mind the ugly steelies on my car and it will be on for 5mth every year! I pin down to Dunlop DS2($150) or Toyo Garit HT($210) in 215/50/17.

I'm still not sure what I will go with either

Dunlop Winter Sport M3 or

Toyo Garit HT

Opinions, comments, suggestions all welcome.

Drove the Dunlops last year and really liked them. This was in western powder-type snow, not eastern ice, so your experience may vary.

I'm going to get a set of Kumho KW17's this year. http://www.kumhotire.com/int/Tires/P...&product=SUGR4

I think cornholio is running the KW19's which are a 16" tire.

Are you sure KW17 have 215/50/17 available?

They don't have 215/50/17. I'll be going with 205/50/17 but they also have 225/45/17. I'd prefer to go with the skinnier tire to get more bite in the snow.

Tiretrends also lists the KW19 in a 225/45/17 format even though it's not listed on Kumho's website.

I picked up a set of Genuine Honda steel rims for $50 each at Number Honda in Woodbridge. Still one of the best prices I've seen for steelies and these will fit perfectly. As for a snow tire obviously some are better than others but anything is better than the stock tires. I picked up a set of Semperit Sport (Can't remember the full name) Its an Austrian made tire owned by continental. I got em for cost ($67 each) but they can be had for under $100 each in stores.

Hell, even the Motormaster IceTrac tires offer a good value for there money. There made by Michelin and are a variation of Artic Alpines.

Happy driving.

You knew I was coming :D

I of course recommend the Nokian products for winter driving, IMO there is no compromises made. The company runs unlike any other tire manufacturer period, they are so advanced in the most simple ways, its hard to sum up into a single post here. The company's mission statement is to increase there tires safety by 10% a year, every year. When there new CEO started(Denis Gaede, he's a super nice guy!) he asked why such an ambitious goal? There reply was simple, because our families ride on our tires. Safety has always been Nokian's primary focus, everything else can be addressed later. Did you know driving on black ice you 8 times more likely to be in a fatel car crash then on dry roads? and on slush your 5 times more likely? Don't know about you but that's bad odds in my eyes, and not something I would EVER risk. Not only are there tires the best in the world for winter use- they are creating more enviromentally friendly tires. There most recent winter tire for the North American market is the Hakkapeliitta RSi, its made with a differeny compound then any other tire out there to allow not only better winter traction, but to be better on the enviroment today and tomorrow. Instead of using a carbon black based compound they are using what is called a PAH compound which is primarily made of rape seed oil(canola oil as its more commonly reffered to). The reason for this is first of all better winter traction as I said earlier. As we all know our tires wear out, well what happens to them? They create what is called tire dust and this dust goes into our enviroment- what current tires are made of is highly suspected to cause cancer, and we are all surrounded by it. Also we are not depleting our oil reserves making the tires because we can just grow the produce needed to refine the various vegtable oils required to make the tires. So lets say you just don't care about the enviroment that's ok, but for those who do, this is really something advanced.

The winter traction may interest those who don't care about the enviroment! They sent a group of dealers from north america over to sweden to use there winter test facility for Saab or Volvo(I don't recall which- I was unable to attend this trip) and test the new RSi. The reports I have heard are UNBELIEVABLE, undeniably the best studless tire ever made when driving in winter conditions are top priority. So they are great in snow, slush and ice; what about the other 90% of the time when your on wet or dry roads? Well nokians philosophy about no comprimises holds true, while not a touring tire or ultra performance tire, they are incredibly good in rain(the RSi stands for Rain Slush and ice) and surprisingly well manored for dry driving. The reason for highly satisfactory dry and wet performance has to do with how the tires are made, jointless nylon belts, square bead pack, spiral wrapped belts and a directional casing/tread pattern. And of course you get the DSI(driving safety indicator) to tell at a quick glance how much life is left in the tire. This is there new studless tire, I highly recommend checking it out if your looking for a premium studless winter tire.

I have driven on the RSi's just not in severe winter conditions yet, and they are good really good in fact. However I am not running them on my car, I preffer a studded tire for winter driving. I know a lot of you have misconceptions about studs and how they work and what they do wrong- but there have been huge changes in the way tires are studded and the tires themselves which make the short comings fewer and the benefits even better. First to clear up the rumors about studs, studs do NOT effect traction on wet or dry roads this was a rumor started by Consumer Reports- there has never been a study to prove this, there have been studies to show there is NO difference in traction- the only change they can even detect is that the tires last slightly longer when studded. The reason I feel studs are still worth the hassle, is due to there linear response. Unlike studless tires which rely on chemical type traction studded tires have both chemical and mechanical traction. The primary difference is predictabilty, a studless tire will have great traction right to the point when it breaks free and then it breaks free instantly and traction is lost- anyone who has experienced this knows EXACTLY what I am talking about. As any good driver will tell you this is a bad situation to be in. The benefit of studs is, as they break free it goes very gradually and you have not only warning but a chance to correct. Not to mention peerless traction in the worst of the worst. I was driving on a set of Hakka. 2's and was going sixty on a frozen lake and the car was completely stable and ALWAYS in control, it was as though I was driving on a rough dry road- it is amazing. The improvements they have made is lighter studs(reduces dynamic spike- the noise the stud makes as it hits the pavement- conventional studs weigh 1.2g the Kometa marathon 1 weighs .9g), carbon tips in the studs(this way they wear at the same rate as the tire offering better traction as the tire wears) , dual flange seat(this virtually elimanates studs falling out as the tire wears)and the tires themselves have what is called the "eco stud" system, it has a flanged pillow where the stud seats in the tire, this pillow absorbs the impact of stud and keeps it aligned. By doing all of that they can have more rows of studs then ever possible, the hakka 2 has 14 row studding, the closest manufacturer is at 5 row studding. Yes you can still tell your driving on tires that have studs, but when you have to go, you can go where ever you want when ever you want- and to me that's worth it!

Most snow tires are poor excuses of there intended purpose, they are designed on computers tested for a week and then go into production- nokian has the worlds only year round test facility. Goodyears snow tires are tested in Florida, makes you feel safe doesn't! Also any snow tire that does not have the mountain snow flake pictograph stay away from. Most manufacturer's don't apply any effort to building snow tires because its such a niche market and its seasonal! Most just take the same casings they use on there all season tires and put some aggressive tread on there, cure the tire for less time and boom you got a snow tire- wrong you have a tire that's going to kill people. And NEVER install just two snow tires on your FWD car, by putting only snow tires on the front you have longitudinal traction which will get you going but no increased lateral traction- I don't know any winter time fatal accidents that happen because you can't get down your driveway! I do know that over 80% of all fatal winter time accidents is caused by a sudden loss of lateral traction. Lateral traction comes from your rear tires. Also NEVER mix studded and non-studded tires, this creates a situation that is more dangerous then mixing radials and biased ply tires. If you are lucky or unlucky enough to find someone stupid enough to do that to your car and ever get in even a small accident your going to be very rich. There was a settlement 2 or 3 years ago where Les Schwab did what I said never to do, they had the customer sign a waiver and everything, well that one cost them 4 million- so be safe!

tireguy

^^ jeebus, where do i sign up!?!?!?!?! where?!?!?! :D

to the tireguy .. just how much is nokian paying you?

Not a penny, I am an Independent tire dealer, the only one who pays me is me. I sell mainly Bridgestone, firestone, dayton, goodyear, nokian and cooper- and with the Bridgestone program I am on 51+% of my sales have to be Bridgestone. Also I make the smallest margins on Nokian, so I really have NOTHING to gain by saying what I did.

dam u TIREGUY!!! i am having the hardest time deciding between the Nokian RSi and the Michelin X-ICE... both are new this year and not much info about either out there. The michelin's look like they could be good contenders this year. I've driven on the Arctic Alpins and i thought they were great even though alot of people say they're not so great in SNOW and ICE.

But then came the RSi's. Nokians have this reputation of being awesome, but I just don't know if it's worth the extra 100 CAD (~80USD) for the set.

Don't happen to have an opinion on the Michelin's do you? :)

Where you can get Nokian in Canada? how much? what size? It seems like they disappear from the market since last yr! No 1 in Toronto carry them ne more! Nokian is always my first choice!

Are the Nokian the ones that are advertised as being great for all-season as well as winter? I read about some tire company from Finland that had some kind of dual-purpose tire like that, I'm not sure if that's what I'm thinking of...

Yes nokian make a "All-Weather" tire that meets the severe winter requirements thingie with the SnowFlake Symbol, it's called the Nokian WR

IanS: www.nokiantires.com has a list of dealers in Canada.

I, too, have used Nokians in the past and would like to use em again
Does ne one in Toronto know where we can get them??

The Nokain tire that comes up for the TSX is the WR A.W.P. 2 Passenger:
http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/t...size=215/50R17

Is that as wonderful as the ones Tireguy was describing? :)

Edit: Never mind, that's just their all-season tire.

The WR's are the BEST all weather tires in the world, in fact they are the only all weather tires in the world. But you can read the links that have been posted about them.

I forgot to mention about some of the new technology in the tread of the RSi! I don't know how I could have forgot one of the most important improvements. They used a form of folded sipe on there old hakka. Q(the previous generation studless tire) and it was designed to prevent tread squirm, by maintainings stability on a tire that has as many sipes as the hakka. Q had. It worked well, but has been improved, they use the same technology though now they interlink them and call it wedge siping and having driven on them it is a completely different driving experience from the old Q. Also they have developed what they call the "shark tooth brake booster", which are ridges on the back of the tread block on the shoulders. They have been studying tires and how the react doing various tasks in winter situations and come to find that a majority of your brake performance comes from the outer tread blocks and more surprisingly the rear of those tread blocks- thus the new shark tooth technology. It amazes me that it takes the Finns. to come up with this stuff!

A quick note about nokian today then I will go away- since they are the only company who is as dedicated to improving winter tires performance year in and year out. They have to design and build all of the test equipment used, because it is so specialized they have there own in house R&D department for engineering of test equipment for winter tires. To the best of my knowledge they are the only company period who designs and builds there own test equipment. If you search the nokian site you may see pictures of this big blue "VW bus on steriods" well that piece of machinary has over $4 million dollars of test equipment in it! Its designed to test multiple tires on the exact same conditions and analyze the results.

I forgot to mention there engineering process in my previous less then coherent post.

As for the Michelin's I was brought up with "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all" and I will leave it at that. If you want to know my personal experiences with the Artic Alpins(yes I do have a LOT of experience with them) contact me privately.

Yeah and there are very few places to get them in Ottawa. I can just imagine the price.

Tire Guy I would love to here your experience with Michilen, Dunlop and Toyo for winter tires. Especially since I am considering the last 2 for the TSX.

Thankfully, in the places I go we tend to have to deal only with packed powder, not ice.

Both on the roads and on the slopes...

:D

Ok, so what are people here getting for ice/snow? Decision time is coming... Nokian doesn't seem to be an option in 215/50-17...

What's wrong with 205/50R17? :dunno:

Make a slightly larger wheel gap! :D looks always my first concern :ecstatic:
and I really hate that rim wider than tire look.

They have an all weather tire that meets the new snow condition regulations.

http://www.nokiantires.com/newsite/t...size=215/50R17

It looks like I will be going with Toyo Garit HT. The reason I don't go with thw 205/50/17 is that the prices are even higher than 215/50/17 though there is more selection.

Soo, is it a better idea to get a new set of wheels if I'm planning on keeping my stock for a while? Or can I still drive stock wheels and tires over winter (assuming the Pilots are All season tires). And why are 16's preferred over 17's?

Alloy wheels take a beating it the winter with road salt and sand. I picked up a second set of rims for exactly that reason.

16" are preferred mainly because they are cheaper and there's more selection in tires in the 60 series.

For snow handling a narrower, taller tire is better than a short fat one that tends to "float" over the snow. Thus, a 205/60-16 is at least moderately better than our stock size for deep snow.

All this does vary though. Driving on northeastern snow and black ice is NOTHING like driving on mountain snow out west, and the kinds of tires that tireguy is recommending would be pure overkill out here.

Just got a quote for that tire $1250.00 installed and balanced ! (for 4) :scared:

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like we'd save by ordering those Toyos... I get $958.85 CDN from 1010tires with shipping. Where did you look for those?

On 1010 tires I see them along with Dunlop Graspic DS-2, Pirelli Winter 210 Snowsport and Yokohama Ice Guard IG721. The Yokos have the best rating but are pretty expensive.

On Tirerack it's only Dunlop Graspic DS-2 and Dunlop Winter Sport M3. The Graspic is only $95 but there's no rating...

I omitted the Bridgestones in both cases. :)

I have a quote from Tiretrends for $923.71 CDN for the same tires. I am going to go with the Toyos cause they have a speed rating of H and they are cheaper than the Yoko and the Pirelli. I am also negotiating with a local guy to get a better deal if we buy a couple of sets.

Oh yes, I forgot about tiretrends, it's where I got my Khumos. :O

Was it you who mentioned another place online but based in Montreal, with cheaper shipping?

I just bought my winters online at Tiretrends. I went with the Hankook W300 Ice Bear (H rated) with a set of knockoff steel wheels (didn't want to take a chance with a universal fit wheel) - delivered to my door for $850 CDN. I think I did ok, thanks OTT-TSX for the advice.. :thumbsup:

Your welcome crisco ! Belzebutt the place was talontire.com. They are located near Montreal and had an offer of free shipping till Oct 15th. But their prices are higher than tiretrends so it almost evens out. Let me know if you are interested as my dad and I are going to purchase a couple of sets from tiretrends and maybe we can get a better deal if you buy a set also.

Yes, I am. The Toyos sound good. The Yokos have good reviews for their winter driving it seems but don't seem as good for street driving (which you end up doing by far the most of with winter tires), and like you said they're only Q-rated. The price is very close on Tiretrends... Have you talked to the local guy yet, seems like you went back to Tiretrends.

Do you still have your OEMs mounted? We might want to try to get a group package on mounting/balancing some place. Frisby's probably one of the cheaper places...

Yeah I'm going to go with the Toyo's. Treffs wanted $1148.00 for them. Installed, balanced, tax etc. But OK tire was willing to do it for less. I am going to approach Treffs and see if he will do better if we buy a couple of sets.

i just buy from my dealer in Blainville north of Montreal
4 TOYO GARIT HT 215/55R16 $647.80
4 ORIGINAL RIMS $200.00
4 PLASTIC WHELL CAP $45.00

They included the installation for a total of $1040.75 tax in

An other place in Montreal friend of mine offered me Michelin Alpin in special at $147.00 each because they can have good price of this end line tire. I prefer toyo.

Would 15" be too small for the TSX?? HAve a friend that would give it 2 me free...but not sure whether the rotors will get in the way.