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Vredestein Wintrac Pro on Gemini Wheels?
- Thread starter HeyEph
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- snow tires
I can’t speak to the Vtedestein - I considered them but decided not to buy them. I purchased the Continental Viking Contact for about the same price. I used to have the Michelin X-Ice 3’s on my previous Subaru Outback.
I liked the Michelin mileage warranty - I drive a lot for work. I think the Continental is a better winter tire and ended up purchasing those for my Y. At the time they were actually a little less than the Vredesteins too. I think the X-Ice are a little quieter though.
My research included speaking to a buddy who is a car guy in Norway. He seemed to think the Vredesteins are mid tier tires. He puts a lot of confidence in the testing done by the Norwegian Automotive Federation which typically places the Continental tires in the top 2 spots.
fiehlsport
Tire Guy
btownalset
Member
My winter setup for my Model 3 are these tires on the OEM 18"s. I think they are pretty good for traction and efficiency but they are a lot louder compared to the OEM all season tires. I'm thinking it's bc a) they are winter tires (more traction) and b) there's no foam inside the tire. If I could do it over again, I'd get whatever winter tire Tesla is using making sure it has foam...it's worth the extra $$$.
I run the xIce SNOW on my LR Model Y. It makes the car a total beast in the snow. 12-14 inches of fresh unpacked powder is no problem for the car. When the car first came out there were a lot of youtube videos showing it getting stuck as soon as it would stop in a parking lot with fresh snow (just a couple inches) or any kind of incline. That was all down to the tires (the standard all seasons it comes with). I took a shovel kind of worried I would get stuck since it's way more than the ground clearance of the vehicle, but hitting a fresh untouched parking lot with fluffy snow was no problem. I specifically stopped the car in new areas and then would slowly pull away to see if there was any traction issues or not. It was undramatic. It just handled it perfectly fine. That gives me a lot of confidence that if you're on plowed roads during a snow storm and have to turn off onto unplowed roads, you've got a really good fighting chance making it down the side street. There still isn't a huge amount of ground clearance so frozen "walls" of snow/slush from plows might still be a little bit of a problem (especially slowly in or out of a driveway) but that's past the tires.
I think TireRack has some reviews/tests of both. The Vredestein is probably the only "performance" snow tire I would even THINK about getting. The Sottozero's are just too old and have not kept up with the pack of tires available now. I think the Vredestein probably would take care of you, especially if you usually stuck to well maintained roads (plows came by frequently and never got more than half a foot of fresh snow before a pass, or heading up to the ski slopes, etc) but the xIce SNOW will still be able to claw away at more deep stuff because of the very soft tread and deeper sipes and tread blocks. I also think the xIce SNOW are better with stopping distance on ice by a decent amount (15%+) so if ultimate safety is number 1, those would probably be the ones to pick. I know a lot of people think about 10 feet longer stopping distance as nothing and they'll look a little further ahead... but 10 feet into an intersection because there was a patch of ice right before it vs stopping just on the line of the intersection that can make the difference between a horrible day and an elevated heart rate and a little more caution at the next light... (TireRack also usually tests at 12 mph, so 10 feet when going that slow feels like a world of difference for me, that literally is as you're slowing down at an intersection type of thing)
I think TireRack has some reviews/tests of both. The Vredestein is probably the only "performance" snow tire I would even THINK about getting. The Sottozero's are just too old and have not kept up with the pack of tires available now. I think the Vredestein probably would take care of you, especially if you usually stuck to well maintained roads (plows came by frequently and never got more than half a foot of fresh snow before a pass, or heading up to the ski slopes, etc) but the xIce SNOW will still be able to claw away at more deep stuff because of the very soft tread and deeper sipes and tread blocks. I also think the xIce SNOW are better with stopping distance on ice by a decent amount (15%+) so if ultimate safety is number 1, those would probably be the ones to pick. I know a lot of people think about 10 feet longer stopping distance as nothing and they'll look a little further ahead... but 10 feet into an intersection because there was a patch of ice right before it vs stopping just on the line of the intersection that can make the difference between a horrible day and an elevated heart rate and a little more caution at the next light... (TireRack also usually tests at 12 mph, so 10 feet when going that slow feels like a world of difference for me, that literally is as you're slowing down at an intersection type of thing)
I would say (from looking at hard data reviews and tests like TireRack does) that the VikingContact7 are VERY close to the xIce SNOW. Maybe slightly better, but I'm not sure if slightly better in everything. You basically can't go wrong with either of those two.
The Vredestein is a "performance" winter tire, so it's not going to be able to handle the same stuff that either of the above can. BUT, it blows the Sottozero 3 out of the water (and is a much newer tire and all the tech that comes with that). Since there aren't many performance winter tires that fit the stock sizes of Model Y wheels, even if the Vredestein is a "mid level" tire, if you're looking at it or the Sottozero, there's literally no competition between them, Sottozeros badly need updated. I still would always push for a full winter tire for just about all areas unless clear roads but low temps are your main concern. Then the performance winter tires actually handle dry and wet braking a bit better than full snow tires with their soft tread. So in that case the Vredestein would be "better" than the snow tire, again based on them basically being the only option for our cars without 3rd party wheels. (Or getting Nokian tires, which everyone raves about but it's hard to find data based reviews. I want to know standardized stopping distance on snow and ice, dry and wet roads, skidpad, etc. Not some tire review guy online saying how great they are because they were invited to a Nokian sponsored winter proving event.)
Side note, I had some Nokian Hakkapeliitta tires on an old Audi A6 years ago and while they were fantastic tires which came in really really great use when I was rushing to catch a flight at 4:30 in the morning during an ice storm... which got delayed 10 minutes after I got to the airport, I didn't notice a "world of difference" compared to Blizzak or xIce tires. I think they're great top tier tires with Bridgestone, Michelin and Continental, but I don't know if they're enough better (or at all) for all the rage some online guys get for them. Since xIce or VikingContact 7s are usually very easy to find (TireRack is my go to!), have data based test results published (again thanks TireRack), and often have rebates or discounts with them, I can't see myself telling anyone to find the Nokians...
Thanks! So, what exactly is a "Performance Snow" tire? And, yeah. My winter driving is almost always on relatively well-maintained roads, with only the occasional need to plow through more than 4-6inches. I'm more concerned about the compacted snow and black ice scenarios. Also, with increasing temps, we get a lot of slush recently, and of course lots of days where the roads are just "wet".
So, would "performance snow" be better for me? Or a traditional snow?
So, would "performance snow" be better for me? Or a traditional snow?
I agree with the post above. I have the 19" wheels and went with a taller tire (255/50r19). The ride was much improved.
teslamotorsclub.com
255/50r19 quatrac pro on Gemeni w pics
Very early review (10 miles), I'll post more later. I replaced my OEM tires at 22k miles. The rears had 4/32 (9/32 new) and the fronts had 4.5/32. I wanted a better tire for the snow. 1. The taller tire seems to fit. Any larger or a more square shoulder, and it'd hit the control arm (see pics)...
teslamotorsclub.com
Yikes! Not sure I want to go with that tight of a gap. No issues?I agree with the post above. I have the 19" wheels and went with a taller tire (255/50r19). The ride was much improved.
255/50r19 quatrac pro on Gemeni w pics
Very early review (10 miles), I'll post more later. I replaced my OEM tires at 22k miles. The rears had 4/32 (9/32 new) and the fronts had 4.5/32. I wanted a better tire for the snow. 1. The taller tire seems to fit. Any larger or a more square shoulder, and it'd hit the control arm (see pics)...
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