How can you determine how much long a snow tire will last?

Hey guys,

I found these on CL for my wife's Sienna. I know I don't need the TPM's but the wheels and tires should be an exact fit on her 06 Sienna compared to the 07 Sienna these came off of. My question though is, how can I figure out how many more winters are left on these tires? They seem to have a good amount of tread in the pics, and the seller says they have roughly 12k miles on them. Is that near the end of the line for a snow tire? How is the price for these? They seem a tad high to me, but I don't know what used tires are worth.

http://worcester.craigslist.org/pts/3493379487.html

Chris

those will last a while. The little wavy lines are what give you traction in snow. There is plenty of meat on them.

Don't drive them on dry pavement and the will last for many winters.

Back in the day before all season radials were popular my dad put snow tires on the cars every winter (northern Illinois), but took them off as soon as winter was over. As far as I can remember we only had one set of snow tires, ever.

Those appear to have some good tread on them, and the price seems reasonable considering it includes the rims and the TPMS sensors (which are not cheap themselves). It's always worth a shot to offer less in person, though!

In terms of tire life, it's hard to tell. Try to figure out the standard depth for those tires, and then see what's remaining. One caution with some winter tires (i.e. Blizzaks) is that they have a different compound that wears off first. So, even though you may have 1/2 tread remaining, you might not have the same traction they initially offered. It's not true of all winter tires, but is the case for some.

Depends...a "snow" tire is very soft and won't last long at all on dry pavement.

I have Wintersport 3Ds on my 300hp WRX and I run them from November to March every year (including my 25-mile highway commute doing 80mph). They're on their third season with probably 20k miles on them and still are at 3/4 tread.

Plus, the "sport" winter tires handle like a typical all-season tire in the dryl.

Burn em up in the summer when they hit 4/32" tread depth or the sipes disappear, whatever happens first.

The ones I have now have something like 10-15k on them and they still have 9/32 of tread.

Age is extra important for snow tires. At 2 years old those are nearing the end of their useful life regardless of mileage. For $400 you can probably get a complete set of new Altimax Arctics.

you're the second or third person on here that has said that ( 2 yr old and are therefore toast ) but my experience doesn't show that ... I routinely use snow tires for 5, 6, even more yrs without any problem ... the compound doesn't seem to care ... 'course I'm buying snow tires not ice tires ...

keep in mind I'm NOT a tire engineer, but it seems that the snow tire works more off of the voids in the tread pattern than the compound/sipes that make an ice tire so incredible

Ice tires are the racing slick of the street tire world :) They primarily depend on rubber compound. Blizzaks wear off that gumball rubber fairly soon and you're left with something closer to an all-season.

Snow tires tend to be more consistent, as they rely more on tread design than rubber compound. The rubber does need to stay flexible in cold weather, but it's not the gumball variety.

Snow tires need sipes. They actually capture the snow, because apparently snow-on-snow gives more traction than rubber-on-snow. Big open voids (like you see on a MT tire) aren't any good in snow.

Meh, fact, my Blizzaks did about 20K last Winter, bolted them on about 5 weeks ago, then nothing happened until a week ago. This led 5 more weeks of dry pavement driving (about 1500 miles a week) and yet this week, I was the guy passing all those 4x4 pick me ups on the highway.

I would buy another set.

What's the best bang-for-the-buck in a snow tire. I was pricing them for the E90, and figured I'd be north of $1000 on snow tires, which is the wrong price.

Can you guys get Sailun tires in the U.S.? I recently did a blind tire-testing day (names were scrubbed off) and these el-cheapos scored higher than Continentals on a track day, and comparable to Blizzaks during winter testing – at less than half the cost.

I once had a full set of Blizzaks, two of which were brand new and two of which showed slight wear. There was a dramatic difference in the amount of grip between the two pairs. Meh, anecdote just like the "fact". Worn Blizzaks are similar to new all-seasons (especially when you're comparing to a vehicle with no weight in the rear), but they're not as good as they were and not as good as a set of tires like Hakks.

About the price: remember that when you're running snow tires, you're not wearing down your summer tires. So they don't really cost you any more money.

I've got a set of Kumho something snows on the Jeep, and it's got too much snow traction to be entertaining. Which I find disappointing but my wife finds reassuring. The VW wears the good stuff: Hakkepellittas. Both are snow tires, not ice tires, so they wear much better.

Blizzaks ice compound is in 55% of the tread depth, so the tire is nearly done anyway. Most tires offered today are snow/ice tires similar to the Blizzaks.

So would you guys think these are a good buy if I could get them for less than the asking price, or move on?

Also do you think the sensors will wreak havoc on my wife's car that doesn't use them? I bought new tires for her a couple of years ago, and the tire rack assured me I needed the new sensors, so I bought them. Turns out her van doesn't have them. The strange thing was there was a TPMS light on while she had the spare in place(reason I was buying tires as she hit a curb, and the tires were in need of replacing anyway), and it went away when I put the new tires on. I guess the ECM knew the spare was in place due to the different diameter. It won't however get a signal from low tire pressure due to no sensors in the wheels.

I thought those sensors were required for all cars at some point? I know my 2 year older Suburban has them, but not the Sienna.

TPMS was mandatory for the 2008 model year, but some manufacturers implemented the systems on earlier models.

The wheels and TPMS sensors alone are worth over $400 new.

I've had a set of Winterforce (not terrible for the price), and a few sets of Hankook Winter I-Pike. I won't ever buy anything other than the Hankooks. These tires are BOSS! In Ohio it is legal to stud them, and the studs are great in icy conditions.

Bolted to an Audi with a turbo I5 and Quattro, there is nothing that can stop me!

Keith Tanner wrote: Ice tires are the racing slick of the street tire world :) They primarily depend on rubber compound. Blizzaks wear off that gumball rubber fairly soon and you're left with something closer to an all-season. Snow tires tend to be more consistent, as they rely more on tread design than rubber compound. The rubber does need to stay flexible in cold weather, but it's not the gumball variety. Snow tires need sipes. They actually capture the snow, because apparently snow-on-snow gives more traction than rubber-on-snow. Big open voids (like you see on a MT tire) aren't any good in snow.

thanks for clearing that up ... I always thought the sipes were the ice grippy things ... no day is wasted if you learn something

my choice for snow tires is the SnowTracker ( either Kelly or Pacemark)

5 yrs later still had 2/3 tread and were doing just fine in the snow

Maroon92 wrote: I've had a set of Winterforce (not terrible for the price), and a few sets of Hankook Winter I-Pike. I won't ever buy anything other than the Hankooks. These tires are BOSS! In Ohio it is legal to stud them, and the studs are great in icy conditions. Bolted to an Audi with a turbo I5 and Quattro, there is nothing that can stop me!

I agree. I have hankook winter ipikes on the dangler wrangler and its awesome.

Joey

Surpised to hear about the age thing with Blizzaks. I had a 6-year old set on my Saturn, and it was a night/day difference over 1yr old all seasons. Blizzaks went anywhere I could expect a snow tire to take me, and handled great on snowy surfaces, all seasons sucked as usual. I suppose new Blizzaks would/could be even better, but I would really be surprised if the difference was that great.

Tim Baxter wrote: What's the best bang-for-the-buck in a snow tire. I was pricing them for the E90, and figured I'd be north of $1000 on snow tires, which is the wrong price.

Maybe you are looking at run flats only? I bought a package of Dunlop winter sport M3s and a set of 17 inch Rial rims for my E90 335i with the sport package a couple of years ago and the total was around $1000. I love both the tires and the rims BTW.

Tire inflation kit in the trunk FTW! Lol

Tim Baxter wrote: What's the best bang-for-the-buck in a snow tire. I was pricing them for the E90, and figured I'd be north of $1000 on snow tires, which is the wrong price.

I would recommend either the (unstudded) General Altimax Artic or the Continenal Extreme Winter Contact in the narrowest size and on the smallest diameter wheel tirerack.com recommends. Through one of the summer tires in the trunk along with a jack and a breaker bar and free yourself from the slavery of run-€rap tires.

ProDarwin wrote: Surpised to hear about the age thing with Blizzaks. I had a 6-year old set on my Saturn, and it was a night/day difference over 1yr old all seasons. Blizzaks went anywhere I could expect a snow tire to take me, and handled great on snowy surfaces, all seasons sucked as usual. I suppose new Blizzaks would/could be even better, but I would really be surprised if the difference was that great.

The difference probably comes from the amount of tread left on the 6 yr old tires, nothing to do with age. My 5 yr old Blizzaks are just as soft as when I bought them. they show very little wear after app. 12k miles.

Are these any good?

Firehawk PVS Winter