While you are giving out recomendations. . .

I'm looking for a good all season tire that is inexpensive, wears well (long tread life) and can be used with a 5 wheel rotation schedule (meaning it will see all positions on the car, so it has to roll well both ways). I'm using a full sized spare, so that has to be factored into the rotations, in order to protect my tranny. . .

 

 

Bridgestone Turanza LST

 

I've been very happy with these on my Forester. Handles very well in snow, wet weather and dry.

 

~Howard

:cool:

Alas I spoke too soon! My legacy blew out the front left Toyo 800 this morning on the interstate. Nuts! As for how it performed in the snow, well, it does on occasion snow in Mississippi, and they did pretty good, even on the "black ice" we had a few years ago. Quite some fun with the anti-lock brake system.

 

Well, this Legacy is destined for Montana. So with that in mind, I decided to visit the Wally world and find a tire that can be replaced if need be at the local Montana Wally world which I hear aint so local. Anyway, I went with a set of the Goodyear Viva 2's which looked fairly decent. I was NOT impressed one bit by the Wally world garage, as I had to take it back to have the NEW valve stems I paid for installed. So remove the wheels again.....careful of those soft wheel studs with that Brrrrrraaappp gun there fella......break them down yada yada....the fact that they had to add a LOT of weights to balance the tires tells me the tire quality may be lacking......I did get compensated by the service manager refunding the cost of the stems and the road hazard warranty, only to have me wait in line at the customer service counter for 30 damn minutes before the Spanish/Asian gay fellow didn't take my word for what was written on the invoice by the service manager and had to do a "auto dept. please call 151".....not that there is anything wrong with Spaniards, Asians or gay people......one of those days I guess.

cooper weather master st2

I'd like to add my recommendation for Nokian all weather tires. I replaced the OEM Michelins at about 35,000 and what a difference! The Nokians handle great in rain, ice and snow (we get more than our share of bad weather driving in northern Minnesota). This'll be my 4th winter with the Nokians and they've got lots of tread life remaining.

Lee

'97 Outback

cooper weather master st2

 

I've run these on several cars and they are incredible in the snow.

 

Has anyone used cooper Lifeliners (classic or touring) as all-season tires? In the snow? I'd like to get by with one set of tires year-round but I'd still like to go in the snow.

 

Tom

FWIW, Consumer Reports rates the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred as best

all-season tire in their 11/05 ratings. It's got an unusual tread setup, one kind of tread for dry, one for wet, and the center tread for ice and LIGHT snow.

 

Second highest rated are the Michelin X Radial, but I believe they are only available to members of shopping clubs.

 

If they are made in a size for my Forester, I think I'm going to try the Goodyear's when my Yokohama Geolander's go, (still have the originals). I did read that the TripleTred's have to be rotated front to back not diagonally because of the tread shape. See a review here:

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Assurance+TripleTred

from the link above: "On the outside, the Assurance TripleTred radials have a directional tread design with. . ."

 

Oh well. I can't use them. I'll keep looking.

The Goodyear is rated #1 "If icy roads aren't a factor."

 

The two top-rated tires in the report were the Michelin X and HydroEdge IF all-weather performance was most important. That's because the Goodyear had poor performance stopping on ice. They found the HydroEdge to be noisier than the X radial, but I replaced my X's with HydroEdge and found them to be quieter. So YMMV. The HydroEdge have 43,000 and still have 9/32nds tread depth.

 

The X radial is not directional. It's only available at clubs like Costco, but an identical design is available from NTB and others.

 

The Hankook Mileage Plus II H725 did reasonably well and was $50 a tire.

TheYokohama Avid TRZ has nearly identical performance to the Goodyear at $70 per tire.

Well had them put on and a four wheel alignment! Car handles WAY bettter, and no HUGE increase in road noise!! I think a very good choice for her!

 

Just had the BFG Traction T/a's on hard pack snow they are not as good as I had hoped. Spun a lot, must just be the all-season compound that gets HARD when the temps drop.

I picked up some Yokohama Avid V4s about a month ago. Great in the wet and dry and they do just fine in fresh snow. They fail were I think most all-seasons fail, packed snow and ice.

 

For the number of times it is that bad around here, I'll just drive a little more carefully.

 

Cheers.