Snow Tires

So I'll be competing in the NER Winter Rally Sprint in my Em Kay 3 Golf TDI.

What's do you guys recommend for snow tires (DOT Studs are allowed)

budget is a concern.

Thanks

General Altimax Arctic Tire. No studs but they are studdable. I ran them at the winter Nemadji with pretty good results. They were about $65 at Walmart. Blizzaks are great on ice/snow but more expensive. I had punctures with those at 100AW and I'm not really sure on the sidewalls. I've used WinterForce on my street car and they are probably best in snow or gravel, not as good on ice, so they might be iffy in mixed conditions. I think the sidewalls were thinner than the Generals.

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Dave Grenwis - DG Rally - www.dgrally.com

what about tubes? do they help hurt or no difference?

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

I haven't run tubes. I was going to try but I'm usually mounting tires in crunch time and it hasn't worked out. I don't think tubes would have helped with the punctures at 100AW. Lots of flats in the field from the same rock. Correct me if I'm wrong but tubes are more for preventing debeading than punctures. So if you have real snow banks and plan on using them, it's probably a good idea. However, I've heard of the tires/tubes moving and pulling the stems out when on gravel. So it probably comes down to conditions. I might use my Generals for grassocross so I decided to go without tubes when I had them mounted.

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Dave Grenwis - DG Rally - www.dgrally.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2016 11:51AM by DG_Rally.

Isn't the rally sprint on a super smoothly graded prepared surface race track with excellent drainage prior to being paved? If so, no need for tubes, there are no rocks or ruts to debead a tire.

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One. Class -- 2WD

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Josh Wimpey
Isn't the rally sprint on a super smoothly graded prepared surface race track with excellent drainage prior to being paved? If so, no need for tubes, there are no rocks or ruts to debead a tire.

Yes its here: https://vimeo.com/146245320

Josh you coming up for this one?

I asked around with same questions before snow drift. The Generals came highly reccomended and turned out to be great. Definately great for the money, maybe even great regardless of the low cost.

Pressure and tube advice was very mixed. I got conflicting advice from very quick folks that do very well. In the end I went no tubes (mainly cuz if people i trust were saying YES and NO... might as well go with NO and save the $/hassle). For pressure I went 28 on E30. If I was pushing more I think I would have gone down a bit more, but opted for low risk/less traction.

No flats, but did have a belt break/seperate in the form of a lump on the sidewall. Only got into the banks hard couple times so may not be true test, but I will run same setup next time.

I lowered all the snow tire prices on our website recently. A few tractionized ones available still!
The General Altimax seems to be the go to for cheap winter tire. The Blizzak and Nokian are definitely better but that makes the General more fun. They are very predictable though.

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Grant Hughes

Grant, what exactly makes generals inferior? Is this based on your driving experience with the different tires? Not arguing, just want more details if u have back to back experience...

From asking around the impression I got was the general was better if u could only have one set as it was good in snow, decent on ice.... Where as blizaks were better on ice but would load up in snow... I also gathered the general sidewalls were more robust than the blizaks...

If uve run them all I'd love to hear a compare/contrast

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mhooper
Grant, what exactly makes generals inferior? Is this based on your driving experience with the different tires? Not arguing, just want more details if u have back to back experience...

From asking around the impression I got was the general was better if u could only have one set as it was good in snow, decent on ice.... Where as blizaks were better on ice but would load up in snow... I also gathered the general sidewalls were more robust than the blizaks...

Yup. I've had Nokian, Blizzak, and Generals. I buy Generals UNLESS I can find a screaming deal on the other two. General bought the molds for the old Gislaved Nordfrost from what I understand. What they use for compound is still a question but they seem to perform okay.

The Nokian and Blizzaks are better on ice. They are all about the same in other conditions. From a rally perspective, keeping it out of banks is more important than any minute differences in tire performance.

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Grant Hughes

The altimax is a good tire. If you look at the NER results for last winter my XR won all the snow events for MR on altimaxes. Since budget is a concern for you I would say use them. Having just mounted up a set of studded Hakka 8s and running them at winter challenge the Hakkas are a significant improvement but probably not worth the cost unless you get a good deal on them.

Hint: If you get the altimaxes, run them easy as much as possible. I lost a lot of studs very quickly because I only used them for ~ 150 miles before racing on them.