Question about High Performance Snow Tires
I am looking into buying a set of high performance snow tires and am trying to decide between the "Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme Runflat", "Dunlop SP Winter Sport M3 ROF" and "Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25 RFT".
Although the snow/ice handling is important, I am interested in good dry/wet handling and durability overall (i.e., 2-3 seasons with normal driving conditions). Winters in the Milwaukee area are bad at times, but most of the time is slush, wet and dry conditions.
Do you have any opnions regarding any of the choices listed above?
Thanks!
I do not have experience with Wintrac nor the Blazzak, but I had the Dunlop M3 on my '01 740iL and '03 M5. On dry pavement and low temp. (single digit to low teen), the Dunlop tended to trigger the traction control way too often while accelerating or powering out of turns. This was due to sudden loss of traction. In powdered snow, slush, and rain, these performed just a hair better than all-seasons tires (Kumho ASX, Falken Ziex 512 in my case). Didn't think they made a difference on icy surface either. I had Conti T810S on my '05 911TT and the difference was night and day. No wheel hops under hard accelerations on dry pavement, very gradual break away, and noticeably more traction. The Conti were also manageable on ice. This could be due to the fact that the Porsche has AWD and better weight distributions, but the Conti tires also have the latest continuous tread pattern design to work better with electronic traction control systems. I have driven other non performance snow tires (eg. Nokian RSi) and found, despite the lower dry pavement traction, still exhibits good behaviour with the car's traction control, proofing once again it is important to find the right tread designs to accommodate modern chassis dynamics.
I appreciate your feedback. Interesting point you make about the thread design. I had considered the Continental ContiWinterContact TS810 (Performance Snow), but I am currently leaning towards the Vredestein. I am attaching picture of it for a closer look at its thread design.
forget about performance in the winter and get tires with the biggest lugs and gaps you can find. i'm about 200-300 miles south of you. i get the same crap as you.