Bridgestone Blizzak WS70 Winter Tires

by Simon 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Prefect

  Hi Nathan Natas

  Great reply

  Prefect
• 

  drwtsn32

  This winter is the first time I've had anything other than all-season tires. I got winter tires pre-mounted on a set of rims along with TPM sensors direct from TireRack..... VERY happy with the selection, speed of delivery, and all that. I ended up getting studless Blizzak LM-25's as they have a Run Flat option.

  I got them a couple weeks ago and put them on myself the other weekend. Since the tires came on their own rims, it wasn't too hard at all.

  I LOVE the Blizzaks....traction is sooo much better than what I've had before with all-seasons. I have an all wheel drive car and it was pretty good with all seasons, but now it's a total monster in the snow. And being studless, they don't increase the amount of road noise on bare pavement at all from what I can tell.
• 

  Mickey mouse

  I think in Britain we will have to start using snow tyres if these harsh winters continue.
• 

  GLTirebiter

  Back in the day, when i drove w all season tires through the rockies to sky the different hills, it was actual chains

  Absolutely--more than once, I've had to pick my way around people who couldn't get up the hill because they were polishing the ice with those so-called cable "chains". They do meet the legal minimum of the chain law, but they aren't very effective. Use what mountain truck drivers use: chains.
• 

  Simon

  Do you not mean Bendy Buses?

  Yes, or "those stupid long things that can block all 3 lanes on 6th Ave" as I also like to call them :)

  Calgary and Canada cope with snow WAY better than the UK does. A guy at work couldn't believe that everything stopped when he was over there a few years ago and they had about 1cm (but that was down south, LOL).

  It's been -45 here and way below 50 with wind-chill. That was a cold day.

  Normally we're in the -10 to -20 range which is about the same cold feeling as -5 in the damper UK. The snow here is so dry it blows across the road like powder (according to my Skiing friends I'm supposed to call it "pow"). It's actually very pleasant on a sunny still day.
• 

  mouthy

  So Simon don't wanna go back to Blighty
• 

  femi94ce

  Hi!

  I am new to this community and I would like to ask Simon about his tire importing experience. I would love to order these from the same US supplier but I don't know how much to anticipate in taxes and duties on top of the shipping cost the website quoted.

  What was your experience? Any info you can share would be immensely helpful.

  Thank you!

  LAFF
• 

  Simon

  I am new to this community and I would like to ask Simon about his tire importing experience. I would love to order these from the same US supplier but I don't know how much to anticipate in taxes and duties on top of the shipping cost the website quoted.

  What was your experience? Any info you can share would be immensely helpful.

  Buying from TireRack was great and pain free. They seem geared up to selling to Canada and during the checkout gave the shipping, sales tax and import fees before completing the order. They also have local installers we could have taken them to for installation. The shipping is via UPS which was very quick (less than a week) and they came before we'd got home so they got the kids to open the garage and put them in there for us.

  I'd definitely recommend them. The tires themselves were cheaper than I could find locally but they provided everything, rims and wheel covers as well and I think the weight of the steel rims made the shipping part more expensive so it ended up about the same price (although I couldn't find anywhere local that actually had the tires and rims I wanted).
• 

  BabaYaga

  So could one leave the Winter tires on all year? What would be the drawback, lessened gas mileage? And also someone mentioned they can be noisy on the pavement...
• 

  Simon

  You could, but it doesn't make sense to for a few reasons:

  • Part of the reason a winter tire works is the software compound. They are designed for winter though and will wear faster on pavement.
  • The 'sipes' in the tire add flexibility that grip the ice and snow but these will give a slight squishy feel on dry pavement and wouldn't be as precise.
  • They will be noisier than summer / all-season tires and less economical.

  It's really worth springing the $200 for a set of steel wheels and then you can easily swap them over for summer / winter.

  Winter tires are not as costly as you imagine when you factor in that while they are on you are not wearing your regular tires which will therefore last longer. You're really only wearing out tires at the same rate but just need to invest in the extra set of rims for them.