Help..Geo's vx Nitto's?

[webdog]

The best snow tires I have tried are studless Michelin Alpin 4x4. Mine are 265/70/16. See my gallery (Snow tread). They work great in deep snow and on ice. The tread is about 8.5 inches wide.

[Chopper]

Just put huge Nitto ?Grapplers? and Weld wheels on an H2. The MOST weight required to balance any wheel was .5 oz.! One balanced out of the box!! Never in 30 years have seen anything like it. These were HUGE tires. The manager at the Goodyear shop came out to check. Nitto.... hmmmm....They got my attention.

[Cobrajet]

Last winter I ran new 285-55-18 Pirelli Scorpion Zeros. They sucked in the snow. I'm embarrased to say that I had to be pulled out of a ditch after a wheel lockup and slide down a hill. I swore I wouldn't let that happen again. I just got Blizzak DM-Z3 265-60-18 mounted on the stock rims. No snow yet, but I will post my review after a couple days of winter weather commuting.

[TechnoPope]

Three weeks ago I installed the H/T-S GO52 265/60/18 on the stock rims. This last week provided a good test of their snow capability as I drove around central and northern Ohio. Since they seem to lean toward street performance, I was surprised when they performed much better than I expected in the cold precip. In both low and high gearing, they were able to consistently clear the snow and provide solid traction. However, maybe due to their width, they slid a bit in tight corners on snow and wandered/plowed a bit in heavy slush. I was also concerned that the extra width would increase hydroplaning. Before the cold weather hit, they easily cut through some long deep puddles on the road. My dry road and highway experience was very similar to Dog's description above and in the other Geolander thread. With spirited cornering on dry pavement, they seem to have a slightly softer feel when compared to the OEM tires. I added a few more pounds of air to stiffen them up. As I expected, the handling did change as they tend to jump around more in road ruts than the more narrow stock tires. So far, these are one of the best multi purpose tires that I have owned. The wide tire and tread design look great on the VX.

Just for fun, I took my other VX out into the snow with its Kumho Ecsta shoes. I had so little control it was scary. That one will stay parked until I get some good winter tires. I look forward to hearing how the Blizzak tires perform.

[TechnoPope]

Cobrajet,
How have your Blizzaks been performing?

[mbeach]

The best snow tires I have tried are studless Michelin Alpin 4x4. Mine are 265/70/16. See my gallery (Snow tread). They work great in deep snow and on ice. The tread is about 8.5 inches wide.

I have the 255/55 r18 version of these tires. Excellent snow grip, but one tire is literally falling apart (chunking). All 4 will be gone soon. I bought the vehicle used, so I don't know what the previous owner subjected the tires to, but 3 look just fine and one looks like big dogs have been chewing on it...

Has anyone here taken a set of aggressive off-road/mud tires and had the treadblocks siped for snow use? I've advocated this process on other boards and was wondering if it had caught on here. In Alaska I ran 10" Mud Terrains during the winter -after siping the treads they were awesome (this was on a heavy F250). I've also siped all-season tires to get some winter facility out of them rather than toss them into the trash (small AWD car) -the results were well worth the time/effort.

TechnoPope -I think that I've seen you around town (by Nationwide last week) a few times. I'd like to meet up and take a look at your gas door -mine isn't seating correctly and I need a good one to look at. Oh, I live in Grandview too.

[MachineVX]

When I had my BMW, the Blizzaks outperformed the Michelin Alpines I had by quite a bit.

I desperately need to replace the stock tires and am looking for something with a road bias. Think the Geolanders 052 are how I'm gonna go. People with them, how are they for handling in the dry?

[TechnoPope]

mbeach
I sent you a PM with my numbers.

[mbeach]

<Hijack on>
Got it and responded, thanks again!
<Hijack off>

[johnny]

I have the Nitto's also and I'mm looking forward to the weekends' snow. What tire pressure are most using on the 285-60-18's Nitto's.

[ISCE]

I am running my grapplers at 38, it should be a good weekend for us to give them a good run in the snow. I've had them in light and deep mud as well as on dry dirt and they did great. I've been very happy with them and they appear to be wearing well.

[shoota77]

I got the Geo's GO52's on last week...I am very impressed with the performance across the board. Great dry traction, in light snow, etc. We're supposed to get quite the storm in boston tomorrow so i'll let you know how they handle in that...