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Blizzaks still rule supreme

Ron

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I had the good fortune to fly down to Denver yesterday with the director of the Winter Driving School in Steamboat. Really cool program that I plan to take (will review). In his spare time he "reps" Maserati and Ferrari BTW. Tough jobs... Anyway we had a great conversation about snow tires and inflation. Blizzaks are still the top winter tire based on their recent on the ice (they drive cars on our local ice rink) and a good reminder to keep the tires at manufacturers recommended pressure adjusted for temperature. Better a couple pounds high than below!
 

Philpug

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Please tell me you got his name and number?
 
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Ron

Ron

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It does depend on how many miles you drive and gow much snow you actually drive on. I will sacrifice some durability for safety though. Ymmv (literally) :thumb:
 

Xela

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I've been pleasantly surprised how long my Altimax Arctics seem to last. If my memory serves, this will be season 4. They still look new. I should replace them just due to the age of the rubber.
 

Philpug

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I was also very impressed with the Altimax's. Personally, I only try to get 2 season out of a snow tire, then I sell them after that. A used pair of Snows here that are still good will fetch $150-200 and I just take that an put it towards the new tires. Personally I haven't had a Blizzak for a couple of seasons, the last pair were the Revo's that were on my 06 Legacy wagon, they were fantastic.
 
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Ron

Ron

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He did state since the patent expired, there are others that are close. He specifically mentioned Michelin's and conti's.
 

Bill Talbot

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Mileage from a set of dedicated snows is WAY down on my list of concerns. When I was a FWD guy (VW GTI) I would put a brand new pair up front EVERY winter. The old fronts went to the rear. Now that I am back on an AWD platform (WRX) the torque and therefore wear is almost even from front to back (a bit of corner edge wear on front of course). Oddly, even with another 80 odd horsepower at my disposal, I get three full seasons now, though to be fair, really wet sloppy slush later in year three will be slightly compromised. BTW, that's Blizzak WS80's on there the last few seasons. Some drives up in fresh snow are almost as much fun as the skiing when I get there. I kid you not! :) :yahoo:
I could do an add for them, I've been on them for decades and can't say enough good things about them. I've also converted many 'non believers' who now say they can't imagine going back to mere mortal no-seasons or worse.
YMMV
 
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scott43

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To me..it's worth every penny to have summer and winter tires..no all-season tires. It's a no brainer here if you spend any time outside the city.
 

ScotsSkier

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I've. Been using blizzaks for several years for both my wife and myself. Work great but wear wise I usually sold mine after one year ( my wife didn't go through them that quick!). Ran the hankook I pikes on my truck last year and they seemed decent although with so little snow hard to judge

Hummed and hawed this year over what to get but decided to roll the dice and try the new Yokohama ig51 for both my truck and the wife's macan. Haven't got them on the truck yet but I like the tread pattern and hopefully wear rate will be better than the dmv1s. Gonna be interesting to see if I have guessed right!
 

RachelV

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When people are talking about replacing their Blizzaks after a few seasons, do you have a ballpark estimate of how many miles were on them? Going into winter #3 on mine, but I also don't drive that much.
 

Bill Talbot

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When people are talking about replacing their Blizzaks after a few seasons, do you have a ballpark estimate of how many miles were on them? Going into winter #3 on mine, but I also don't drive that much.

@RachelV , If you look at the tires tread, it has two different sets of wear bars. One are the same as are found on all tires which show the legal minimum (which even on summer tires you should never approach). Then there are the 'snow' wear bars which are roughly three times as high. You will loose both deep snow and wet/slush snow traction as you approach these snow bars/tread depth. For me, 3/16" is the absolute min.

Read more info here;
http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=163
 
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SBrown

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My Blizzaks are on their third year, but they won't last much longer. Two are at 7, and two are at 5. I have probably 24K on them? But so much of that is not on snow. I use them until late May/early June.
 

RachelV

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@RachelV , If you look at the tires tread, it has two different sets of wear bars. One are the same as are found on all tires which show the legal minimum (which even on summer tires you should never approach). Then there are the 'snow' wear bars which are roughly three times as high. You will loose both deep snow and wet/slush snow traction as you approach these snow bars/tread depth. For me, 3/16" is the absolute min.

Read more info here;
http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=163

Perfect, thanks! I'll see where I'm at when I take them off the shelf in a few days (in addition to not knowing when they're worn out, I also always wait too long to get them put on... ). ;)
 

RachelV

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My Blizzaks are on their third year, but they won't last much longer. Two are at 7, and two are at 5. I have probably 24K on them? But so much of that is not on snow. I use them until late May/early June.

Oh, pfffttt -- I'm at about 6.5k according to my spreadsheet. I am probably good for another few winters. :)
 

Brad J

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I put Hankook Winter Pike on my just sold 2005 Mustang when new for a winter tire, had them on for 9 winters and the still were ok in snow, must have had 60,000 miles on them. I bought a pair for my new Mustang GT hoping for the same
 

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