3.3TT Any all season tire recommendations?

[Marvin4D2]

Hi guys, I'm looking to get a pair of all season tires. Sure I can read tire reviews, but figured some experiences from the community would be a good start. I put hella miles on my car so looking for something that will last a while and not be to noisy and perform equally on dry pavement or ice. I'm currently running falken azenis fk510 tires. I have the 19" staggered set up. Short of driving through litteral blizzards im going to attempt to use the car through our hellish Buffalo winters. I'm thankful for any replies to get me started on my tire search.

 

[Kodiack]

Ive had really good luck with 19 inch staggered Bridgestone potenza re980as, but I run 18 inch winters as well.
They stay decently quiet and have a decent wear life.

 

[Snicklefritz]

and perform equally on dry pavement or ice.

That's a tall, impossible, order. All videos on ice performance comparisons between summer, A/S and winter/snow tires show dramatic differences in braking and grip performance. No A/S will come close to a dedicated snow tire on frozen pavement.

Buffalo, that's almost in Canada man. I think that I'd go snow tires up there just in case.

But, I have to say that Nitto Motivo A/S UHP are a great A/S tire, with a 60,000 miles treadlife warranty. They grip really well on dry and wet pavement. Light snow, up to but still below the undercarriage, is no problem especially for AWD. I've driven in some pretty hellish snow conditions on them and have not gotten stuck even for a few seconds. Just drive sensibly and leave lots of extra room in front, which you should do in winter driving anyway even on the best of snow tires.

 

[GT Elite]

Any A/S tire is a 3-season tire. They are NOT suitable for true winter conditions like you have in Buffalo. For winter driving in Ottawa I have Michelin X-Ice+Snow on 18 inch rims. They work really well and I have no complaints.

 

[Marvin4D2]

I have to respectfully disagree, I always run all seasons on my cars. Especially having all wheel drive now I should be even better off as far as that goes, but I will ponder what you guys are saying cuz a car like this I imagine I would have good advantages of running strictly summer tires in the summer as well. But also the issue now my tires are bald AF, especially the front 2, I need tires asap so I felt I should get all seasons. I'm planning if we are expecting a hardcore storm I would just get a rental till it blows over. Cuz I might of been over exaggerating by saying hellish winter conditions. Yes we are known for that but these days winter pretty tame besides the one or two lake effect storms we may get a year. People are saying it's going to be a long winter tho so idk. Last year we had a blizzard that shut down the city and was a state of emergency for a few days. But 3 days later was like it never happened as far as roads being clear. For fun I'll share with you guys a viral photo from that storm of the "gumball bandit". During this storm people were out looting family dollars and non sense, and with one criminal act of larceny this guy went viral & became sort of a local hero. People were making plush toys, tshirts, memes, getting tattoos of this guy, that's buffalo for you..wild.. But its hella cold the roads usually aren't to bad tho especially by me. And maybe my definition of bad differs from others. My main worry/concern is ground clearance, or having chunks of ice fall off a truck get stuck under my car, that sort of thing I dont think winter tires will save me from that. But thanks a lot guys this is a good start I will look these up and see what I can find out.

 

[ElChanclo]

My main worry/concern is ground clearance, or having chunks of ice fall off a truck get stuck under my car, that sort of thing I dont think winter tires will save me from that

I had the same ground clearance issue with my first set of snow tires (245/40r18=25.7"OD X-Ice). Snow grip like a dream, but the car became a snow plow, so the following year I went with 225/55r18=27.7"OD (WS80) for the extra ride height. It's probably the tallest tire you can fit under the front suspension cup (vs OEM 225/40r19=26.1"OD). It's still a snow plow for anything over 6" but manageable after a few SUVs crop the peaks in the morning.

Look into the CrossClimate2 for a snow capable all-season tire. I'll be getting a set for my OEM rims (looking at 235/45r19=27.3"OD) for our rain and odd snow season, then using track tires in the summer. As much as I love having snow focused tires, we hardly get a week or two of snow here, and I'm over having all these wheels sitting around and swapping back and forth every season or event .

Skip to 13:28 for a cool graph!

 

[D.J.]

That's a tall, impossible, order. All videos on ice performance comparisons between summer, A/S and winter/snow tires show dramatic differences in braking and grip performance. No A/S will come close to a dedicated snow tire on frozen pavement.

Buffalo, that's almost in Canada man. I think that I'd go snow tires up there just in case.

But, I have to say that Nitto Motivo A/S UHP are a great A/S tire, with a 60,000 miles treadlife warranty. They grip really well on dry and wet pavement. Light snow, up to but still below the undercarriage, is no problem especially for AWD. I've driven in some pretty hellish snow conditions on them and have not gotten stuck even for a few seconds. Just drive sensibly and leave lots of extra room in front, which you should do in winter driving anyway even on the best of snow tires.

Do they cut the tread life warranty in half since you can't do any 4 wheel rotations?

 

[Snicklefritz]

Do they cut the tread life warranty in half since you can't do any 4 wheel rotations?

Ima sure they do cut the rear tire warranty in half to 30K miles for staggered. But OP sounds like is going square.

 

[Volfy]

I lived in Buffalo, NY in the late 80's and early 90's. I made do with A/S tires for a few yrs and it was manageable. Never had a big wreck but a good numbers of slides and scares. The last one I had tore up the steering rack of my '89 VW Golf. I was lucky warranty paid for the replacement, but that was the last draw. I bought a set of Hakkapeliitta snow tires. Boy, what a difference that made. I was pulling smartly ahead from a redlight, when big 4WD pickups were sliding all over the place.

Tires are compromises. You are never going to find a set of tires that is optimized for every environmental and driving conditions. A/S splits that compromise between warm Summer hot tarmac and cold Winter snow slosh. In reality, they suck at either extremes, compared to dedicated Summer and snow tires.

You asked for the experiences from the community, and so I'm telling you mine. If I live in Buffalo, NY today, I would want a set of dedicated snow tires... no question. Feel free to disagree. It is your car and you in it.

 

[LordKOTL]

I lived in Buffalo, NY in the late 80's and early 90's. I made do with A/S tires for a few yrs and it was manageable. Never had a big wreck but a good numbers of slides and scares. The last one I had tore up the steering rack of my '89 VW Golf. I was lucky warranty paid for the replacement, but that was the last draw. I bought a set of Hakkapeliitta snow tires. Boy, what a difference that made. I was pulling smartly ahead from a redlight, when big 4WD pickups were sliding all over the place.

Tires are compromises. You are never going to find a set of tires that is optimized for every environmental and driving conditions. A/S splits that compromise between warm Summer hot tarmac and cold Winter snow slosh. In reality, they suck at either extremes, compared to dedicated Summer and snow tires.

You asked for the experiences from the community, and so I'm telling you mine. If I live in Buffalo, NY today, I would want a set of dedicated snow tires... no question. Feel free to disagree. It is your car and you in it.

Exactly. If I lived in a more continental climate I would run separate summer and winter tires.

I don't, so I can get away with all seasons.

 

[Volfy]

Exactly. If I lived in a more continental climate I would run separate summer and winter tires.

I don't, so I can get away with all seasons.

Yes, A/S's can be very good choices... in suitable conditions. That is what I run in all our cars. We live in the warm south, where we see snow maybe once or twice every few years. And it's gone in a day or two.

 

[LordKOTL]

Yes, A/S's can be very good choices... in suitable conditions. That is what I run in all our cars. We live in the warm south, where we see snow maybe once or twice every few years. And it's gone in a day or two.

Yeah. In the PacNW we don't get much snow, just rain and temps in the winter which dip below 40F/4C, but not quite freezing except once or twice a year... And it's gone in a few days.

The stock PS4S tires were not good when it was cold... Even though they didn't get as-bad as some got for me, and in the same vein unless I took up winter sports in the mountains, snow and winter tires would be wasted.

So all-seasons make sense... For me. If I lived where we got Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, as opposed to Rain, Sun interspersed with rain, Wildfires, and then more Rain, I'd run summer and winter tires.

 

[SRV]

I run the following all-season tires:

Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus

I am VERY happy with them, but rarely drive them in the snow. I bought them because they were highly ranked on TireRack, and reading reviews in the forums.

 

[Marvin4D2]

Yea these are the ones I'm heavily leaning towards now and most likely what I'll end up getting as the condition of my current tires are little concerning I gotta just get something fast. I really like the Pirelli Cinturato Weather Active but I can't justify spending that much at this current moment in time. The Continental seems like a bench mark all around tire that alot of tires want to be like and budget friendly. How is the road noise with those? Is there anything you think could be better about them?

The other budget tire I like is the falken azenis fk460 as, they seem to have a edge up on the Continental in performance, harder driving and road noise but rates lower in snow. How much help do I really need in the snow is the question.

 

[stoopid]

I'm originally from Upstate NY (Albany area), we get storms but were happening much less frequently because of the warming winters. Because of this, for the majority of my driving years, I ran all seasons and just stayed home on the 1 on 2 worse days (not an on call doctor/nurse, so I don't NEED to be out in bad road conditions). So I hear you on being able to get by with al seasons.

I bought the Stinger after moving to Vegas, where I can thankfully run tires that lean more heavily toward sporty with minor considerations to occasional cold conditions that happen maybe once or twice a year here (basically similar thinking to back East, except I just need more than hockey puck traction on dry roads when the lows in the winter are around freezing). If I were back East with the Stinger, to maximize my enjoyment, I can definitely see running a set of separate (cheap) winter rims and summer rims.

Been driving on the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus for 20+k miles, and so far so good. They've even faced a tiny bit of snow along the way. From an all around tire standpoint, they're really good with a little cold weather capability, good wet handling, good road noise characteristics, and excellent traction when warm. If I keep the car long enough, I'll be replacing with the same.

 

[LordKOTL]

Yea these are the ones I'm heavily leaning towards now and most likely what I'll end up getting as the condition of my current tires are little concerning I gotta just get something fast. I really like the Pirelli Cinturato Weather Active but I can't justify spending that much at this current moment in time. The Continental seems like a bench mark all around tire that alot of tires want to be like and budget friendly. How is the road noise with those? Is there anything you think could be better about them?

The other budget tire I like is the falken azenis fk460 as, they seem to have a edge up on the Continental in performance, harder driving and road noise but rates lower in snow. How much help do I really need in the snow is the question.

Only real "complaint" I have is road noise being a bit much over 80mph on concrete roads (Idaho/Utah on a road trip)--but I think that's a tough test for any tire. Asphalt surface road noise is as good as the age/quality of the asphalt and not really that much different than the stock Michelin PS4Ss. Slower speeds on concrete roads is acceptable.

Damp traction (wet roads as opposed to a lot of water on the roads with a risk of hydroplaning--we're not that far removed from the "Wildfires" season and not too far into the "more rain" season) is good. Dry traction is good. Has not yet got cold enough to see how they handle in cold/wet conditions (i.e. sub-40F/4C and rain) and snow may or may not happen this coming winter.

So far I don't have any reason to not continue using these when these 4 give up the ghost.

 

[Marvin4D2]

I went with the Continentals. Getting them installed right now. Fingers crossed I like them. you guys were a big help.

 

[SRV]

I went with the Continentals. Getting them installed right now. Fingers crossed I like them. you guys were a big help.

What size did you go with, and how are you liking them?