Chevy & GMC Vans

Need to get winter tires. New laws in Germany say they have to be winter rated. And low and behold...... today shows up with 3" of snow on the ground.

I will find out how the current tires work in the snow in the morning... but I am going to need some tires with the snowflake...

I found these at TireRack.com they look pretty good. Any thoughts.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... del=Safari

Any experiences with TireRack. I had a pleasant experience with discount tire when i bought wheels earlier this year but the cheapest tire for me on their site is over $100....

Thanks for any and all advice on this.

Hard to beat the price, and they seem well rated. Do you plan on only using them during the winter months, or are you going to keep them on yr round?

I personally don't use tire rack ( only because they are in the states and I'm in Canuckville ) and any savings would be eaten up in shipping, but I have never heard any complaints against them, great place for info.

I personally have not bought from them either but a buddy at work just ordered 4 tires and when they were mounted/balance he still had a vibration. He then had them road force balanced and the shop found 2 bad tires. He called Tire Rack and they sent him 2 new tires and $50 to cover the balance cost. They also are paying to ship the bad tires back. That is AWESOME service!

Nice to hear that they will take care that...

I think i will use them year round, just cause i hate swapping all the time and i don't have an extra set of rims at the moment. But if finances look good come spring i might get a new set of wheels with tires just for summer. I just don't want anything too knobby. The coopers i have are kinda loud and i would like to quiet the ride down a bit...



Any words on the tires themselves.. Anyone used these.

Also wen looking at load ratings the 1819lbs is per tire then for a total of over 7000lbs carrying capacity (gross vehicle weight of course). I am looking to maybe pull a decent sized camping trailer eventually. And i would like that these would be good for that too.

Nokian WR G2 SUV

I speak from experience when I say that they are a great tire for the money. I have 'em on my Ranger 2WD, and I find that they are great in the snow. They are a snow tire, no denying that. They are noisy, somewhat skitterish on dry pavement, and they are DIRECTIONAL, so you can only rotate them front to rear. That being said, they wear great, and the traction in mud and snow is excellent. I bought mine from Tire Rack as well, $268 mounted and balanced on my truck. Not bad for a lowly 2WD pick up. Go for it. You won't be disappointed!

Mark

With the new law requiring you to run a "snowflake" tire...(and you don't sound terribly concerned about their actual snow/ice performance...which is ok, as any snowflake tire will be better than an all-season)...and you wanting to run them yr round...It is actually fitting that you shop in the lower price range. Why? The cheapies tend to use harder durometer rubber and won't wear as quickly thru those summer mths like the "better" winter tires will. Tread pattern is what mostly dictates noise. Seeing those Firestones, I am not surprised that they'd be noisy...the pattern is too uniform plus the side lugs are dead square 90* to the rotation.
Do you have Walmarts or the like there? What are they selling? Show me a pic.

BTW...I just noticed that Tirerack is listing the General Altimax there with your search. That tire will be way quieter than the Firestone. I see that it is also stud-able...I've had a lot of tires studded, and I can say with reasonable confidence, that a stub-able tire is a harder durometer tire.(you don't have to stud them of course...for yr round use, just install as-is)

weeeelll.. somewhere between 5 and 7 inches of snow the last couple of days. The coopers on the truck seem to be doing ok in the crud.

After talking to the safety guy on post it seems that the snowflake or M+S rated is good enough for the long arm of the law so for the moment the coopers are staying. Still good tread and like i said no issues in the muck so far...

If finances get better (or i hear other wise from the legal end) i will look at those generals come spring. I am looking for something like that that will be quiet..

(the maybe another set of cragers for the winters cause then i will need them for sure)

Thanks for the tips guys..

i LOVE my general altimax arctic tires. the last two winters i ran them on my crown vic, i just put them on my sonoma today because i was sliding around last night with the summer tread tires on it. they grip very well, are quiet on dry pavement, and are studdable.

too bad your in germany, i have a set of blizzacks mounted to stock alloys that only saw about 5 months of use that i would love to get rid of.

Interesting thought. Might be interested. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Things to think about.