First thing to consider when shopping for new snow tires is how much driving you do and where you do it. If it’s mostly side and back roads, then you should consider a tire designed for more snow. If you do a lot of highway driving then you should consider a tire that performs better under icy conditions. Most winter tires are designed with both snow and ice in mind, but what you’re looking for in a good ice tire is a high sipe* density. For a well designed snow tire you want nice wide open tread blocks like in the Cooper Evolution Winter. A wide open tread design is made so snow actually packs into the tire as it rolls. This serves two purposes; when snow is wet, snow on snow i very sticky and this actually gives the tire extra traction when the tread fills up with the white stuff. Having a wide open tread design also helps the tire eject the snow when too much builds up. The downside to having a tire that’s bette in very snow conditions is they tend to be much louder. That’s why more tires these days are designed with snow as a side-thought and they focus heavily on ice-traction. One of the best ice-traction tires out there is the Toyo GSI-6. Toyo make an excellent winter tire with crushed walnut shells literally mixed into the rubber compound giving it fantastic grip under icy conditions. Everyone has their own personal preferences and brand affinities, so I guess what I want to say is a long as you’re running even an inexpensive winter tire, regardless of it being designed specifically for ice or snow, you will be better off than someone with only all-season tires.
*Sipes are those little lines in the individual tread blocks. They are designed to open up while the tire is rapidly spinning to give each tread block extra grip on those really wet or icy roads.
In Ontario they are not required. However, most insurance companies do offer discounts for having them. We also hear this said a lot: “I’ve got 4 wheel drive, I don’t need snow tires!”. The reality is your 4-Wheel or All Wheel drive systems certainly help getting you going, but they don’t help you stop. There is no denying winter tires' stopping ability compared to all-season and even all-terrain tires.
Here is a fantastic Youtube Video from Tyre Reviews comparing General Tire’s entire line-up. He tests: handling, braking, and overall performance in snow/ice conditions. Spoiler Alert: the winter tire out performs them all.
It ranges depending on brand and size, but what it really comes down to is value. At the end of the day ANY winter tire is going to blow any all-season tire out of the water in terms of snow and ice performance. Yes, the name brand guys will have a better performing tire and if you do a lot of driving it gets easier to justify spending more, because the name brands also usually last longer too. However, you can’t put a price tag on peace-o mind and what a winter rated tire can do for your driving confidence and sense of safety. GIVE US A CALL
If we have to choose, our favourite tire and number one recommendation (and the tires used by Ted’s Staff) is the Toyo GSI-6 for passenger vehicles and the Cooper Discoverer Snow Claw for light truck vehicles. Both of these tires provide fantastic performance, longevity and value.
The Observe GSI-6, LS and HP are designed to handle the worst winter conditions from ice to thick snow, this tire is used by most of our staff. Here is a link to Toyo’s product page for more information.
The Cooper Snow Claws are the latest truck and SUV tire in their snow tire line-up. Fantastic snow performance and even better in icy conditions, this tire is easily our #1 winter tire for your truck. Here is a link to Coopers product page for more information.
No, you don’t NEED them. The main reason why you would do it is for cost. For example: a top of the line 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe could have come with 20 inch rims. A winter tire package with it’s factory size could be upwards of 2 thousand dollars. A Hyundai Santa Fe will however fit a much cheaper 17 inch wheel and tire combination that could save you hundreds.
Although they are two completely different sizes, they will share the exact same height (or overall diameter). This is a trick manufacturers use so they can mass produce cars with higher trim models (bigger rims) without having to reprogram the transmission ECU. The vehicle doesn’t know how big your rims are, all they care about is the overall height. You can use tiresize.com to play around with tire sizes yourself!
The second reason why you might buy winter rims for your car is the cost of transferring back and forth. Tires with rims are easy to swap and therefore most places will charge about half the price of what it costs to mount and balance. It’s also faster, and if you’re feeling confident, an on-rim tire transfer is something you can do yourself quite easily.
One final note about winter rims; many people ask “what’s the difference between steel and alloy rims for winter?”. The short answer is ‘nothing’. Some high-end vehicles like Mercedes, Audi’s and BMW’s have such large brake calipers that no mass-produced steel wheel will fit them. Other than that it comes down to style. More and more people are choosing alloy wheels simply because they’re cooler! You just spent a chunk of change on a new car, you want it to look good all year-round. Now, I should note that both last approximately equally as long. We use so much salt on our roads that over time, both options will decay.
Absolutely! We don’t recommend it, because they will wear prematurely, just not as quickly as some people think. If you’re thinking about running a winter tire all-year round, you should consider for your next purchase, an all-weather tire. All-weather tires are winter rated, but their compound and tread design is made to also withstand hotter temperatures. The greatest benefit of this type of tire is obviously only needing one set! However, all-weather tires are not as good a full-blown winter in colder temperatures and do not tend to be as quiet and long lasting as regular all-season tires. Our favourite all-weather tire is the Toyo Celcius. It has an 80 to 100 thousand kilometre tread wear warranty and a lot of great characteristics that make it shine in the all-weather category.
Not really. If your all-season tires are relatively new you’ll have a better time than someone with 4 year or older tires. This is because as the tire ages a lot of the oil that makes it malleable evaporates out of the tire, effectively drying it up. That fact, combined with the effect negative temperatures have on all-season tires can make them pretty slippery when things get icy. If you don’t want two sets of tires, or just don’t do that much driving at all, we usually recommend getting a good set of all-weather tires instead.
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