Winter tyres
 

Does anyone have any suggestions for winter tires that maybe purchased in Calgary or maybe ones that I should consider. I'll need to replace my Dunlops with 'real' winter tires.

I JUST bought some. They're amazing for dry handling so far.

Nokian Hakkapilleta NRW.

They are "all-weather" tires. All other "all-seasons" don't meet the severe winter weather driving standards, however these do. They have the "mountain-snowflake" symbol which designates that they meet severe winter driving condition standards. They are H rated (210 km/h).

I've been on them for a day and I find them MUCH better than the stock Potenza's. They are, believe it or not, more quiet AND don't squeal in some tight corners!

Kal-tire sells them right now. For P195/55R15 it was $136/tire. Total for me was $660 after

I posted some links in the tire section of Pclub. It's under the "Anybody own these.." thread.

Since we tend to have dry roads a lot in the winter in Calgary, I can't think of a better tire than these! :D

However, if you want a "pure" winter tire, CanTire has a sale (until tomorrow I think) on Arctic Alpins. They told me that it would be $600 total to install on my Pro.

There are also Nokian Hakkapilleta Q's that are a pure winter tire and they are $700 for my Pro.

Good luck and let us know what you get!

BTW, if you want a CHEAP set of winters, CanTire sells their Nordic IceTrac line of tires. They are made by Michelin, but sold under the CanTire brand. They are CHEAP (in price...quality, I dunno).

My GF is getting them for her 91 Jetta and it's like $300, installed!

Of course she's running on P186/65R14's....a bigger tire would be a bit more.

Re: Winter tyres
 

I've got Arctic Alpins on 15 inch steel wheels. They absolutely rock. I would not hesitate to recommend them to you.

Jay

Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

K totally redoing my post :)

The arctic alpin 15s (the ones ive decided to get cuz I wanna be just like jay! :)) are "on-sale" at kal-tire for 132.30 a tire..

Just called Canadian tire.. they have a sale on the same tire until TOMORROW.. 114.99 each.. after that it goes up to 127.49

Guess I know what I'm doing tonight...

Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

Whee! I have fans!

Jay

Thanks guys! That really helps. I'll take a look tomorrow during lunch. If you guys have any more ideas let me know.

Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

Me too, me too, I want to be like Jay :p

So Jay these are SNOW tires right? I would think with the name Alpine it is so. I have my steelies on order from Jim so I might a swell pick up my tires now while they are on sale. We need 195/55R15 for our steel rims right?

Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

I ended up with 195/60/R15. I can't quite remember why I got that size last year. I think it was avalibility of the tire. It throws the speedo out a little but, never caused me any problems.

If you can get the more correct size you'll be better off :)

Jay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

Well I'm like Jay now! whoohoo!!.. I have 4 alpines sitting in my parents garage.. I got 195/60/R15.. I don't think I tried for the one you mentioned chris (195/55 or something like that).. but I did try for 185/60 which would be a pretty darn close match...and I actually had one tire guy laugh at me..

I'm still humming and hawing a little bit about the difference.. because I'm wondering if it will effect ABS at all.. I don't have a clue how that stuff works.. but if the rotation is slightly different.. maybe the ABS won't be so smart? I don't know... in the end I figured it can't make that much difference..

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

The difference would be in your speedo but probably not enough to notice, I think. Should not have any effect on your ABS.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

You wanna be like me? Hmmm...there's a lot of things you are probably going to have to change to accomplish this ;)

I drove all winter with this size of tires on my car and had no problems. ABS worked like a charm (saved me from going into the ditch once).

You shouldn't have any problems. I THINK the difference is right around 2%...meaning you'll be going 2% faster than the speedo shows.

Where did you get the tires/rims?

Safe and happy winter driving!

Jay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

Hmm yeah.. I'm not really into getting the surgery.. I'll just stick with the tires :)



Good good..



I got the tires at canadian tire.. 509 for 4 including tax..

I'm getting the rims from Jims phat rim imporium :)

Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

Okay you probably don't want to hear this but I was in CT tonight and asked about their sale. The regular price on that tire is $136.99 and when he punched in the product number it came up as $124.99. I asked about their sale of $50 when you buy 4 and he said that was it, approximately ($12 x 4 = $48). Anyway I was looking at the prices on the chart next to the tire and the Artic Alpin 195/55R15 was listed at $119.99 each. So I asked what's up with that? The guy said okay and proceeded to take $12 off that price. So I could have got the tires for $107 each plus all the other crap.

As it is, looks like I will be ordering Pilot Alpins from somewhere else. They were $12 more per tire than the Artic Alpins. From what I have read they are just a bit better than the Artic and since I will only have them on in winter they should last for awhile.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

I know that no matter when I would have bought my tires..at one point or another they would have been cheaper (that's how tire sales work.. to drive you insane :) ).. however I just wanted it over and done with and had time to take care of it yesterday... so I don't find your news upsetting :)

Glad you found some you liked :)

Re: Re: Winter tyres
 

I have Arctic Alpins on my BMW and on the Protege. They do well in dry conditions, are not much noisier than my Summer tires.

Everybody is talking about 15" but what about 14's. I was told the best tires would be 175/75/14 and they are cheaper

I have 13 inch Winter tires for my Protege and 15 inch for my BMW. This is 1 inch less than my standard summer tire in both cases. I would use 14s if I had 15's as the Summer tire.
You need to check on brake caliper clearance for smallest tire size. For example, 15 inch tires cannot go on the BMW 330i or the Boxster due to brake clearance. I don't know whether a Protege 5 can take 14's.

Yeah you got to be careful about clearing the brake caliper and I know the 15" steel rims do that so I am not worried. However I would think the 14" would be pushing it but you can try. Just make sure you get the right bolt circle radius for the lug nuts.

Talked to a couple local mazda dealer and they told me that 14" would be no problem except for the ABS kicking in more that with 15"

Is there really a massive cost saving going with 14" opposed to 15"?

I wouldn't take the word of ANYONE on fit, I'd do a test fit before you purchase anything.

Curious, why would ABS kick in more with a 14"?

Jay

No, there isn't. But there is a massive cost saving in going from a
16 to a 15. With wheels, the difference is about 50%.

I'm aware of this. Hence the reason I have 15" Steel wheels on my car in the winter.

Jay

Yeah, I'm curious too as to why the ABS would be affected by the size of the tire. I thought the ABS was a function of tire slip on the road so the ABS system should not even be aware of what size your rims are :confused:

Just a thought...

Maybe because the 14" rims would weigh substantially less, they'd be more prone to locking up than a 15 or 16" rim that would want to stay spinning. That whole object in motion bit, Centrifugal Force and all that...

Or maybe i'm just sniffing too much glue out in the parking lot..

ABS
 

The size of the tires won't change the ABS ! it works off tire slip not size, I don't think that a 14" would even fit but I could be wrong. The other problem would be the size of the side wall, going from a 16->14" your changing the size 2" in height, even if the 14" rims do fit I think they would look like shit on a P5:barf:

Just a thought


Jim