Winter tire purchase/install report

[Cmf2455]

Do you order the sensor directly from Tesla? Who installs it?

 

[Mungo]

Nothing special here, just a ho-hum report that might be helpful to some considering winter tires. IMHO the stock 19" Continentals on the MYLR are terrrrrible in the snow; after our first minor storm of the season I had some very sketchy rides that left me terrified to drive the MY until the roads dried out again. Far worse than any other vehicle I've driven, perhaps compounded by the aggressive regeneration (speculation).

Anyhoo, I ordered some Vredestein Wintrac Pros from TireRack (Vredestein Link) and some Enkei Hornet wheels to go with (Enkei Hornet Wheels), along with Tesla TPMS. I placed the order on Nov. 12 and received it exactly one month later.

The mounted/balanced wheels arrived via UPS in just one day after shipment from TireRack. The month delay prior to shipping was due to the Tesla TPMS sensors being out of stock. Each tire was well protected in a cardboard sandwich and all arrived with no damage.

The stock Continental/Gemini wheels came off easy of course, but I had to go find a non-impact 13/16" deep socket in order to get the lug nuts on the Enkei Hornet wheels. My 13/16" impact socket wouldn't fit in the bolt holes on the Hornets because the socket walls were too thick. A standard socket fit fine with its thinner walls.

After applying a thin coat of anti-sieze compound to the back of the wheel mounting surface, I mounted up each and torqued to the required 129 lbf-ft. Below is a picture of the dirty finished product (sorry, no time for a wash today!)

When we get some more snow I'll post a follow-up report.

View attachment 617403

Scissorfighter - any experience yet in snow with the Vredestein Wintrac's? Curious.
CR has only two recommendations for winter tires for the Y - Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 recommended for performance winter tires and Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 for winter tires. Haven't looked up how or why CR categorizes "performance winter tires" versus "winter tires."
Any other winter tire recommendations out there?
Anyway, picked up the new Y yesterday. So far so good, but hasn't gone very far.

 

[scissorfighter]

Scissorfighter - any experience yet in snow with the Vredestein Wintrac's? Curious.

Well, thanks to global warming and 2020 being nearly the hottest year on record, we’ve had virtually no snow. But there has been one minor storm since I installed the Vredesteins, and I intentionally did some test drives to try them out. They are far superior to the stock Continentals. No fishtailing, much better stopping performance, and no noticeable increase in road noise on dry pavement. I’m happy.