Hey, need help deciding on what tires to put on my 02 OBW. The original Bridgestone Potenzas went just over 50,000 miles. I only got 34,000 miles out of the Pirelli P6's. Was pretty good about rotations, but had a slight alignment adjustment last year, wasn't much.

 

What'd be a good model/brand for longer wear & still have reasonable traction? I'm in Maine so traction is important!

 

Thanks.

The only passenger All Season tire with the Severe Duty Snow (Mountain/Snowflake) rating is the Nokian WR. It has a 50,000 mile treadwear warranty.

 

The two most popular A/S's for OB's are the Goodyear TripleTred and Michelin HydroEdge. They have 80,000 and 90,000 mile treadwear warranties, respectively.

 

We had the HydroEdge and they were OK on snow and ice for the first season or two. As some parts of Maine get over 100" of snowfall a year, so snow and ice traction is pretty important. If you are not going to dedicated snows, the WR may be your best choice. We have them on our MPV as I didn't want two sets of wheels.

 

http://www.nokiantires.com has a dealer locator.

I have the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M&S on my '02 LGT wagon, and am very satisfied with them - they're much better than the OEM Bridgestones. The only downside is that they're a bit noisier than the original tires, but that's likely to be the case with any tire that has decent snow performance.

I got a deal today on Pirelli P3000's, $79 ea with free rotation. Spent about $420 today.

 

85,000 mi tread warranty, much higher than the p6's. Don't get p6's, they are a performance tire, very soft, gone in 32,000 miles. Others had the same complaint, should have done research.

 

See what happens this time around!

Where did you research?

 

The CR AS tire test last year rated the P3000 Poor - the lowest score - on both snow and ice. In fact of the 18 tires they tested it was the worst for winter driving!

 

CR is not the best when it comes to testing tires, but unless you live in Portland this wouldn't seem to be a good choice!

I'm exceptionally happy with the Yokohama Avid TRZ as a three-season tire. If I were looking for a four-season tire I would start with the Nokian WR, knowing what I know about their snow tires.