Winter tire recommendations

[dark cloud]

Season approaching for ordering next winter's tires. All-in-all would you recommend the FRIGUS over more established brands like Continental or Michelin?

Was trying to look up some tests for this Frigus, and can't find anything except a biased looking testimonial from some Tesla owner, but found this one without Frigus: Continental's do very well, but its hard to not look at that rolling resistance for the Nokian R3:

2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tyre Test - Tyre Reviews and Tests

 

[Learnincurve]

Was trying to look up some tests for this Frigus, and can't find anything except a biased looking testimonial from some Tesla owner, but found this one without Frigus: Continental's do very well, but its hard to not look at that rolling resistance for the Nokian R3:

2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tyre Test - Tyre Reviews and Tests

Yes, I have seen and read a number of the mainstream tests and understand that they are often focused on "real" winter conditions (which is reasonable for winter tires).

This presents a dilemma, as I live in the south-west corner of Norway, which sees winters typically fluctuating between -+4C (For our American friends, 0 is fresh water freezing point in Celsius). This means that probably over half of our winter driving is on wet roads, while the rest is a mix of dry and cold, snow, slush and wet ice. The tires really need to do everything. I notice that for the wider tires that we need, Continental has recently produced a tire with the drainage channels and stiffer construction that are mentioned in the Megahjul articles, but this is a "European" style tire, made from the harder rubber that is approved for high speed Autobahn driving in Germany but not ideal on "Nordic" snow and ice. This supports at least some of Megahjul's claims for the Frigus, but the claims are not substantiated by any verifiable tests. I was interested in the discussion here as cityhpper's posts are just about the only ones I can find where these tires are directly mentioned, both for his Tesla and for a Polestar 2. I would be very interested to know more about his and his friends experiences, especially in relation to any "stock" winter tires that they have used before, and especially on snow and ice, where the Frigus reviews are sketchiest.

 

[cityhpper]

Season approaching for ordering next winter's tires. All-in-all would you recommend the FRIGUS over more established brands like Continental or Michelin?

In short, yes. I drive a lot on wet highways during daily commute and they are very responsive and feels planted - presumably due to the stiff shoulders/sidewalls. Feels very safe in slush as well, due to the drainage properties. Had none issues last winter when driving in the mountains, either.

For my usage, they are very well suited.

 

[Learnincurve]

Thank you cityhpper! You mentioned before that they felt gripper on uphill ice than downhill. Not sure whether that means they feel less secure on downhill ice than the standard Hakka tires, but in Stavanger we sometimes have to cope with wet ice and it's important that the car handles that.

 

[cityhpper]

Thank you cityhpper! You mentioned before that they felt gripper on uphill ice than downhill. Not sure whether that means they feel less secure on downhill ice than the standard Hakka tires, but in Stavanger we sometimes have to cope with wet ice and it's important that the car handles that.

Yes, that's a valid point. Wet ice is tricky and in my experience, studded tires are really the only performers under such conditions. In my area, they are (luckily) quite eager to sand or salt the roads as soon as such conditions are approaching. We had a few of those situations last winter and I felt that the Frigus tires did well when there was some sand present.

I have not tried the Hakka 3 or the Contact 7 on my car, so it is hard to say how they would behave on the Model S compared to the EV3 under the same conditions. But if I was to visit a ice racing track with a lot of twists and turns, I would expect the Hakkas and the Conties to have a slight edge over the EV3s - mainly based on the layout of their tread patterns.

For highway driving, as well as for driving on proper winter roads (no sand, no salt) I find the Frigus to be very trusty and safe.

 

[Learnincurve]

Yes, that's a valid point. Wet ice is tricky and in my experience, studded tires are really the only performers under such conditions. In my area, they are (luckily) quite eager to sand or salt the roads as soon as such conditions are approaching. We had a few of those situations last winter and I felt that the Frigus tires did well when there was some sand present.

I have not tried the Hakka 3 or the Contact 7 on my car, so it is hard to say how they would behave on the Model S compared to the EV3 under the same conditions. But if I was to visit a ice racing track with a lot of twists and turns, I would expect the Hakkas and the Conties to have a slight edge over the EV3s - mainly based on the layout of their tread patterns.

For highway driving, as well as for driving on proper winter roads (no sand, no salt) I find the Frigus to be very trusty and safe.

Thanks again! That's really all I need to know. I don't go ice racing, but the car needs to be able to crawl around if at all possible, even when I can hardly stand up! Any improvement in just being able to stick to the surface of the ice is an advantage then. Obviously, no friction tire is going to be as good as spikes on wet ice, but some are better than others. I have to admit that my new car will be a Polestar, not a Tesla, but I joined here as more Tesla owners have tried Frigus.

 

[ct101]

Are there any options at all yet for the Refresh S? Winter is coming here in Colorado and I see zero options for my 21s, and 19s aren’t available yet.

 

[coleAK]

Are there any options at all yet for the Refresh S? Winter is coming here in Colorado and I see zero options for my 21s, and 19s aren’t available yet.

Wasn’t the refresh mainly interior and CPU? (Except the plaid version). I had a gen 1 S and sold my winter wheels to a guy with a gen 2 when I sold my S to get the 3. My guess is any S wheels will work.

 

[ct101]

Wasn’t the refresh mainly interior and CPU? (Except the plaid version). I had a gen 1 S and sold my winter wheels to a guy with a gen 2 when I sold my S to get the 3. My guess is any S wheels will work.

Nope. Plaid and LR refresh S (2021) use the same wheels. 2021 Plaid and LR have the same body changes. The 21 arachnids are staggered and you’ll need spacers with the 19s I believe due to the increased body width. Every previous set on TSportline for example says it specifically will not fit the 2021 refresh.

 

[impastu]

Are there any options at all yet for the Refresh S? Winter is coming here in Colorado and I see zero options for my 21s, and 19s aren’t available yet.

I just ordered a mixed set of Pirelli winter performance tires from tirerack for the 19” Signature SV104 wheels in OEM size (255/45 & 285/40).

 

[impastu]

I just ordered a mixed set of Pirelli winter performance tires from tirerack for the 19” Signature SV104 wheels in OEM size (255/45 & 285/40).

Rendering courtesy of @SignatureWheel

 

[impastu]

View attachment 700165Rendering courtesy of @SignatureWheel

Suggestions on the correct TPMS OEM and product # for the refresh S?

 

[impastu]

New @SignatureWheel wheels with Pirelli winter performance tires for my pending Plaid…

 

[Doanster1]

New @SignatureWheel wheels with Pirelli winter performance tires for my pending Plaid…View attachment 709828

Nice! Puts my winter set (stock 19s Plasti Dipped) to shame. Then again, we don’t have a true winter season here in the PNW so I only swap in/out the few days needed each year.

 

[bhzmark]

It looks like the winter set on Tsportline uses square 19x10 wheels

 

[SignatureSales]

It looks like the winter set on Tsportline uses square 19x10 wheels

View attachment 710700

One size don't fits all. With Signaute, you are not stuck with one spec only. We have done plenty of 19" winter setup for Plaid owner, from square, sqaure with staggered offset to full staggered. All came down to each's preference. Hard to imaging spending $7K price tag and not able to custom build them.

 

[coleAK]

Expecting 12” tonight. Snowing already. Swapping to my Hakka’s.

 

[Daniellane]

Pretty informative & interesting…

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Pretty informative & interesting…

I'm skeptical about most things, but any social media content that has a title beginning with "The TRUTH about ..." gets double skepticism.

 

[mspohr]

Pretty informative & interesting…

Impressively rigorous testing.
"All season" tires aren't as bad as people think. They're actually pretty good for summer and (light) winter use.