Thanks AC for the picture, not sure why one was not included in the article to start with?
And john, you are right. The WS60's I have are indeed wider than stock as that was all that was available when I bought them as I needed to keep the same circumference as the spare to eliminate that AWD disabling thing you need to do on the Subaru if you have a tire (like a spare) of a different size. My wife would have no idea how to deal with it and I did not like the idea of doing myself in the dark, on a cold night.
I wish the article had showed the tread pattern. How well does it work in slush?
I have been somewhat disappointed with my WS60's this winter, due to their relatively poor performance in the slush we have had this warmer than normal winter. I attribute this to the more closed tread design that may not pump out the slush that well.
In cold (-10 or so) or rain conditions, the WS60 is excellent but unfortunately this winter has seen a lot of temps in the -5 to +5 range and the accompanying slush. I wonder if the WS70 addresses this issue?
I think you will find most winter tires (and of course most all seasons) are fairly useless in slushy conditions - I really don't think winter tires have given anyone much of an advantage this year in the GTA as slush seems to be the only winter condition. My snow tire equipped Odyssey sees the traction control come on all the time when it is slushy - but does very well in snow itself.
Maybe a an LT or Truck winter tire would do better in the conditions we've had. I had General Grabber LT all seasons on my old CRV and they were unstoppable in virtually all conditions, and especially good in slush.
That being said, I spent the first 30+ years of my life on Vancouver Island and was used to getting tires that functioned well in slush. It is possible. And my Grabber AT2 are a good tire in mud and slush but very poor when temps drop to -10. They act more like hockey pucks then!
