Winter. Studded or Studless what do you use?
 

Well it's winter time and on the 1st December the winter tire law is set into effect here when there is winter conditions (very nicley written by the law makers hehe)

So I was interested what tires everyone use during the winter time, tell us a bit about you winter conditions in your area and where that area is :)

I use studded tires, bridgestone I think it was (came with the car when I bought it ;))

I used studless tires two years ago and they worked pretty well I must say.

Conditions here in South/Middle parts of Sweden is as the photo show (sorry for the crappy photo, blurry and very blue). Around -7C (19.4F) and windy.

I just have all weather tires and they work pretty well. I am actually quite surprised how well my Honda civic does in the snow. My parents have a brand new one that I was driving a week ago and it did AMAZING in the snow. Go front wheel drive!

Do you know the brand and model? :)

Stud-less Ice and Snow:
Dunlop Graspic DS-2: Very soft tire. I don't recommend this for high speeds (70mph+). Excellent snow and ice traction though. Especially on fresh snow. But corning sucks and they feel like your driving on a cloud on the freeway.

Winter performance:
Bridgestone Blizzak: I think this is a great tire for pure snow and ice traction. But it does not last long. During the warmer months like march/april when it still snows but it hovers right around freezing the tread just disappears. Mine only lasted one season before snow traction disappears.. They are also pretty soft in the corners but not as noticeable at freeway speeds. But at $150 a tire this was not acceptable to me.

Dunlop Winter Sport 3D: My recommended winter tire. Not only is the snow and ice traction excellent, the performance aspects make this more like performance all season. The sidewall is strong so they have nice corning, tread wear is much better than the Blizzak's and last me two season, and I can drive them through April without issues. Plus they are cheaper than the blizzak's.

Looked a bit on consumer reports of the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D and it got really high grades! Seems to be a tire that's liked by many (including you :D)

Blizzak was reported to be dangerous by a blind test in the arctic. They told that people should refrain from using those.

Reason I'm looking is that I need new tires next year :(

Whatever is on my car at the time, which is usually whatever half decentbrand name is on sale when I have to change em...

I have a slightly different perception of winter than you though :p

Yeah we don't get winter bad enough to warrant a separate set of tyres, so all weathers for me :D

I wouldn't say the Blizzak's are bad. They are infact very good. They are better than the Dunlop's in pure winter form because they are very soft. The Dunlops just had more performance aspects (better sidewall, high speed stability) and they lasted twice as long in my circumstances. Which is why I recommended them. If you drive on ice/snow most of the year i'd recommend Blizzak's. I drive in Minneapolis where they use salt so the roads are almost always clear which wears on the tires faster and allows for faster driving. The Dunlop's perform better in that aspect.

If I drove in Canada or North Dakota all year round (I drive up there very often) I would be driving on Blizzak's because they use sand and they always have snow on the roads, which reduces wear. If you can't get upto speed stronger sidewalls aren't necessary.

If you have snow on the roads the majority of the time, Blizzak's
If you have some snow sometimes, but mostly clear roads, Dunlop's

Yeah sorry should have made it clear why they classed them as dangerus, it's not because of their performance on snow and ice it's what you refered to.

On wet and dry tarmac however during the moose test the test drivers lost control and skid off the road in such a way that they had to disqualify it all togather from the test and label them as dangerous but they ware good on ice and snow.

So as you say it's probebly great if there's snow or ice on the tarmac during the whole winter.

But as in your parts they salt all roads ecept in the inner city cores, where they just clear the roads. And in the north they just clear all roads with a plow.

Many that use all weather tires, how are they in the snow in those few times there are snow? Saw that you had gotten quite a bit of snow in the north parts of england? Hard to get through or are they good at clearing the roads?

That sounds awsome in a way to be able to just pick a set of cheaper tires year round. It sucks to do that in the winter's here though unless you want to end up in a tree, crash with a moose or jusy end up in the ditch on the side of the road :(

If your looking for some great comparisons on tires, check out tirerack.com. I know it's a US store but their user ratings are extremely useful, and I find they are pretty accurate.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp

Checked and the problem is that many doesn't exist on the Scandinavian market. Also the tire makers that I've been looking most on doesn't exist there like Nokian and Gislaved :(

But then again depending on the situation then I might not be able to afford them considering Nokian are sky high in price :( But they do get top result on studded tires each year but on the Studless tires it's continental ContiVikingContact™ 5 that gets top results but I'm not sure I want a studless, so damn hard as it all depends alot on how next winter will be. Anything like this winter and it'll be studded tires, but like two or three winters ago I could consider studless.

Will check the site for the viking tires, they might be there.

EDIT: Nothing on that tire either, might be called something else :(

I agree with Scott.
(I work for a Top Car Dealership as a Mechanic, and I used to live in Russia and Northern VT both where snow is second nature to us)

Don't need any special tires where I live. Just gotta watch for black ice on the bridges etc ...

I'm not sure what brands I have. I know two were from Big O Tires and two were from Les Schwab and I am betting they're not available over there.

I'll have to check when I go out to my car.