Topic: How's Hankook Optimo 4S

[PJungnitsch]

Dunno, it's intuitive to say that, but actual instrumented tests I've seen have not borne that out. ie:

60 mph braking on snow, Minnesota
Snow tire 362, All season 421 (advantage 59ft for the snow tire)

60 mph braking, wet track, Phoenix in May
Snow tire 181, All season 215 (advantage 34 ft for the snow tire)

60 mph braking, dry track, Los Angeles
Snow tire 155, all season 131 (advantage 24 feet for the all season)

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/tire-test-all-season-vs-snow-vs-summer.html

Snow tires had 3X the advantage on cold snowy pavement than all seasons had on warm dry pavement, and were actually better rain tires than all seasons.

Now, it probably depends somewhat on the tire, but I've seen basically the same result from Car and Driver with a different brand than Edmunds used.

Of course, as long as you don't run them that hard. Strafing the apex's and burnouts will certainly shred them faster, but I ran snow tires all year for a long time back in my student years and had them last from 60,000 to 120,000 km.

[jasper]

thanks for the info.  I have a friend who actually tried this on a set of Nordics and he did squeeze a few year of driving, so the summer wear is not too bad. 

I ended up got the Continental TrueContact, costs $80 more but feel more confident as I tried the ProContact last January and it was great on snow.

[quadzilla]

I'd rather drive on winter tires in the summer than summer tires in the winter. 

[tortoise]

Agreed.  At 10k km per year I might be inclined to run X-Ice's.

Jasper, where are you located?

[HeliDriver]

^^ he said he drove last winter in Winnipeg. I assume he's still there?

[tortoise]

Thanks. Missed that.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

You should try:

Hercules Tires (215/40ZR17) G5000Z

I hear they're really good.  Not sure what kind of air pressure you'd need to run in them though.

[EV-Light]

thanks for the info.  I have a friend who actually tried this on a set of Nordics and he did squeeze a few year of driving, so the summer wear is not too bad. 

I ended up got the Continental TrueContact, costs $80 more but feel more confident as I tried the ProContact last January and it was great on snow.

good choice...glad you didn't get the Hankook :-) it's a below average all weather/all season tire in my opinion, no wonder why it is cheap

[jasper]

thanks for the info.  I have a friend who actually tried this on a set of Nordics and he did squeeze a few year of driving, so the summer wear is not too bad. 

I ended up got the Continental TrueContact, costs $80 more but feel more confident as I tried the ProContact last January and it was great on snow.

good choice...glad you didn't get the Hankook :-) it's a below average all weather/all season tire in my opinion, no wonder why it is cheap

Thanks again for all who shared their opinions.