Best tires for storm chasing

[Derek Weston]

Not sure we've had a thread dedicated to tires.

My priority would be a tire that is very good in wet conditions. Hydroplaning is arguably the most dangerous aspect of storm chasing.

I've read that Michelin Hydroedge are some of the best in wet conditions. Saw someone else cite Bridgestone RE960 as another very good wet weather tire.

Have any suggestions? What do you use?

 

[Bryan Stokes]

I'm currently using Michelin Primacy MXV4s on my 2006 Prius. They are just a slight notch below the Hydroedge in terms of wet-weather handling, but they are still better than 95% of the wet-weather tires out there. The reason I went with the Primacy MXV4 over the Hydroedge is fuel efficiency. For my particular car, tests show a fuel improvement of almost a mile per gallon with the Primacy. May not sound like much, but it adds up to about $80 in savings over the life of the tires. (Stats are only based on my car.)

Bryan

 

[Patrick Martin]

I'm currently using Michelin Primacy MXV4s on my 2006 Prius.

I have these same tires on my 05 Accord. I've put 25k+ miles on these same tires, and they barely show any sign of wear. They provided plenty of confidence on wet roads last season, and are not bad in the snow. I set my own pressures with an air compressor in my garage, and keep them inflated to 33psi up front and 31psi in the rear. I purchased them from Costco, and the nitrogen inflation definitely makes a difference. I did let them go 8 weeks during a couple of bitterly cold spells this winter between checking pressures and they were down less than 2psi. I fully expect to get 60k+ miles from them. Don't mistake them for the Energy MXV4 (that came stock on my car) as that is a different, and far worse, tire altogether.

 

[Jim Parsons]

Great and timely topic given that I have just started to look for some new tires for my car....Here are the tires that I am thinking about.
http://www.goodyeartires.com/tire/fortera-tripletred/

 

[Jason Boggs]

Tirerack.com has a pretty good consumer survey chart that helps a lot

Light truck/SUV All terrain tires

Light truck/SUV highway all season

Passenger tires high performance all season

Passenger tires standard touring all season

Passenger all season

 

[James Wilson]

I'll second the tirerack site they have some great tires for decent prices.

I have BF Goodrich All terrains and they rock in mud. On the Garden City storm two years ago the highway was closed in both directions to traffic due to power lines. I went off road down some farm roads in thick mud with no problems at all. The tires can be seen at the below link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=608048367&aid=98954

 

[Matt Tottle]

I run Bridgestone Dueler AT/REVO's. Best all-around tire I've ever used (compared to Goodyear, BFG, and Cooper) . That's what was on my truck with 30% tread when I bought it, and it took me 20,000 miles to run them down (and they were wearing bad because my alignment was out of whack). Replaced them with a brand new set 15,000 miles ago and the tread still looks brand new. But they're spendy though, they cost me $1000 mounted balanced and aligned. They're really quiet and have great road manners, even in snow and slush. The only adverse experience I had with them was when I tried to drive on 'dirt road slime' - the nasty crap that happens immediately after it downpours on a parched dusty road. Until the rain soaks in, it creates a slippery slime with the dust that sits on top of the dry dirt. But then again, I don't know if anything short of an actual mud lug tire would help that.

One word of advice though, if you have a truck or SUV, get P size tires. The LT sizes don't have a mileage warranty.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

That's funny; I run the Primacy MXV4's as well. Honestly the best thing you can do is go over to Consumer Reports online, sign up for a one month membership (it's under $10 I think) and search their ratings on tires.

 

[Andrew Stoller]

I'd say the best all around passenger car tire right now is the Hankook Optimo H727; deep 12/32 tread, 100K warranty, tons and tons of siping and 4 rain channels to evacuate water. They'd be good on muddy back roads as well and they're the bomb in snow.

Check out www.tirerack.com and look at their consumer ratings/surveys.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=ST

 

[Steve Bottkol]

I've had the Tripletred's since 05, and I'm on my 3rd set right now. Overall, very impressed with this tire in rain, snow and ice. I think they do above average in the mud, since they are somewhat designed to be "self cleaning" and I've hit some muddy roads while chasing on some of Oklahoma's and Kansas's back roads. My one and only major bitch about this tire is it's high rolling resistance which will eat 1 to 2 MPG from your total. Noticed that right off the bat with my first set that I had on my Suburban, but sometimes the quality of the product outweighs it's problems. Expect to get around 50K before you need to replace them, no matter how well you rotate and keep them properly inflated. I also was impressed how well they wore on my suburban since it's 4 wheel drive. Typically GM's front end on 4WD vehicles is tough on tires..they like to start cupping the outter parts of the tread, which these haven't done. I'd give them 41/2 stars out of 5.

Steve

 

[Patrick Martin]

I researched tires at length before putting the new shoes on my Accord and my wife's SUV. For the car, check out the Tire Rack grand touring results where you can find the Michelin Primacy. Even though I've never been a Goodyear fan, I looked really hard at the Goodyear Tripletread, but to many comments on it being a very hard tire, and issue with wear/uneven wear concerned me but the low rating for "would you buy again", sealed the deal for me to not buy them. No regrets paying the extra cost for the Michelin. I personally stayed away from Hydroedge or dedicated "wet wether" tires b/c most of my driving miles are dry, and I wanted/needed a tire that would be quiet, have some "fun" factor, and be decent in the wet and snow.

And +1 on the Bridgestone Dueller AT Revo tires. I'm on the 2nd set on my wife's SUV, and they are great! They are an AT tire, so can't really expect to get greater than about 45k miles (unless you are doing all highway driving) from them, but they are very good in all conditions.

 

[J Tyler]

Go to www.tirerack.com and read everything from their in house testing of different brands to the owner survey results. It becomes pretty clear pretty quickly.

I am currently running the Firestone Destination AT as the all terrain tire on my Xterra.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Firestone&tireModel=Destination+A/T

The tire had to be safe for my wife to drive on the highway to work every day. That means it has to have short stopping distance. Excellent emergency lane change. Those two were top priority. BUT, I had to give up a LITTLE to have a tire that is good in mud and snow. These tires have been incredible in deep snow, deep mud, deep water, and kept us out of deep s**t.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I have General Grabber AT tires on my Jeep. I find they work well in the dirt, snow, ice, and mud but aren't the best to prevent hydroplaning.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I have the Yokohama Geolander AT/S tires on my Xterra and I've been pretty pleased with them. I probably have about 20,000 miles left on them, and when I get new tires, I'm thinking about the Michelin LTX A/T 2 tires. Again, I've been happy with the Geolanders, but I've never owned a set of Michelin's before and want to try them out.

 

[Mark Blue]

This thread came to mind when I read through the current posts Tires. It was about a year ago and contained some useful information, so here it is in the event you are interested.