Off road Wheels and tires.

[FiestaSTdude]

The thinner tyre will bite through the snow to the dirt underneath,whereas a wide tyre will tend to 'float' on the snow.

Makes sense. But thicker tires give more grip on pavement. I guess, like a lot of things it's a trade off depending on where you drive the most.

 

[FiestaSTdude]

"For reference; I've had the Arctic 12s on the car from 3 weeks before NEFR (last weekend in July), until about 2 weeks ago, right in the heart of the hottest part of our summer here, on pavement ONLY since the rally, and they have been fine, both in handling/response, and tarmac wear, taking into consideration that they are a PURE winter tire (albeit not a soft/spongy/crazy 'brush' siped 'studless' type/labeled winter, like the X-Ices or the softer Blizzaks)."

Do you think the Arctic 12s are better on tarmac than X-ices? I am looking for a tire to use in the NC mountains and I have to drive paved roads to get there, so I need something that works for both.

This is the thread that got me addicted to this forum and I think this is my first post. I obviously didn’t know how to quote lol.
I’ve been using the arctic 12s on my car since February due to my all seasons being bald. They definitely don’t handle as well as all seasons but I can still have fun in the car with them on. Rain performance isn’t great, but unless you drive like an idiot there’ll get you around fine. I run the stock tire pressure in mine and I haven’t noticed any crazy amount of wear. Where they make the biggest difference is on gravel and bumpy roads, they ride much nicer than the low profile 17s that come stock. All in all, I will definitely be buying another pair when these wear out and if you want an all terrain/rally/snow tire, these are a good choice.
@M-Sport fan why do you run such high tire pressure? Does it help with wear?

 

[esp_martin]

This is the thread that got me addicted to this forum and I think this is my first post. I obviously didn’t know how to quote lol.
I’ve been using the arctic 12s on my car since February due to my all seasons being bald. They definitely don’t handle as well as all seasons but I can still have fun in the car with them on. Rain performance isn’t great, but unless you drive like an idiot there’ll get you around fine. I run the stock tire pressure in mine and I haven’t noticed any crazy amount of wear. Where they make the biggest difference is on gravel and bumpy roads, they ride much nicer than the low profile 17s that come stock. All in all, I will definitely be buying another pair when these wear out and if you want an all terrain/rally/snow tire, these are a good choice.
@M-Sport fan why do you run such high tire pressure? Does it help with wear?

under or over inflating your tires will only increase wear. m-sport was saying even though he over inflates he doesn't notice any advanced wear. i'm interested to read why he does it too. my guess is to increase the sidewall stiffness even more but that's just a guess.

 

[M-Sport fan]

under or over inflating your tires will only increase wear. m-sport was saying even though he over inflates he doesn't notice any advanced wear. i'm interested to read why he does it too. my guess is to increase the sidewall stiffness even more but that's just a guess.

That's part of the reason, as well as to make the side walls less susceptible to cuts when on rough gravel rally stages with sharp rocks/shale, as well as to save the outer tread blocks when on pavement (even if that sacrifices some of the center tread, since the outers are what bites into the gravel most on turns).

It also totally eliminates the risk of pinch flats on said bombed-out rally stages, which can happen at lower, seemingly more 'tractive' tire pressures.

The reason the actual rally competitors can run much lower pressures is due to gravel rally tires' crazy stiff, and multi-layered/reinforced side walls.

That being said, YES, I am running way too high a pressure in them, and will likely try lower when these are put back on the car for rally working.

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Has anyone used Continental VikingContact 7 snow tires? They got really good reviews on tire rack. I will probably give them a shot when my General Arctic 12s wear out (which if I keep using them on warm dry pavement probably won't be long lol)

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...TR5VC7XL&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

 

[FiestaSTdude]

That's part of the reason, as well as to make the side walls less susceptible to cuts when on rough gravel rally stages with sharp rocks/shale, as well as to save the outer tread blocks when on pavement (even if that sacrifices some of the center tread, since the outers are what bites into the gravel most on turns).

It also totally eliminates the risk of pinch flats on said bombed-out rally stages, which can happen at lower, seemingly more 'tractive' tire pressures.

The reason the actual rally competitors can run much lower pressures is due to gravel rally tires' crazy stiff, and multi-layered/reinforced side walls.

That being said, YES, I am running way too high a pressure in them, and will likely try lower when these are put back on the car for rally working.

This is kinda off topic but I always run slightly lower pressures when driving on gravel to help save the suspension from abuse. I think you are still on stock suspension, do you change anything else (or plan to) to improve your Fiesta's durability? As far as shocks, like I've said elsewhere I run Bilstein shocks but I wonder if there's anything else I could improve.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Has anyone used Continental VikingContact 7 snow tires? They got really good reviews on tire rack. I will probably give them a shot when my General Arctic 12s wear out (which if I keep using them on warm dry pavement probably won't be long lol)

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...TR5VC7XL&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

Continental seems to be one of the top runners in most of the “snow tire” tests, but it depends on what you want to use them for.

I ended up hunting down a set of WinterContact TS870’s from Germany, which to use the EU terminology, are a “Central European Winter Tire” (aka performance winter tire) as opposed to a “Nordic Winter Tire” (aka pure snow tire), which basically means they are less tuned for all out snow/ice, but are aimed towards having good manners in more variable conditions (dry, wet, slush, but also snow/ice). I picked the TS870 because through some sort of magic pixie dust, they both manage to be pretty good in dry/wet, but also manage to outperform some of the pure winter tires in snow and ice.

They’re difficult to find, but there’s a TS830 that’s occasionally available stateside. There’s an XL version, as well as an “SSR” or run flat version that Continental says can be mounted on normal rims. If you can find it, I think it would be an excellent off-road tire due to the stiffer than normal sidewalls and good tread design. Kind of regret not getting the SSR, but the 870 were hard enough to get as is but if I ever wear these out I may be looking for some. I think they’d be a great rally tire if they were more available outside of Europe and not so expensive. It does look like the TS830 might be available through some Nissan and BMW dealers because they’re somehow OEM tires on some cars in winter areas

For rally, as mentioned above, the Altimax Arctics seem to be a go to because chunky tread blocks and also cheap ($100/tire vs $170/tire for the Continental if you can even find them in the right size)

 

[FiestaSTdude]

Continental seems to be one of the top runners in most of the “snow tire” tests, but it depends on what you want to use them for.

I ended up hunting down a set of WinterContact TS870’s from Germany, which to use the EU terminology, are a “Central European Winter Tire” (aka performance winter tire) as opposed to a “Nordic Winter Tire” (aka pure snow tire), which basically means they are less tuned for all out snow/ice, but are aimed towards having good manners in more variable conditions (dry, wet, slush, but also snow/ice). I picked the TS870 because through some sort of magic pixie dust, they both manage to be pretty good in dry/wet, but also manage to outperform some of the pure winter tires in snow and ice.

They’re difficult to find, but there’s a TS830 that’s occasionally available stateside. There’s an XL version, as well as an “SSR” or run flat version that Continental says can be mounted on normal rims. If you can find it, I think it would be an excellent off-road tire due to the stiffer than normal sidewalls and good tread design. Kind of regret not getting the SSR, but the 870 were hard enough to get as is but if I ever wear these out I may be looking for some. I think they’d be a great rally tire if they were more available outside of Europe and not so expensive. It does look like the TS830 might be available through some Nissan and BMW dealers because they’re somehow OEM tires on some cars in winter areas

For rally, as mentioned above, the Altimax Arctics seem to be a go to because chunky tread blocks and also cheap ($100/tire vs $170/tire for the Continental if you can even find them in the right size)

Interesting, thanks for the info. I would love a run flat winter/rally tire.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Interesting, thanks for the info. I would love a run flat winter/rally tire.

So far I’ve only seen it specifically advertised from Continental - Run-Flats that work on any rims instead of only H2 “humped” rims - something to do with hoop stiffness). Might be a patent involved somewhere.

That said, supposedly a lot of OEM rims are compatible design even if they never are sold with runflats. Aftermarket rims (especially lightweight ones) are almost universally not compatible. Heavy rims meant for rally may be. As far as I can tell it has something to do with hoop and bead stiffness - runflats can work on any time, might cause longer term cracking at the bead because of the stiff sidewalls (or catastrophic rim failure in the event of being driven while flat), take all this with a grain of salt because its hard to find a straight answer on the internet.

In any case, runflats of any kind will have higher sidewall stiffness, and you *can* mount them on any rim, they just might not perform as expected or safely in their run-flat function.

Lastly, runflats tend to be only available in specific sizes for cars that were sold with runflats, which is much more common in Europe simply because you’re just never that far from a populated area. The only reason I came across it was that looking for taller tires, I found that 195/55R16 is an OEM size for some lower trim/small engine BMW/Mercedes in Europe