Topic: How did you decide what tires to run in the winter?

[Wegz]

First set of winters were x2 hakkas and x2 X-ice all brand new on a 94 Accord. It was a tank.

91 Prelude with god knows how old winter tires - they were dry rotting I'm sure and still cringe thinking about how I ran them. Awful tires. Got stuck twice but pretty deep snow so it was more an issue of clearance.

95 Prelude I had a set of those cheap walmart Indonesia made Champiro WT ice pro winter tires and they were actually pretty darn good and that car was 4" off the ground. Good thing it was a mild winter that year.

Now currently the GF8 has goodyear x-ice. Focus has 235/40/18 WS70 Blizzaks which is far and away the nicest winter set up I've had. And lowest profile...and has some mild stretch that exposes the lip of the rim.  Mainly driving the Suby now anyway.


Aaand had experience with studded Gislaved Nordfrosts on a Mazda6. I didn't care for them but never did get to put them to the test. All dry pavement driving or non icy conditions...just not for me. If there are extreme conditions that warrants their use I drive super careful anyway.

[jellynuts]

Pretty good voter turnout but people actually voted for 1 and 2?  We need to turn off the anonymity so we can lynch mob these people. 

[Stehle]

Studded because thats what come with mah caaaah.
Previous owner was a ice driving instructor at ghost lake and he swears by 'em.

[10secdream]

Studded tires this year because I wanted to try them out.

[HiTempguy]

If studded winters are good enough for me to hurtle down snow covered roads at 200km/h, they are good enough for me to use them daily.

Having competed on a variety of snow/ice tires (both commercially available and special order only, studded and studless), studded is better. So everything gets studs, the truck, the car, everything. I'm happy with my Hakka LT's studded... they weren't my first choice for a truck tire, but the price was right at $500. If I was ordering new, it would have been General Arctic Altimax LT's studded.

[Jay89]

I like studded tires they're fun

[Zac]

Dunlop Graspics because they were brand new and cheap off of Kijiji

My experience with studded winters were that they had less grip on dry pavement which is what I drive on 90% of the time in Edmonton

[Jay89]

Dunlop Graspics because they were brand new and cheap off of Kijiji

My experience with studded winters were that they had less grip on dry pavement which is what I drive on 90% of the time in Edmonton

I dont notice too much of a difference on dry roads. You're right, there is less, but not enough to cause me any concerns. Not at the normal day to day driving speeds I'm usually at. I'm more worried about the 10% of time that it is very nice to have studded tires. Tbh though, I probably wouldn't have them on my subaru though. I'd be too tempted to slightly slide in one or two corners occasionally. Can't do that in my automatic shitbox bmw

[Unholysavage]

my STI came with a second set of GD STI wheels with winters, so my decision to run winter tires was pretty easy. the extra set came with non-studded Contiwinter Contacts, probably the shittiest winter tires on the market LOL. because of the shittiness, I swapped over to studded Hakka 8s, because I thought studs would be even better.

my studded Hakka 8s are considerably worse on dry roads compared to my old, ittshay, non-studded Contiwinter Contacts.
last Friday I was cut off by a city bus whose driver decided that crossing one lane at a time was for ussiepays, and my STI skated on the road like a cat trying to get traction on hardwood floors. I didn't fully realize how bad the dry traction of my studded tires was until I needed to make an aggressive stop. I won't be buying studded tires again, as long as I live in Calgary.

[hoocli]

My car came with these and damn do they work well.

I went from these to my wife's car who had winters and her winters felt like all seasons.

http://www.toyotires.ca/tire/pattern/observe-garit-kx

[Canuckrz]

My car came with these and damn do they work well.

I went from these to my wife's car who had winters and her winters felt like all seasons.

http://www.toyotires.ca/tire/pattern/observe-garit-kx

These were the same ones I had on my Supra when I drove it in the winter. I was VERY impressed with them for studless tires.

[Stealthbombing]

I picked whatever ones were on sale

[evilspoons]

When basing your comparisons of winter tires, also try to keep in mind how worn the tires are.

I have a set of Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3s that I'm ditching after seven (!) winters of awesomeness on two different cars, they are down to the "winter safety" wear bars (not the "omg you're gonna break the law" wear bars). They get noticeably harder and worse when they are near the winter wear bars compared to when they are new. This is on purpose, most winter tires are like this so you don't accidentally wear a hole through them.

[Tezzating]

I had good results with X-ice 2 on previous cars. Went with X-ice3 this year, got a smoking deal on them & cheap WRX alloys

[tperkins]

Studded on my truck, because a set that was used for one season cost me some whiskey and beer.
Studdless on my car also because they were a very good deal.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Coming from BC where you must have a Mountain Snowflake or Mud and Snow symbol on them and must have a minimum tread depth of 3.5 mm, I find it odd that it's not the same here.  I park beside a co-worker who used summer tires the last two winters, she would have troubles just getting out of her parking space some times. And that is multiplied by however many people have crap tires and are slipping around and adding to the winter traffic issues.