I am currently looking to buy a new set of tires for the Outback, yet I have a few roadblocks.
-I don’t want to spend much overall, under $400 for sure after taxes/mounting.
-I NEED good deep snow traction
-I LOVE snow tires as I do a lot of driving in the Southern Tier during the winter (also moving to VT this summer and will need good snow traction because I will NEED to get thru snowstorms for school/work and TireRack has a killer deal on Blizzak WS-50’s in my size (I could get them on my car for around $350 after mounting, shipping and road hazard), but I don’t have the coin or storage space to buy a dedicated summer tire.
215/70/15 is the size. If anyone has any good recommendations, or suggestions. I drive around 20k miles a year, and would leave snowtires on from end of October thru likely the end of April while in Vermont. If I left snows on from May-October, how quickly would they be worthless?
Snows are going to wear pretty fast in the middle of the summer. Those sticky open cell compounds that allow them to grip so well in the winter are going to get greasy in the hot summer months.
Since you seem to be prioritizing deep snow traction have you considered trying to find an all terrain truck tire you could fit? The bridgestone AT Revos I have on my Expedition ride quite in the summer and are pretty much unstopable in the snow. Closest you could get to your size for that specific tire would be 225/75/15 which would be 1.4" larger in diameter knocking your speedometer off about 3mph @ 60. I’m sure there are other A/T’s that would probably be even closer.
Any passenger car all season is going to give up a lot to an all terrain or dedicated snow tire in terms of deep snow performance. Just a thought.
Thanks for the suggest Jay, I didn’t even consider an AT truck tire.
There’s Yokohama Geolander A/T-S for fairly reasonably $84 per. After tax, shipping, and mounting I’ll be a bit over $400 for all 4, but they will last and looks like they have pretty good snow traction.
Deep snow traction is important because I will likely be looking at an hour commute in Vermont, and will need to drive thru storms regardless of how bad it may be as I will be working at a ski resort, and when it dumps snow, they thrive.
I’m sure it’d fit, but it’s a bit more money than I was hoping to spend. I’m going to make some calls locally about the Yokohamas, see how the local places charge and see if it’s worth it to go to them.
An AT on the Legacy Outback could make for some fun adventures too.
Just a heads up on the Geolander AT/S. I put a set on my mom’s rav4 and on some roads they make quite a bit of noise. It really depends on the road surface, but my Revos have never made as much noise as I heard her Geolanders make.
But man will they tear through some snow on her little AWD rav.
You can print it out and try, but I doubt it. Especially not many locals will carry a Yoko AT in stock, even less in the smaller size.
These guys will probably hook you up with the mounting and balancing of all 4 for <30, especially if Jason is working (he’s the one who gave me the super deal in the linked thread). http://www.nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41001
