Winter tires: General Altimax Arctic
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Winter tires: General Altimax Arctic
Dry grip - 4
Cornering stability when dry - 2
Light snow traction - 5
Deep snow traction - 5
Ice traction - 4
Cornering stability in snow - 4
Price (lower is cheaper) - 2
Overall - 5 (Score is not an average)
This is a studdable winter tire. I'm running them without studs as they are illegal here in IL. I bought these tires earlier this year and have about 700 on them as of right now. Finally last night the snow tire has seen all conditions and a review is in order.
Dry grip
Dry grip is pretty good. The tread is deep (12/32 instead of 10/32 for a normal all-season tire) and squirm is expected. Even though the grip is not near even my all-season tires, for a winter tire I must say that I'm impressed. Braking is predictable and little squirm there. The tire is not too loud on pavement either, yet noticeable at highway speeds especially on concrete road surfaces.
Cornering stability when dry
The exceptionally soft, heavily siped, deep tread is really squirmy. Weeks back I was driving down a familiar twisty road and could not resist some spirited driving while keeping in mind the winter tires. I wasn't pushing hard and I was already worried. Tread was flexing heavily, loads of understeer and very unstable. The tire is predictable and lets you know in advance before letting go. This was expected of a studdable winter tire and I knew before hand. No surprises there.
Light snow traction
Early yesterday night the snow began to stick to roadways. It was heavy and wet. With around half on inch to an inch of wet snow the tires stuck well. I was impressed with braking abilities of the tire. Directional tread helps, I'm sure. Getting going was also pleasant. Loads of grip when needed.
Deep snow traction
Later in the night it was colder and snow was deeper. I found an open, wide parking lot that had been partially plowed. The snow was dumped on the side and was piled to perhaps 5 inches or so. I was screwing around there and found that deeper snow traction has exceeded my expectations. I did not have a chance to try breaking in it, as the patch was rather small but getting going from the start in 1st gear was effortless and the traction control did not come on until later in the RPM range. Very impressive, especially compared to my new (at the time) all-season tires last winter. Having seen the traction provided during take-off it's safe to assume that braking in deep snow will be exceptional as well. When driving back the streets of far Northwest burbs had around 3 inches on them. I found that I easily drove the speed limit. On a particular street there is a right turn with a suggested speed of 30 (think yellow offramp signs). The speed limit is 40 on the street. I was able to take the turn w/o losing any traction at 37 mph while staying in the lane of travel. Impressive, again.
Ice traction
This one was tricky to measure. We certainly have icy conditions but generally public works does a good job with salting roads and parking lots before anyone gets there. However, a week back we had a decent amount of wet snow, which melted fast. This was accompanied by temperature falling below freezing within 30 minutes. The ground was warm and roads were simply wet by many bridges in the area froze over solid. As I came to a bride, I was about to make a right turn onto it from a red light. I started off and immediately noticed the bridge was icy. Proceeding across, the traction on the ice was impressive, considering I had to start out up the side of the bridge, which is a slight incline. Again, these tires are not studded and yet performed better than I expected. I imagine studding these will make a drastic improvement on packed snow and ice.
Cornering stability in snow
I was using the open parking lot yesterday as a testing ground. I wanted to see how fast I can go and at which angle I can turn with which speed before losing traction. These tires provide a significant improvement over all-seasons I have. The cornering is more stable at faster speeds and slower speeds. Once traction is lost it's easily and predictably regained with steering and/or throttle adjustments. Yesterday this was done on rather heavy, slippery wet snow, which is the slickest snow condition. I expect even more improvement on packed or crunchy snow when the weather is colder.
Price
One of the reasons I went with this tire was price and the other was it's ability in snow. I was willing to sacrifice dry traction and stability. The former can't be beat. At $73 per tire in the size of 205-55-16 they were a steal. This was the second cheapest tire for me on tirerack.com as well. Most others were between $100-$110. Mind you, when I went to check on this tire again on their web site three weeks after I purchased, it was already all sold out for the season, while they still had all the others.
Overall
This is an awesome winter tire with great snow and ice traction. The tire is new in the General tire line, however the tire itself is not new. It has been manufactured by Gislaved in Europe for a number of years. Continental acquired Gislaved and rebadged the tire keeping the same compound mix, and the same tread pattern. Only the name on the sidewall has changed. This tire has been used exclusively by Saab dealers before as a winter recommendation and has received high reviews in parts of Europe and U.S. It has been said that the relatively low price of the tire is completely not an indication of it's poorer performance compared to much more costly brands such as Bridgestone's Blizzaks.
This tire is cheaper and performs really well. Can't go wrong.
'19 Toyota 4Runner TRD ORP
'12 Suzuki V-Strom 650
'12 Suzuki V-Strom 650
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Re: Winter tires: General Altimax Arctic
What about the sex rating?
- AHTOXA
- Master Standardshifter
- Posts: 14693
- Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:31 pm
- Cars: '19 4RUNNER TRD ORP
- Location: Irving, TX
Re: Winter tires: General Altimax Arctic
That's not the kinda rubber you wanna use when getting jiggy. She might be hurtin' a little.
'19 Toyota 4Runner TRD ORP
'12 Suzuki V-Strom 650
'12 Suzuki V-Strom 650
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- Senior Standardshifter
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Re: Winter tires: General Altimax Arctic
Studded for her pleasure?