Topic: What All Season tire provides the best snow and ice traction?

[jdmvip]

I know everyone will say "buy winter tires", but I'm looking for the best balance.
What All Season tire provides the best dry, wet and snow performance?  I'm more interested in the snow performance since many tires can perform well in the wet and dry, but be horrible in the snow.

If someone can offer recommendations based on personal experience that would be great. I've scoured the usual places like Tirerack, but for any tire you'll always have one person saying "it was great in the snow" and someone else saying "it was useless in the snow".

[capriracer]

Snow traction is pretty much a function of the tread pattern.  The things that make a tire perform well in snow compromise the tire's ability in the area of dry traction - and to some extent wet traction.

Also, the tread patterns that do well in snow traction also tend not to wear well - and in particular, they tend to be sensitive to alignment generated irregular wear - which will come out as noise.  Plus tread patterns that do well in snow are kind of noisy to begin with.

You can find tires that do each reasonably well, but none of those tires will be the ultimate in one particular area.

[Squishy]

What vehicle is this for?  You will find much more "snow-capable" choices for a light truck/SUV than for passenger cars.

Without knowing the vehicle, I'm going to suggest the Nokian WR, or any other H-rated snow tire.  You will have to keep an eye on tire pressures in the summer, as they are still softer than normal summer or most all-season tires.

[toolatecrew]

Snow traction is a function of tread pattern yes (sipes space between lugs for snow to clear) but also compound and tire size. As the temperature drops the rubber in tires gets harder making them lose traction. Also narrower tires will cut through snow better than wider low profile tires.

What will your usage be? Are you in a heavy snow area, will you drive in snow a lot or little and does the temp get really low or just low enough to snow a few days a year.

I am in a similar boat in that I now have a second car. My primary car will get good snows. The other car will get new all seasons that will stay on there for many years since it gets driven only around town. If there is heavy snow the car with the all seasons will stay in the driveway. If its that bad out my wife will stay home or take the bus if the snow tire car is not available.

IF you are going to do any amount of real snow driving and MUST have only one set of tires instead of looking for what All Seasons perform best in snow look for what Snows perform best in the dry. Its going to wear more and be noisier than an all season but a performance snow might have acceptable character in the summer. Some snows like Blizzaks actually have all season compound when the snow compound wears away. It might be hard to time it but that might work for you.

Tire Rack had some tests where they said Michelin X Ice was very "all season like" as a dry tire while being not quite as good ion snow as other snows (but still better than an all Seasons)

[overtakeyouintheleftlane]

OP- Yes, buy winter tires if you can as that is the proper answer.

However, in my own experience, Good Year Assurance Triple Tread were very good for me for the first 2 winters. Pretty good in the dry and wet weather as well.

However, buy winter tires instead.

[blur911]

The best all-season I can think of for what  you are looking for is the Goodyear Assurance Tripletred.   

We have them on our Outback and used them one winter (got car halfway through and now have spare WRX wheels to put snows on) and they were quite competent.  Not winter tire traction, but the best I've seen in a non-winter tire.  I have an Audi quattro with Ultra-grip Ice tires for comparison and I rarely felt like I needed to  take the Audi if the Subaru was parked behind it.  Quite competent for regular driving as well, quiet and smooth, wearing well.

[carcrazy]

Nokian WR ?! They are doing just fine on my Mazda3 and planning to install them on my Outlander this fall. They are good in snow, but not sure about ice. Great on wet too.

[Tim Lisle]

WR's or WRG2 are a good all season tire. My dad has the WRG2 and my nephew has the WR's and neither had any trouble in winter plus they get up to 80kms of tread life. Just make sure the tire has the mountain with a snowflake on it. These tires do but they are not just winter tires. Hakkapeliita Rsi's are. Good luck in your search and do some research. 

[DKaz]

I had the WRG2s for a bit, I found they were not that great in snow but they were great in icy and slushy conditions. Another plus is that they did not lose control when locked up while stopping from high speeds in the snow but other than that they were useless from starting from a stop especially up a hill, were not that confident in corners, and got tricky when doing low speed stops. These tires are great in dry weather and excellent in the rain. I could not get the tires to hydroplane even if I tried. If you really just want one set of tires year round, for sure i would recommend this tire over any other tire. Expect to be very impressed in most conditions but when significant snow fall hits, just don't expect too much out of these tires and play it safe. If I rated all the other all-seasons as "mediocre" in the snow, the WRG2s would be "adequate".

[Ilpav]

I'd recommend Uniroyal Tiger Paws because those are what I got on my Matrix and they were MUCH better than the factory Bridgestone Potenzas in the wet and snow.

They are a good compromise between dry and wet/snowy roads.

I honestly think winter tires are just too expensive and not worth the advantage they have over all-seasons in the snow. 

[Guy]

Nokian WR's.

[UmroAyyar]

Nokian WRG2 would do quite well, if you shop around you can find it at decent prices. I bought the 215/60/16 for approx $145 per tire. Works very well around the year, comfortable, gets noisier when it wears past 40%.

Summer - Decent, comfortable ride not for sharp turn-in, aggressive driving, very sticky tire.

Fall/Rain - Immense grip on wet pavement, decent on maintained gravel roads.

Winter - Very good in most condition except starting in couple of inches of accumulated/loose snow. Very good in slush and typical Toronto winter roads (mix of slush, melting snow/ice.)

This tire is a go between good all-seasons and dedicated winter tires.

[mmret]

WR / WRG2 as others have said, or more on the wintry side I suppose you could try performance winters. I have a set of Dunlop Wintersport M3s. No issues in the winter and adequate in the summer (H-rated).

Doesn't compare to V/W/Z rated summers in the dry obviously.

[Turbo Bob]

Buy Winter Tires.

[Honda Owner]

I have a set of Nokian WRs I use on the Fit, our winter car. They are excellent in snow and also work very well in rain and on dry roads. They are an all weather tire but I still change them out for summer tires when ski season ends. Highly recommended!

[Majarvis]

What you are looking for doesn't exist. Don't be a fool, buy winter tires.

[Lexusfreak]

Another vote to just buy dedicated winter tires.....I have the Goodyear Triple Treds for both my rides (1 being a Subaru Forester) & I still made the investment.  As good as the TT & Nokian WR line are, they are still not dedicated winter tires & are a compromise. 

[rebus]

To all the people from Toronto and Winnipeg recommending to buy snow tires... please read carefully and try to put things in context. As far as i can see the original question was posted by someone from Surrey, BC. Being in Richmond, BC myself, let me give you some background info. It is quite warm in winter out here on the beautiful west coast! It almost never snows here. Last winter was unusually cold when snow stayed on the ground for whole of 2 weeks. But we know that every year we have consistently few days of snow when traffic grinds to a complete stop and everyone tries to remember how they dealt with it a year ago. Some of us even own snow shovels (wow). Most people can make arrangements and avoid travel for these 2-3 strange days, i just work from home.

Having said that I owned 2 sets of snow tires in the past, mainly because of occasional sky trips. both sets got very little use, outlived the cars that they were for, did not fit the new car and i ended up selling them on craigslist for fraction of what i paid. Not a wise investment, in my opinion.

I am in the same boat at the moment, looking for a new set of tires. Not because mine i worn, i just hate the OEM Potenza RE92 that came with my car. What I am looking for is a good all season tire that handles rain and dry without impairing comfort and handling. This tire should also be OK, just better then average, on the snow and ice that we get a few times a year.

I narrowed my search to a few high end Michelin products (ex. Primacy MXV4), just trying to see it there are cheaper option, but it does not look good so far. Nokian WRG2 are very, very expensive and i cannot justify driving all year on something that is basically snow tire with hardened compound just for those 1-2 weeks of snow. I am also pretty sure that they will wear out very fast in warm climate. 

[TheMAN]

If more people in BC actually bought snow tires, i am sure the accident rate in the winter would go down. But everyone here thinks all season tires are good enough....lol

[weebl]

I'd recommend Uniroyal Tiger Paws because those are what I got on my Matrix and they were MUCH better than the factory Bridgestone Potenzas in the wet and snow.

Doesn't take much for a tire to be better than the Potenzas.  Uniroyals aren't exactly high end tires.

Don't know how much driving you do, or how aggressively you drive.  Having lived in Surrey myself though, despite the mentality in the Lower Mainland that you don't need winter tires, you actually do if you plan on driving when it's icy or snowy (yes snow isn't that common there, but ice still is).

Nokian WRG2.  Otherwise, a good H-rate winter tire for year round use, such as the Hankook Icebear WS300.  Last choice would be the TripleTred, but if it were me, I would never again buy Goodyears.  If you drive enough (20,000 km per year or more), then you really should have a summer and winter set, in which case, you can choose a more suitable winter (and summer) tire instead of one that will be only barely adequate year round.