All Weather or Snow Tires ?

[ClevelandLR4]

Very good info.
Thank you everyone.
Going with blizzaks in next couple of weeks. This will be season 5 ( 4 months on, 8 months off)on them and barely 50% wear so far.amazing breaking ability on slush snow ice what ever.

 

[TrinidadLR4]

Dedicated snow tires are always optimal(i ran blizzaks for a while on my old Audis), but if you don't feel like swapping out wheels every season, all seasons with the snowflake symbol are the next best thing.

 

[TrinidadLR4]

I just put on the Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 255/15/19. They are a 111H instead of 111V, but I don’t plan on running these above 130mph. I usually keep it around 110mph off-trail. They are all weather, but have the winter rating as well.

They seem to have some nice grip, and for a 19” look pretty tough. I’ll let you all know how they do.

View attachment 10267

View attachment 10268

I run these as well, in 275 55 20. They're great tires, I've had them before. Very good in the snow.

 

[ktm525]

Very good info.
Thank you everyone.
Going with blizzaks in next couple of weeks. This will be season 5 ( 4 months on, 8 months off)on them and barely 50% wear so far.amazing breaking ability on slush snow ice what ever.

Blizzaks lose their open cell compound at 6/32 which is about 50% of the standard 11-12/32 they come with. At this point they lose a lot of their stickiness. I am currently running DMV2s and they are a solid choice for the LR4. 4 storms so far this season, it will be a long winter.

 

[gsxr]

Blizzaks lose their open cell compound at 6/32 which is about 50% of the standard 11-12/32 they come with. At this point they lose a lot of their stickiness.

This is 100% correct. Most winter-specific tires lose effectiveness when they reach ~50% tread depth (around 6/32 on most tires, but check the specs, it varies between brands/models).

After this point you can use them as summer tires, just to burn them off - assuming you don't plan serious offroading. Or sell them cheap on Craigslist when they hit 50%. Winter tires need both some tread depth to grip in snow, and siping depth to grip on ice, or they don't work much better than all-seasons.

 

[TireGuyLR4]

I sell tires for a living in the Boston area, and the answer is always Nokian Hakkas for winter or WRG4’s for all year. My LR4 is rocking a new set of G4’s for this winter, but being a Nokian dealer I can say the best optimal winter traction would be the Hakka R3 or 9. Don’t bother paying more for Blizzaks, you’ll get less life and traction. And the WRG4 SUV is far better than the WRG3 in wear and traction.

 

[ktm525]

I sell tires for a living in the Boston area, and the answer is always Nokian Hakkas for winter or WRG4’s for all year. My LR4 is rocking a new set of G4’s for this winter, but being a Nokian dealer I can say the best optimal winter traction would be the Hakka R3 or 9. Don’t bother paying more for Blizzaks, you’ll get less life and traction. And the WRG4 SUV is far better than the WRG3 in wear and traction.

Blizzaks are more than WRG4 in the USA? . Up here in the Western Great White North Costco sells 255/55-19 DMV2s for about $210 CAN ($157 US) installed with lifetime balancing/flat repair while the Hakka R2 is $350 CAN and the WRG4 is also $350 CAN ($262 US). Up here it is tough to touch the Blizzaks for price.

 

[jwest]

I sell tires for a living in the Boston area, and the answer is always Nokian Hakkas for winter or WRG4’s for all year. My LR4 is rocking a new set of G4’s for this winter, but being a Nokian dealer I can say the best optimal winter traction would be the Hakka R3 or 9. Don’t bother paying more for Blizzaks, you’ll get less life and traction. And the WRG4 SUV is far better than the WRG3 in wear and traction.

I'm in Seattle area and drive into "winter" every week often near Idaho. It's a crazy place to live because near the Puget Sound it hardly ever even freezes while just an hour in the car you're at 3000 ft elev and past there eastbound it's winter until spring with several feet of snow and nordic skiing, snowmachine, etc. So, when you have studs you're running around town sounding like the tires are filled with gravel LOL. Luckily I can dedicate a car to this side with no studs and only have studs on the lr3 for trips directly "to winter"

The lr3 has the LT2 Hakka 245/75-17 on factory wheels 17x7 and my wagon has the R2 in RFT with matching spare. I just put an archived set of WRG2 on her Audi that I'd stored inside since buying on closeout few winters back. Those will be the winter rain side but with the option to deal with snow pretty well if necessary.

Winter 08/09 we had a huge shut down type of storm along the I5 corridor just days before Christmas. Flights were down and mom-in-law couldn't get here easily so I made a 12 hr round trip to Eugene OR. The I5 had not been plowed.... there are maybe 10 plows in the entire state or something LOL (more now I think). Trucks in the median, cars all over the place stuck, having grown up in MN I thought it was ridiculous.

The heavy S4 avant mt6 blasted through like it was nothing but the tires were new WRG2 and that car weighs about 4400 lbs. 235/40-18 is not "narrow" but it's was decently narrow enough to probably help with the traction.

Seeing those then last so long into years later sold me forever on Nokian. After a few seasons they became the spring-summer-fall set while giving a try with the Pirelli Sottozero 240 which were fine but not as good as the Nokians in the worst snow.

 

[ClevelandLR4]

Blizzaks lose their open cell compound at 6/32 which is about 50% of the standard 11-12/32 they come with. At this point they lose a lot of their stickiness. I am currently running DMV2s and they are a solid choice for the LR4. 4 storms so far this season, it will be a long winter.

I didn’t know this. Thank you for info. Will need to look into new tires .

 

[backcountryLR4]

After having(and loving) Blizzak WS80s on my Infiniti for 3-4 seasons, I definitely notice a little less of that mind-boggling grip.

That is why I just got the Nokian Hakka R3 SUVs installed today on my OEM 20's. Their grippy crystals last through the tread life, not just the top layer like the blizzaks.

I am putting them to the test driving 6 hours to Steamboat Springs tomorrow. I wish I had them installed earlier to get the slick release compound worn off first, but my tire guy was on vacation. ($50 to take all 5 of my compos off the vehicle and then remove the rubber from the OEM wheels and mount and balance the Nokians.)

The weather could be fun...