Model S winter tire experiences

[bhzmark]

the crappy Pirellis that came with my winter rims. (Was constantly getting stuck on 1 degree slopes with the Pirellis!)

Were these the older Sottozero 240s? Or the current Sottzero 3? The latter have good reviews, but do trade some snow/ice performance for better cold pavement wet and dry performance: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=181

and the best dry performance:

 

[jjh1234]

Did anyone tried installing 18" wheels on model S? 18" tires are much cheaper and have more sidewall.
I was @ Costco today, they refused to install winter tires on Tesla. Apparently somebody @ Costco put the jack on battery instead of lift spot. Thus puncturing the battery, now costco issued blanket order for not touching the Tesla.

18” wheels won’t clear suspension or brakes I’m told.

 

[YauKwan]

i have the sotterozero 3 on winter wheels. First winter with them so we'll see how they do. I had no issues in the Tesla with all season, so i cant foresee having issues on snow tires and AWD.

 

[CRASHER]

18” wheels won’t clear suspension or brakes I’m told.

Yes, I eventually tried myself and can confirm with 32mm offset, they will not clear the front knuckle. They were just touching, calipers were clear. both front and back. I was tempted to grind off 0.04" off from the offending screw. However I believe 25mm or less offset 18" wheel will have no interference. I did not try that, instead bought 19" replika 187

 

[Doug_G]

Were these the older Sottozero 240s? Or the current Sottzero 3?

Got them in 2012 so they would be the older ones. Yes they are a "sport winter tire".

They totally sucked on the P85 RWD. If I had to stop on a 1 degree slope on a slippery day the car wouldn't move. I'd have to turn off TC just to get anything to happen at all.

 

[Blissedout]

I have used Blizzaks and Hakka's. No doubt the Hakka's are better but this year I am going with X-Ice 3's. Not because I think they are the best but both the Blizzaks and Hakka's were terribly noisy and I am hoping the Michelin's are quieter.

I am using the Hakka's for my winter tires and will be curious to hear it the Michelin's are quieter.

 

[Naonak]

I had Michelin X-Ice on my RWD S85. Drove to VT most weekends in the winter without issue. Very comfortable.

Now I have a 100D so should be even better.

Same, I have the X-Ice's on two of my Teslas... love them. They are so awesome in the snow in an AWD car.

 

[PJFW8]

Same, I have the X-Ice's on two of my Teslas... love them. They are so awesome in the snow in an AWD car.

Replaced Blizzaks with X-Ice. After 2 years of winter driving, the X-Ice's are much quieter and slightly better in winter traction. They also ride better. I used Blizzaks for 6 years previously.

 

[meomyo]

245/45/R19 WINTER PIRELLI 240 SOTTOZERO TIRE

Price per tire- $341 plus tax

this was from my SC...wow they are too expensive

 

[meomyo]

245/45/R19 WINTER PIRELLI 240 SOTTOZERO TIRE

Price per tire- $341 plus tax

this was from my SC...wow they are too expensive

why are they selling the older pirelli's?? why not the newest sottozero 3?

 

[mspohr]

Lots of anecdotal experience here which is pretty much worthless. (The plural of anecdote is not data.) I'd go with trusted comparative reviews such as that in post #21 which shows that they are all about the same.
I'll add my experience with the factory Sottozero's that I bought with the car in 2015. After three winters, they have performed flawlessly. Yes, I mean flawlessly. I cannot get them to slip or slide. A lot of that is no doubt due to the car itself (ABS, TC, weight distribution, AWD, etc.) but I have tried to get them to slip by extreme acceleration and braking and all I get is consistent acceleration and deceleration. (YMMV)
The only time the car has ever slipped on me was on wet pavement with the summer Michelin tires when I went around a curve on the Interstate at high speed (I was clearly driving too fast). I felt the rear slip, heard an alert and a message on the dash and the car corrected immediately. It all took less than a second.

 

[PJFW8]

Lots of anecdotal experience here which is pretty much worthless. (The plural of anecdote is not data.) I'd go with trusted comparative reviews such as that in post #21 which shows that they are all about the same.
I'll add my experience with the factory Sottozero's that I bought with the car in 2015. After three winters, they have performed flawlessly. Yes, I mean flawlessly. I cannot get them to slip or slide. A lot of that is no doubt due to the car itself (ABS, TC, weight distribution, AWD, etc.) but I have tried to get them to slip by extreme acceleration and braking and all I get is consistent acceleration and deceleration. (YMMV)
The only time the car has ever slipped on me was on wet pavement with the summer Michelin tires when I went around a curve on the Interstate at high speed (I was clearly driving too fast). I felt the rear slip, heard an alert and a message on the dash and the car corrected immediately. It all took less than a second.

But when you multiply anecdotes times statistics...that is true entertainment. Reports of personal experience with a product have some value. Nothing beats a well designed real world test!

 

[meomyo]

why does tesla charge so much for tires? It just seems unethical.

 

[mspohr]

why does tesla charge so much for tires? It just seems unethical.

When it was time to replace my summer Michelin tires. I bought them from the Rocklin, California Tesla service center. The total cost was less than Tire Rack and they also did a free alignment.
(YMMV)

 

[sauce]

I've installed the Hakka 9 studded and recently got to try them in winter driving conditions. Both the car and the tires are beasts! This will be an unusually fun winter.

Side note: My mind was set on Nokian: after having accumulated around 2 million km of driving experience (a good 800k of this during winter) I have come to the conclusion that no other tire brand have come close to performing like the Nokian does (call it anecdotal... ). Anyway I digress... so the tire dealer actually recommended against the R2 and suggested the Hakka 9. Music to my ears as I've also driven with versions 8 and 5 of the Hakka family.

Other winter tire experiences include the following. Nokian WR (yay), Nokian WRG3 (yay), General Tire (Ouch NAY), Continental Winter Contact(Nay), Toyo G02 (Yay), Toyo GX10 (Nay), Michelin X Ice (Nay), GoodYear UltraGrip (UltraNay), Bridgestone Blizzak (Yay then Nay)

My conclusion to this: You want a good winter tire, don't expect them to drive on dry pavement with the precision level of sports tires. If you drive in more clement weather it may very well be that you don't need extreme winter tires like the Nokian Tyres, but when weather gets serious, you'll be real serious with serious winter tires. Seriously...

 

[bhzmark]

245/45/R19 WINTER PIRELLI 240 SOTTOZERO TIRE

Price per tire- $341 plus tax

this was from my SC...wow they are too expensive

Tire Rack delivers to SC and costs only 250/tire for the new sottozero 3s.

 

[meomyo]

sottozero 2 vs 3? which to get...seems the 3 is newer so maybe a better tire?

 

[jeffpaul]

sottozero 2 vs 3? which to get...seems the 3 is newer so maybe a better tire?

I've read only good stuff about version 3 and some mixed (good and bad) reviews about version 2. I just bought the $2500 set from the Tesla site myself which come with version 3.

 

[Iluvpcs]

Hmmm - am I the only one who went with the LM-32s? I’ve been a 4-5 generation Blizzack user across a couple MB, Audi’s, etc last 15 years. This time went with extra set of 19” slipstream And the newer LM-32 blizzak (and leave the summer 21” rims in garage).
https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Blizzak+LM-32

I’m in Michigan (GR) not close to any service centers, so I decided to try Discount Tire who I’ve used over past 20 years without issue (yes asked if they worked on Tesla’s before - battery puncture issue etc. many Tesla’s services at this one I went to, and had custom blocks to use already). Had them also install new set of gen 2 TPMS sensors (from tesla I picked up).

Long story short I’ve put 2,500 miles on these last 8 weeks - two good long work road trips across 5 states and absolutely love them. Zero noise, zero vibrations, solid at 80 mph, good footing both dry and snow in low 30s and below. I will say they get a tad too soft above 40F for my liking. I don’t think they are quite as good as the WS-80s I’ve had. See if I get 2-3 seasons out of them with the P85DL, still takes off very well with them. They will skip/spin a little on full throttle, but grab pretty decently. Did get them to chirp yesterday going 20-25 and full throttle.

(Sorry for typos on iPhone).

 

[Doug_G]

Lots of anecdotal experience here which is pretty much worthless. (The plural of anecdote is not data.) I'd go with trusted comparative reviews such as that in post #21 which shows that they are all about the same.

Going to call BS on this one. Totally disagree.

For a starter, that posting referred to https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=181 , which compared different performance winter tires. There is a huge difference between "performance" winter tires and actual winter tires. It did not compare the Sotozeros against Hakkapeliitta or XIce3, which would blow them out of the water.

Secondly, dismissing people's experience as "anecdotal" is insulting. In my case, not only did I switch from running Sotozeros to XIce3 on the same car - with a massive improvement in performance - I also swapped back-and-forth in short order due to getting a loaner car from Tesla with the Sotozeros. The difference was NOT subtle!

On a RWD Model S in very slippery conditions, the Sotozeros could not even climb a slight incline from a standstill. The car would not move an inch, it just sat there! I had to resort to TC off to get it to move at all. This is something that happened with painful repetition with the Sotozeros - multiple times each winter. In comparison, once I switched to XIce3 they never got me stuck like that even on a steep hill. Not once.

Your description of the Sotozeros performance makes me wonder if you've ever driven in real winter conditions. You say that you can't get the car to slide at all. In typical snowstorm conditions here there isn't a car on the road that isn't sliding quite a lot, no matter how good the car or the tires. Your location appears to be "California", which makes me think you don't experience anywhere near the conditions we do here in Ottawa, Canada. We're in the snow belt, and we get real winter.