19" Tires ONLY - Recommendations

thorgal said:

I ran Nokian WRG2 and they were excellent, but WRG3 are better and quieter too.For what we have , on East Coast , this is more than enough.i drove with them in 110 F in NJ as well as -27 in Maine.It makes me feel almost over confident , when driving in winter storms.

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I'm sold! Thanks.

I use good year all season

Update and tire merchant recommendation:

I found the lowest online price for (4) Nokian WRG3 SUV tires (255/55R19) at tiresavings.com. However, I was able to find only a handful of reviews on this merchant, and the ones I found skewed heavily negative. Fair or not, that made me slow my roll.

I then found the tires in stock at a retailer about 90 miles away and for $80 less. I did the math on my time, gas expense, and related hassles of picking them up. I love a spontaneous road trip as much as the next guy but that option also gave me pause.

Armed with this info I contacted tiresbyweb.com which is one of the few online sources of Nokian tires. I had read very good reviews on them and decided that if they would work with me on their price I would give them a shot. I spoke with Pat and he got the total price to within about $20 of the first place so we had a deal. The discount wasn't mindblowing but he threw me a bone and that was on top of their usual free delivery. Plus, he was a nice guy and that counts for something with me.

So a thumbs up to tiresbyweb.com and Nokian. New tires and alignment coming my way next week, just in time for the typical DC freakout whenever it snows...and pothole season soon after.

Tiresbyweb ,com is has been my choice for years, in therms on Nokian tires .
I purchased three sets for myself and one for my wife's Honda Civic.Let's just say , that she is not afraid to drive in inclement weather anymore.
Never had a problem with this company.Remamber , that WRG3 are a directional tires, so if you buy a fifth as spare, it will only fit on one side of the vehicle.You could still use it on the other side in case of emergency , no problem, but performance will be a little impaired .Cheers

I believe Tiresbyweb is the sole nokian distributor for the western United States. At least they were in late 2014.

Has anyone used both Cooper Zeon ltz and Nokian WR G3? I use to have Zeons and my Range Rover Sport and I loved them but they were a little loud. I'm looking at the Nokian WR G3 now for my next set. The Zeon did pretty good off-road and in snow. How do the Nokian work on off-road/snow (nothing crazy off-road)?

Also,
since I have the HD package with a full spare, does it make sense to get the full size replaced as well and place it in the tire rotation schedule?

andyboy, I have not used Cooper's but just had Nokian WRG3's installed the day before the DC snowmageddon. I then promptly left town and returned on the Monday after the storm. When I got home from the airport, the area in front of my garage spot had not been touched (at least 2' of snow, possibly as much as 30" or more). I went to off-road height and snow mode on the TRS and zipped right into my bay. Later I found some unplowed side roads to play on that included flat and hilly sections. I was very happy with the way the Nokians performed. One winter I still had the original Continentals and in similar driving conditions it was a total mess. My daughter was with me and I was hoping to show off a bit for her but she just laughed at the sloppy performance of those tires.

Re the spare, I had the same thought but chose a different angle. I only bought 4 WRG3s and had the shop save one of my Bridgestone Dueller Alenzas for use as a full size spare (once I get a new rim). Also, my indy shop told me that the WRG3s can only be rotated front to back on the same side. I think that the benefit of having a full-sized spare will outweigh the temporary use of a mismatched tire if an emergency should require a change.

I have not noticed any untoward road noise yet but then again in these temps I've usually got the LR buttoned up. These are low rolling-resistance tires so I don't know if that makes them inherently quieter or the opposite.

Thanks for the info cperez

andyboy, I have been running the Cooper Zeon LTZ's in the summer and Nokian Hakka R2 SUV's in the winter. I was late with tire changeover last December and got to drive the zeons in snow. They do fine in deeper snow but once it melted and froze, not so good. No tiny sipes like the Nokians so the big difference was the braking and turning on ice.

Our vehicles can pretty much get traction on anything but in winter it's all about braking and turning these heavy vehicles. For that, the Nokians work best. As for summer, I know someone that takes their LR4 with the WRG3's out on the beach and they do fine in sand. I'm sure they are fine for light off road duty.

I agree that the zeons get noisy as they wear. I plan to only keep them on one of our LR4's this summer for beach driving. I have an extra set of 20" wheels and am going to try a set of Continental Extreme Contact DWS SUV tires on them. I used to run the DWS tires on my allroad and liked them.

Had the Conti DWS. These tires are good but not the best. Grip is very reliable and no hydroplaning. Noise is present after some age which I think very common to most tires. They have soft sidewalls but not really a big problem.