While the car is doing a great job keeping you stable, ABS and lack of grip isn’t an indication of good tires. Great snow tires would have kept enough grip so ABS didn’t have to kick in. Good to hear the car does a good job even in limited grip conditions though!
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Michelin X-Ice a good winter tire?
- Thread starter noshadow
- Start date
While the car is doing a great job keeping you stable, ABS and lack of grip isn’t an indication of good tires. Great snow tires would have kept enough grip so ABS didn’t have to kick in. Good to hear the car does a good job even in limited grip conditions though!
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
It says X-Ice Snow in the drop down. I don't think Xi3 are produced anymore.
VaxAce
Member
Im not going to drive the Tesla in snow - I have a wrangler. Would you guys recommend the Michelin x-ice OR the Michelin Pilot sport a/s 3+ from t-sportline??? I have the stock uber turbines and Pirellis for summer -- just don't want to run them in cold weather.
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Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
Usually, snow tires are cheaper than A/S of the same status. You have the best option for summer (summer tires), so get the best option for winter (snow tires). A/S are mediocre in all situations.
If you only want to drive the car on dry days, then consider Performance winter tires, like Michelin Pilot PA# (PA3, PA4, PA5) or Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3, etc. You will enjoy the performance oriented winter tire, which is still good in snow, but not as squishy as a studless winter tire.
Ghanziang
Member
I agree, not good tires, but not completely horrible. On one of my previous cars, I had almost new tires (also Continental), and I was driving to work in an unexpected snow storm like we had last week. The ABS tried like hell to keep going straight, but the tires were so bad there was no way and the car just sliding and sliding and sliding. With off camber roads, no shoulder and a highly crowned road, this is no good at all. In the case of these tires, the ABS was triggered because I was testing it by slamming on the brakes hard and fast. The ABS triggered and stopped quickly and straight. Am I still getting snow tires this year, yes. When you live at 8,000 ft and have to drive through a windy canyon with a drop to a creek on one side the whole way, snow traction is a must. That being said, it is driving DOWN the canyon that is scary. You never know when there is ice under the fresh snow and gravity is not going to help you one bit. It is all down to the traction you are getting with those tires.
KenMast3rs
Member
Sorry in advance for noob question. I know it’s not ideal to drive summer tires in the snow or ice. What would happen if I did? Would the tires crack and can’t be driven?
I am here in SoCal so I won’t see snow that often. But when I make my trip to visit my in law in Hesperia & Wrightwood area, it can snow. If most of my trip there doesn’t have snow and only toward the end of my trip is where I’d see snow, do I still need winter tires? If I installed winter tires, the first leg of my trip is dry, wouldn’t it be bad for winter tires?
Thanks in advance.
I am here in SoCal so I won’t see snow that often. But when I make my trip to visit my in law in Hesperia & Wrightwood area, it can snow. If most of my trip there doesn’t have snow and only toward the end of my trip is where I’d see snow, do I still need winter tires? If I installed winter tires, the first leg of my trip is dry, wouldn’t it be bad for winter tires?
Thanks in advance.
Some summer tires do warn that too long at low temperatures CAN damage and crack the compound and render the tire unsafe to use when things warm up. Not only should summer tire not be used in low temps, they should be STORED in low temps either. How low, how many hours, which specific brands/compounds? You would have to contact the manufacturer to verify... I just know I’ve seen that warning before on summer specific road tires.
https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=273
Snow Drift
[Off-Road Assist] Activated
You should not use Summer tires under 40 degrees.
Summer compound is hard (which means it can handle a lot of heat in the summer to soften), but means it will get very hard in winter, and that reduces grip. Turning is difficult and the tread patterns are usually shallow, not allowing it to dig into the snow.
Winter tires are soft and so in the summer they will get greasy in the heat, which is bad for grip. The issue for winter tires is not dry roads, but the temperature of the road surface. Unless it is 60-70s you would be ok.
California is weird in that you have extreme weather in different regions. At the very least you would be required to use chains (right?), but if you go to the Mts. often, it would be better to invest in either A/S or Winter tires.
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powaking
Member
I had xIce on a Minivan and I'll tell you it pretty much made that car drivable in any amount of snow. Had A/S tires on before and the car wouldn't move out of as little as half an inch of snow. I have a 2nd set of wheels with xIce for my Tesla that I just swap for the season. Works great!
We live in serious snow country and have used X-Ice for several years. They've been great and are definitely quieter than other snow tires we have used. Last year we used the M3 winter tire package from Tesla and thought the Pirellis were very comparable to the X-ice for traction and handled better at highway speeds.
I had a set of Blizzak LM-3 on my previous car. I live in CA so it's usually about mid 70's and then it'll drop to the teens once we get to the mountains. For about 2.5 hours it's warm, and then the last hour or so, it's cold and snowy.
I don't know if I did it right, but I would just drive everywhere with the Blizzak's in the winter time. Meaning my commute into San Francisco, running errands around town, and then taking the weekly or every other week trip up to Lake Tahoe snow. I would swap the tires off (dedicated set of rims) once the season was over.
It worked just fine I guess, but I never took the car hard in the winter season anyway, but regular/mild driving seemed to do fine in the hotter days.
KenMast3rs
Member
That is my concern too. If I were to swap out to winter or snow tires, wouldn’t it be bad when I am driving at a region where it’s not cold or snow? When I go visit my in law, 2/3 of my trip doesn’t have snow or anything but as I get closer to mountain area, snow kicks in. Almost seems like my best bet is A/S tires for the best of both worlds since I am not strictly driving in snow 100%.
A/S tires are more like the worst of both worlds. Dedicated snow tires are still good on dry cold roads. You're not going to kill the tire if temps are below like 60 degrees, even if it's dry. You're going to wear the tire down, and they might get worn down a little faster in those temps, but it's not going to damage your tread and traction will still be pretty decent. You don't want to run them when it's like 90 degrees and the pavement is burning. Just change them over so it's a short season, like Nov to Feb, or if you don't plan to head up to the mountains in November, wait till December, etc.
You could also look for a "performance" winter tire, like the Sottozero 3 tire. It's still going to be MUCCCCCH better than an A/S tire in the snow, but it's designed a little bit more for cold dry/wet roads compared to trekking through deep snow. You want a good tire in the winter in case you hit some ice. It's important to have as much grip as possible, even if that means only running it for a few months out of the year or maybe burning through them a little faster because you're mainly on dry pavement. (I would expect at least 3 years even if you're all pavement as long as you keep it on Oct-Mar time frame, that's worth ~$900 or so if it keeps you from rear ending someone on ice or other very expensive damage because of lack of traction.)
@acarney summed it up.
In my experience, having proper winter tires once I hit the snow was a requirement. Once I got there and they turned around AWD cars who didn't have proper chains or proper winter tires because the temperatures were so low (whereas we started from 72 degrees at home and throughout 2/3rds of the drive). You aren't damaging the tire, and if you drive like a regular person (not aggressively carving canyon roads) within speed limits and all that, you'll be fine. I do know, however, some winter tires turn into A/S tires after the top layer of tread is worn, but I didn't find that to be the case for my Blizzak's. They still performed great on icey roads as well as some deep snow.
I think I'm going to go with A/S tires on my Ubers when/if they're available so that I don't have to worry about them turning into ice skates when going over mountain passes, and then running a set of 20" wheels with dedicated snow tires. I would only swap on the winter tires a day or two before I knew I was going on my first trip up to the snow, and as soon as I know my snow trips are more or less over. Swapping the wheels only takes about 30 minutes, so it isn't too bad if you had to swap them back on again for an unexpected trip.
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