Snow Tire Questions for V70

MikeQ · Post by **MikeQ** » 15 Dec 2009, 07:27

Hi; I have a set of 205/55/16 Pirelli snow tires on my wagon and the grip is terrible.

My friend advised going to a 195 or even 185 profile in a 65 series but the folks at tireack.com say I have the correct tires on.

Does anyone have any advice on this subject?

Also, my mechanic has a set of snow tires from Gislaved and I am wondering if anyone has and any experience good or bad with these?

Thanks, Mike in Canada

billr99 · Post by **billr99** » 15 Dec 2009, 16:40

Yes, you do have the correct size but that is no reason not to consider going to a Minus One size to allow for a bit better grip. With that said though, I have found that it is more important to get the right tire with the right compounding and tread design. When I lived in North Bay, I had good luck with a set of high performance Pirelli snows that were 205/45-17 on an 850R. I also had great luck with a set of Nokians in the stock size on a 700 series. Now that I'm no longer in Ontario, I run a set of stock sided Gislaveds that work a bit better IMHO in the plus/minus zero C environment that I'm in now. They work fairly well on the ice we get occasionally and work well enough in 2 -5 inches of snow but don't wear quickly on the dry roads we have mostly.

Now as a counter to all of this, I ran a Minus Two setup once on a Quattro and they were horrible. The tires were cheap crap that had no grip and with the narrower profile had no lateral grip in the dry or the snow. Even AWD didn't help much with this setup. Let's just say I learned my lesson on that one.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,

Bill

MikeQ · Post by **MikeQ** » 16 Dec 2009, 15:38

Hi Bill; thanks very much for the information.

I spoke to a guy at trirerack.com and he said I would be fine with 205/555/16's. I asked about Bridgestone Blizzaks and he recommended a Bridgestone WS60 which I'm guessing is a more aggressive snow tire.

Is it a general rule that the better the grip for snow, the quicker it will wear on dry pavement?

I ask because I am on pavement 85% of the time and would hate to compromise my daily ride for the odd bad storm.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Mike