General Altimax Acrtic Winter Tires

[houseofbugs]

So my buddy just hooked me up with some Ice and Snow tires from General. They cost me $350 out the door and they are AMAZING!I was running Bridgestone Turanza EL400's on my steelies and they sucked in comparison. The traction for acceleration and braking is unreal. Definitely worth every penny.Here are some pics:New Tires: Getting the old ones taken off:

[Sublimewind]

night and day isn't it..

[houseofbugs]

Yeah its insane. I can't wait to use them for the ice race this weekend.

[litefoot]

What size rim and tire are you running?195/65R-15 or 205/55R-16 I’m looking to put the General Altimax Acrtic Winter Tireson my 2004 AWD Vibe for the winter too.

[houseofbugs]

I have the stock Toyota 16" steelies with TPMS and I am running 205/60R16. I am on eibach springs and they clear with no rubbing.

[litefoot]

My Vibe is completely stock; an Eibach spring lowers your car about an inch or is it more? Have you had the tires in fresh snow yet (unplowed street.)? The local tire dealer is trying to talk me into the 15 inch size. He clams that the tire is ¾ of an inch narrower and will get better traction in the snow. I don’t want to screw up my AWD or my speedometer. So I think I want to stay with the 16 inch rims.

[houseofbugs]

Quote, originally posted by litefoot »My Vibe is completely stock; an Eibach spring lowers your car about an inch or is it more? Have you had the tires in fresh snow yet (unplowed street.)? The local tire dealer is trying to talk me into the 15 inch size. He clams that the tire is ¾ of an inch narrower and will get better traction in the snow. I don’t want to screw up my AWD or my speedometer. So I think I want to stay with the 16 inch rims. I had 195/60R16 Bridgestone Turanzas on there before the Arctic's. HUGE difference in ride quality and more importantly traction. The skinniner tire theoretically will be better in the snow but I stick with stock tire width. I would go with 205/55R16 or 205/60R16. Just buy these tires you won't regret it.AS for the snow immediately after I got these I went to a un plowed Home Depot parking lot with about 2-4 inches of snow in it. The tires gripped amazingly and it's hard to get my car to slide. The AWD in the snow will be AMAZING with these tires. There is nothing better than AWD and snow tires in a fresh snow.

[star_deceiver]

Welcome to life with traction!

[BrettZ]

Quote, originally posted by litefoot »My Vibe is completely stock; an Eibach spring lowers your car about an inch or is it more? Have you had the tires in fresh snow yet (unplowed street.)? The local tire dealer is trying to talk me into the 15 inch size. He clams that the tire is ¾ of an inch narrower and will get better traction in the snow. I don’t want to screw up my AWD or my speedometer. So I think I want to stay with the 16 inch rims. I'm not sure if the smaller size would affect the AWD or not. But the effect on the speedometer is minimal since the side wall is slightly taller.The circumference of the 195/60-15 is 76.1" and the circumference of the 205/55-16 is 78.2" About a 2.7% difference. so if your going 100mph, the true speed would be 102.7mphBrett

[06pvibe]

I believe these tires are true winter tires, are they not? Do they have the snowflake in mountain symbol on the side wall of the tire? Either way, nice tires!! Good luck in the race.litefoot: If I were you and could not get a tire size w/a circumference very close to the OE rears (as stated but not verified by me, 78.2",) I wouldn't go there. The two different sizes will put strain on the AW drivetrain and could cause some serious handling issues for you as well as unwanted wear on the components.Either that, or go with four all the same size.

[litefoot]

I have decided to go with the 205/55R16 tire.I am going to get four snow tires on the car because of the AWD.I’m trying to track down some used rims at the local junk yards. May have to buy new rims, it seems getting used rims this time of year,is harder then I thought. I have one last question; I tried to find a thread on this but couldn’t . My AWD seems to send power only to the driver’s front and passenger’s rear,is this normal? I guess I’m confused, I thought AWD meant all wheels get power.Never noticed this before, but this is the first year, I’ve gotten stuck in the snow multi times,since I brought the car in 05. And it is always the same two wheels that spin.

[06pvibe]

Welcome to the wonderful world of "open differentials" where the power goes to the wheels with the LEAST amount of traction. Only way around this one, Mate is to install a limited slip, and/or locker in the rear axle, and that can get very pricey.A limited slip differential will send a percentage of power to both wheels. The percentage is predetermined by the design and set up, but they do offer outstanding traction on the slippery stuff compared to a normal open axle.A locker is usually controlled by air pressure and literally locks the LS and RS axle together so that power is equally split between them no matter what the conditions are. But this is no good for normal street conditions and will cause tire cupping as well as steering and handling troubles. That's if a locker is even available for these axles? If going new/4 new tires, get the skinniest you can because as stated before, a skinny tire will cut through the snow better. It changes the contact patch to a longer, skinnier pattern. Or to put it another way, the way the roads sees the weight of the car. Also a taller sidewall height is recommended as well, so tall, skinny 15's would be ideal.Wider tires tend to float on top reducing traction and the ability to steer the car where you want it to go.

[litefoot]

Having 4 wheel drive trucks, I understand the concept of open rears, limited slip rears and lockers.From what I was told by the dealer about the Vibe is, that in forward the left front and right rear can be driven. In reverse, the right front and left rear get driven which seems to be true in my case. And the viscous coupling sends power to the rear wheels as needs. The dealer made it sound as if the AWD would send power to all wheels if needed. I now know better then to trust everything a dealer says. And with the 15 inch rims, I’ll have to find someone on this forums, who has AWD and 15 inch rims to see there is any issues with the AWD. Tirerack recommends either 205/55R16 with a circumference of 78.2 or 195/65R15 with a circumference of 78.5 they are real close. The 15 inch would gain a ½ inch in side wall height and a loose a ½ inch in tread width.

[06pvibe]

I hope you were not offended by my post as I was not trying to be condescending. Based on your post that I was replying to I just wasn't sure how much you already knew about these systems.As for the +1/2", -1/2" difference in optional tire size, to me that's a rather significant considering the relatively small size of the OE's. If you'd ask me, and especially for winter tires I would run with that.Every little bit helps....

[litefoot]

No, I was not offended by your post. I didn’t mean to come across as being offended.I rather have someone explain in more detail, then have to ask them to explain their answer. I’m old school; My first thought was to go with the 15 inch for snows,like what you are saying. I just wasn’t sure how the AWD viscous coupling would deal with the size change. The term AWD in the Vibe world is where I’m having a problem wrapping my head around. To me AWD means all wheel have power, but it seems like in the Vibe you may have two wheels with power one in front and one in back if you’re lucky.

[06pvibe]

As long as all four tires are the same diameter/circumference there should be no problem. It will see the same thing no matter what size tires you have on the vehicle, only then your final drive ratios and speedometer will effectively be off. On the other hand, if you were for example to put smaller diameter tires on the front, the system would think there was slip there, the coupling would lock up to whatever the predetermined percentage was set at, say 50F/50R for this example, but instead of uncoupling it would be in that mode at all times. It would be overtaxed, overheat and probably burn up.The coupling reacts to the differences in driveshaft speeds, that is why using the same size/diameter tires front and rear is so important in this system. But it is not meant to be in constant all out full use.See what I mean?

[litefoot]

Yes, I get it now; it is not true AWD, but it is better then just front wheel drive.And as long as I keep the same size on all four wheels my viscous coupling will be happy.I found a thread in the forum that calculates the different in tire size, so the Speedometer will say 60 mph, but I’ll be doing 60.2 mph that’s close enough for me with 195/65R15 winter tires.

[06pvibe]

And you could get that much variation just from two of the same size tire from two different manufacturers.Actually it is a true AWD system, a very simple one, but it is not 4WD, which uses gears or more often chains and cogs in a transfer case.Good winter tires will still afford better traction using a system like this than any 2WD will... only don't expect the vehicle to stop any better.I worked for a Jeep dealer in Washington, NJ during the '80's. It always amazed me how many new Jeep owners thought they could do anything because they now had 4WD. It ain't so. But I'm sure as one of the initiated, you know that already too.

[kostby]

As an astute high school student of mine stated in 1978 (after the Blizzard of '78 in Indiana), "4-wheel-drive doesn't keep you from getting stuck. It gets you stuck in worse places."

[litefoot]

The General Altimax Arctic Tires I’m looking at have the snow flake on them so they are snow tires.It is hard for me to believe that it is a simple AWD system. But then again, now a days 4WD is a vehicle with two open rears and a transfer case. I totally agree with you about new owners and AWD/4WD. Especially after the last ice storm we had a week back or so, there was a lot of new AWD and 4WD that ate snow banks. A new owner without proper instructions about driving an AWD or 4WD can be in more danger then the same driver driving a normal vehicle in bad weather, just my opinion.