Finally got enough snow to try out my 215/55-16 Firestone Winterforce tires. They really have an aggressive pattern and thought they might be overkill. I was blown away with their cornering, braking and acceleration qualities. Great feed back and very easy to control out in a local parking lot. Grab a little hand brake to get the back end to break loose and a little throttle modulation and pertfect controlled drifts. Finding your limits, the car and tires limits is not when your about to get in an accident. Prevent getting into the situation by exploring both your limits and the cars limits in a controlled situation where you can experiment. I taught new police officers at my department and it was amazing to see how much more control that had when they realized there was more to do than just hitting the brakes, and that it only mean't you were going to continue going the same direction you were last going when you applied them. Just three hours and some serpentines with safety cones in the school parking lot gave them a set of skills that they would say time and time again, "that training in the parking lot saved my butt today"! So get out there, find a safe place to explore those limits.
Winterforces are good tires. Four of those on the Outback and it's unstoppable. Have run them on four cars now between my dad and I with nothing but good luck.
Glad you got a chance to get to know your car in a safe environment before you had to learn in a panic situation! I recommend this to anyone, regardless of what vehicle they drive. I used to run winterforce tires on my hondas. I was lucky enough to be able to run the 155/80-13 sizes and get them cheap when they first hit the market, $44 a piece type cheap! They lasted me 5 years, 4 years technically. The last season, they had just enough meat left on them to have Discount Tire sipe them for me and breathe new life into them. They made my little CRX and Civic hatchbacks into snowplows that couldn't be stopped. When the Altimaxs wear out on my wagon, I will be replacing them with Winterforce tires. Best bang for the bucks!
I have the continental extreme winter contacts and from my experince after today, I think they are better than the general altimax arctics, and the hankook ipikes. I didnt slip once and when coming to a stop I didnt slide at all either. I love me some winter tires.
I just put on new continental extreme winter contacts this season as well...I first enjoyed their dry road handling over my previous Blizzak WS70's, and after the drive I just took today, I am loving them in the snow too.
I got blizzak WS70s on the BRZ. Wow on the snow handling. Once these wear out in a few seasons I'll try the winterforce. I'm used to driving pickups and this is an interesting change.
Better than I expected. Clearance is a bit of an issue but it goes real nice, low rpms ate your friend.
I bought gt radial champiro ice pro tires for the legacy today, then proceeded to do all sorts of driving with them. They may be an extremely cheap tire, but hot damn was I impressed. Ask curran how they do. Last thing I did before I got home tonight was find a big empty lot and do many many wide lazy drifts and donuts. Couldn't be happier at 89 bucks a tire for 17s.
The brand is GT Radial, the tire is the Champiro Ice Pro. I got them from discount tire, unless you meant from as in country, then either india or china.
Yeah I'll get right on that. I hadn't heard of them either but for the price I figured I would give them a shot
Lol a few of the cheap ones do real well...I loved my firestones, and my generals. Now I'm on nittos which I like as well, made the trip up north yesterday a breeze.
Here is a great picture on the difference in treads between a worn all season and a new snow tire. This should be a good reminder for those looking for a cheaper alternative than purchasing new, make sure you check the tread depth. A worn tire will do you no good.
I researched the Tire Rack and purchased the Goodyear Ultra Grip. Very impressed so far. I put a 1000 miles on last week in a variety of extreme conditions (snow packed icy roads and snow) and they are an excellent winter snow tire.
I have run Winterforce for the last 5 years on three different cars (all FWD VW Diesel) and was always impressed with their deep snow tractions and ability to just push through snow. I have moved into the General Arctics on my WRX and can say these are a better tire overall. The generals have better ice and hard pack grip and with the few inches we have gotten the last few days have the same or better deep snow tractions. Price is usually with $3-5 each Winterforce to Arctics. I will say that friends with Blizzaks have better grip on ice/hard pack but they wear very fast with most people getting just 2 seasons of real good use out of them. My last WinterForce have 20K miles currently and are still 9/32nds (12/32 is stock).
i like to think of myself as a snow tire whore. i have tried general altimax, nitto sn2, blizzaks ws60, and the firestone winterforce and i'll have to say i was most confident driving with the winterforce as an all-arounder. great choice in your tires! the only thing i have left to try is the so-called "god" of all snow tire: nokian hakkapeillliettta (sorry i butchered the name).
Really what it comes down to is that even the 'worst' or cheapest winter tire is going to be better than the best all season. Regardless of your budget, there's at least one option, and it will do far better than rock hard all seasons.
Has anyone noticed that their snow tires still aren't that great on slushy/mushy snow? My brand new conti extreme contacts seem to do extremely well on hard pack, but these (and others that I've used) still seems to struggle on heavy, mushy snow (ie a parking lot with a lot of snow that has been driven on repeatedly, but its not completed packed down). Additionally, I'm hypothesizing that when winter tires get packed with snow and freezes over night, their effectiveness is also reduced. I suppose winter tires still far outperform the alternative (all seasons).
Slush-planing is something that tire manufacturers have only recently begun to address. For some tires that means you have to wait until they are updated with a new tread pattern that is more resistant to slush-planing. In otherwords, it is very typical for even snow tires to be rather bad in slushy conditions.
Just ordered Michelin X-Ice 3 for my Subaru and General Arctic Altimax for my wife's H3. I've used only Blizzaks in the past and they seemed to lose effectiveness after a few seasons, although they start off amazing. Decided snow tires are way cheaper than deductibles (plus having a FMIC figured into my decision to go ahead and move to snows from my Continental DWS).
Good info. I actually found this interesting article: http://www.nokiantires.com/slushplaning-testing-US Curious to hear your review on the X-Ice 3 vs the Blizzaks. X-Ice 3's got pretty good ratings: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=167
I'm running a new set of nitto winters and its very hard to get into a slide through a corner. Not doing it to mess around as much as I am seeing how much it takes to break loose.
I decided on the X-Ice 3 after they topped the Consumer Reports winter tire tests (also did not see any Nokian tires in my size)
I've had them all. The only tire that has ever blown my mind was the general altimax arctic. I've only ever owned RWD cars though, so this is my first Subaru. Maybe its different.
I have the Hankook Ipikes and can honestly say I am not fan. They seem to have good traction and grip well, but they feel like they follow any groove, slush pile etc. on the road. Kind of like the feeling when you switch to a good high performance summer tire and it wants to wander on the grooves of the road. My WRX always feels like it is sliding around. Not very confidence inspiring. I'm running a 215/50/17 on the stock 7" wheels. Still drives better than anything else I've owned!
The Blizzaks WS60 and WS70 have multi-cell compounds that covers 60% of the tread depth, that's why after a couple seasons they aren't as as effective. I think they mention this in all tire reviews along with tirerack's website. The best winter tires hands down are the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2. Expensive as the Michelin X-Ice 3 though.
That multi-cell compound on the Blizzak is really freaking awesome before it gets roasted - I mean worn off.. I did not see the Nokian Hakkapeliita R2, which is probably good because I would probably never learn to spell it. I can usually manage "X-Ice 3" though. BTW: So far I'm loving these X-Ice Xi3s. I haven't really tried the General Arctic Altimax that I put on my wife's ride yet, but I'm sure I'll have an opinion sooner or later.