General Altimax Arctic

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I just bought a pair of these today (not studded) to replace a pair of Goodyear Nordics I'm fed up with. They are mounted up front and I have 2 Nordic Icetracs on the rear. I'm looking forward to trying them out when the snow and ice come.

-Spyder
 
Originally Posted By: Spyder7
I just bought a pair of these today (not studded) to replace a pair of Goodyear Nordics I'm fed up with. They are mounted up front and I have 2 Nordic Icetracs on the rear. I'm looking forward to trying them out when the snow and ice come.


What was the problem with the Goodyears? Are the Icetracs the previous CT winter tire that was similar to the BFG Winter Slalom?
 
One Goodyear had a stripped bead, and they both seemed to be wearing a lot faster than a pair of tires used only one winter should be. When the Goodyear was put back on, the mechanic mentioned there were no guarantees it would seal or remain sealed, and that when it came off again it was done for. So with the tire progressively losing air to the point it needed air daily, there was nothing to be done with it.

Its twin on the same axle was leaking badly too. It didn't seem to make much sense, from an economic or handling POV, to patch one and replace the one with the stripped with another Nordic. I preferred instead to just be rid of the problem tires, and Goodyear, completely and replace them with better Generals that are also warrantied and have road hazard coverage on them.

The rear Nordics are made by BFG (I'm pretty sure) and sold under the "Nordic" label, and are very similar to the Winter Slalom. They're older but have held up much better than the Goodyear and zero problems with them. If one started to leak I'd have it fixed as those I don't consider the same as the Goodyear where, with the short life and stripped bead on one, it was - to me - just throwing good money away to do anything but replace the pair with something better.

-Spyder
 
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Yeah, I wouldn't have bought another in that situation. The pair of Goodyear Nordics on my mother's car seem okay, but Canadian Tire did a terrible job with the studding. Maybe it's the tire. I don't know. I should have gone with the Generals.
 
The older Canadian Tire "Nordics" were made by the Michelin group. There was the Wintertrac, and exact copy of the BF Goodrich Winter Slalom. My dad had these, and while great in the snow, they were very mediocre on ice. Their other winter tire was the Icetrac. I remember when they were first introduced, a flyer stated some may be branded "Kris Alp". The Kris Alp tire is one sold in Europe by Kleber, another Michelin group company. They all ended up being manufactured at BFG plants in North America. At the time, they were pretty decent for the money.

The newer Goodyear Nordic is a Canadian Tire exclusive, based on Goodyear's European market Ultra Grip 500. Not the best choice on the market from what I've heard.
 
Got the Altimax Arctics (225/60R16 unstudded) for my Grand Marquis last Friday and they are very good so far (after a couple hundred miles). For a snow tire, the noise seems to be very minimal. I'm anxious for the first snowfall to happen so I can put the true test to them. Will keep you folks updated and thanks everyone for your input on this topic, it was a great help to me.
 
Just pushed the "Complete Order" button on a set of studded 215-65-16's for my niece's minivan from TireRack!! She's also my right hand/arm (actually, she pretty much does everything for me!!) here in the office, so I gotta' make sure she can get here every day to cover for me!!
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We use the Altimax, along with Hankook I-Pikes, on quite a few of our fleet's vehicles, and both have proven to be very functional, economical tires. The guys are given the choice of studded or non-studded - most choose non, for whatever reason.
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As long as I can get the guys to understand how important it is to rotate them properly (every OCI), we'll get about 30-40,000 miles (about 2 winters) out of them. Most of the vehicles are FWD, and they seem really picky about wear unless rotated frequently.

Winters here in SW PA are very variable - from a few inches of snow a year to a couple hundred, so we just plan for the worst and hope for the best!! At upwards of $80/hr, we don't need techs standing around waiting to get their vehicles pulled out of a ditch.
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Originally Posted By: RWEST
Just pushed the "Complete Order" button on a set of studded 215-65-16's for my niece's minivan from TireRack!! She's also my right hand/arm (actually, she pretty much does everything for me!!) here in the office, so I gotta' make sure she can get here every day to cover for me!!
thumbsup2.gif
grin.gif


We use the Altimax, along with Hankook I-Pikes, on quite a few of our fleet's vehicles, and both have proven to be very functional, economical tires. The guys are given the choice of studded or non-studded - most choose non, for whatever reason.
21.gif
As long as I can get the guys to understand how important it is to rotate them properly (every OCI), we'll get about 30-40,000 miles (about 2 winters) out of them. Most of the vehicles are FWD, and they seem really picky about wear unless rotated frequently.

Winters here in SW PA are very variable - from a few inches of snow a year to a couple hundred, so we just plan for the worst and hope for the best!! At upwards of $80/hr, we don't need techs standing around waiting to get their vehicles pulled out of a ditch.
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Can't blame you one bit and in fact I feel even better now for buying the Altimaxs after reading your post. I thought about getting the studded 215/65/16s like you got (it's the alternate size for my Grand Marquis) but I went with the unstudded 225/60/16s instead. But so far I'm very happy with the tires.
 
After a few days of driving on these, I am totally impressed. You can assuredly feel the huge difference these tires make over 3 seasons, and maneuverability, and sure footed feeling make driving in the snow/icy conditions a lot more relaxing in comparison. You can sure tell who has winters and who doesn't by the way the cars behave.
 
Update: Put on the Altimax Arctics last night. Pumped them up to 42 PSI front, 38 PSI rear. (max is 51 PSI cold) After driving about 70 miles over interstates, city streets, and country roads, these are a pretty good tire. Handling is secure, with a hint of understeer when pushed on dry pavement. The tires take a split second to respond to steering input.

At 30*F this morning, the Buick was riding like its usual airplane self. The Pirelli P4's made the same stretch of road feel washed-out in comparison, when driven at the same temperature.

One thing these tires weren't was noisy. Yes, I hear them like any snow tire. Fortunately, they're whispering, not roaring.

A verdict on snow traction will have to wait. Likely I'll find out ice traction well before snow traction, given the local weather and roads.
 
These tires have now had real winter conditions with me. I'm happy to say I'm quite pleased with their performance, likely the best winter tire I've used so far. Temperatures have been around -20C, a fair bit of snow has fallen, and lots of glare ice and black ice. Tires have phenomenal traction in snow and on cold bare pavement. On ice, either glare or black, traction is good. They can still spin or have the ABS come on, but the threshold seems to be much better than other winter tires, including the next best set I had used, which were the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 (2 generations prior to the current WS-70). If excessive ice or lots of mountain terrain are the norm for you, then consider studs with these. Otherwise, great without the studs too.
 
Update:

Today the rain we were getting changed over to snow well before the plows were prepared, so a heavy, wet slush/snow mix about 1-2" deep greeted me leaving for my afternoon obligations today. I had no trouble cutting through that mess getting around. The Buick wanted to fight steering input a little bit when crossing small mounds of this junk at highway speeds. Other than that, they just plain went. They had no trouble cutting through mounds of the slush at intersections. A little momentary wheelspin on the large mounds as they moved it away, then they went. Climbing a steep unplowed hill with previous tire tracks, they liked to get caught in the deep ruts and jerk the wheel pretty violently, but they made it up just fine. I tried to get them to slide on this stuff when it was safe, but they refused to. Likewise, they stopped very well, only kicking in the ABS when I demanded an impossibly short stop far from any traffic.

Overall, these did okay in the conditions I'll see a lot of around here. Considering the number of cars that had trouble stopping and going today before the plows were out, these are far superior to all-seasons, and okay for a snow tire. I don't like how they love following ruts and protesting when ordered to climb out of the rut.

Considering the conditions and that driving all-seasons in the same conditions is a white-knuckle experience, they did all right. I never felt the tire was being pushed to the limits of its grip or capabilities.

So far, the verdict is that they're a snow tire, and they work. I don't think they're the "greatest snow tire ever" like others in this thread have made them out to be. They are very competent snow tires with some unpleasant behaviors in deep slush.
 
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Sounds like deep slush/snow are not a strength for these tires. We tend to have a lot of hard packed snow and ice here, which they seem to do quite well with. Good to know; I won't make these a recommendation for people who live in areas with conditions similar to yours, Sciphi.
 
It could very well be these tires don't get along with my car. It may be size dependent. Keep in mind I'm running a 205/70-15 tire on a car that weighs about 3600 lbs with me, some stuff, and a tank of gas in it. So it's a tall, narrow tire on an average-weight car.

Thinking back, the Pirelli P4 all-seasons swapped out for the Generals "planed" a lot more on slushy snow than these did. It could be an issue of too much grip in these conditions.

Snow-only traction was superb. That slush, though, was tough.
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi
It could very well be these tires don't get along with my car. It may be size dependent. Keep in mind I'm running a 205/70-15 tire on a car that weighs about 3600 lbs

Mine's not that far off... 215/60/16 on a 3500 lbs car. Mine's RWD though... not sure how much difference it makes.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: sciphi
It could very well be these tires don't get along with my car. It may be size dependent. Keep in mind I'm running a 205/70-15 tire on a car that weighs about 3600 lbs

Mine's not that far off... 215/60/16 on a 3500 lbs car. Mine's RWD though... not sure how much difference it makes.


Your front wheels aren't powering and steering the car.

That being said, powering up a steep hill at 35-40 mph, not plowed except by passing cars, with deep, heavy slush, in a FWD car is about as worst-case as it gets around here for a tire. I'm sure that I would have spun out had the car been wearing all-seasons, as has happened in years past.

So they worked decently, with some unpleasantness in the worst case I'm likely to encounter here. Aside from that one incident, they've been good tires. I even took a "bad" route to work today to test the tires out, and they got through starting up a steep hill in shallow slush with zero issue.

So far I'm happy with the tires, and fairly confident they'll get me through the worst the winter has to offer.
 
What is the optimum pressure for snow tires? When it comes to traction and control? My first time with snows.

I have them at around 37/38PSI now... My door jam for my OEM tires was 35 front, 32 rear normally I believe. The tires themselves allow up to 44PSI max load. My summer tires I ran at 40PSI all around.

What pressure would be best for the General Altimax's?
 
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My wifes 2wd Sub calls for 35 all the way around, so I put 38 in them. I can't say enough about the Generals. Great, great, great winter tire. Slush, snow, ice, whatever.Throw it at me. I'm cool with it. Now I'm wishing I would have put them on the Dynasty instead of the Kelly PaceMarks that I put on there. The Sub drives like it is on rails. Oh, and both tires are studded.
 
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Originally Posted By: xBa380
What is the optimum pressure for snow tires? When it comes to traction and control? My first time with snows.

I have them at around 37/38PSI now... My door jam for my OEM tires was 35 front, 32 rear normally I believe. The tires themselves allow up to 44PSI max load. My summer tires I ran at 40PSI all around.

What pressure would be best for the General Altimax's?



Are you running the same size as OEM? If yes, then start with the sticker pressures and adjust from there IF NEEDED. Same goes for the summer - how did you conclude that 40psi is what you needed? (By the way, increasing tire pressure doesn't increase grip - it reduces the contact patch and therefore reduces grip but it can quicken the response of some kinds of tires which many drivers confuse with grip).

The sticker pressures aren't so much based on the brand of tire that came on the car, it's about the tire size, load rating and the characteristics of the vehicle in question.

It doesn't make sense to simply pop into a forum and ask what pressure are ideal for a given model of tire with that as your only data point. Did you expect to hear something like "Altimax Arctic should always be filled to 38psi, no matter what size or vehicle"?

The "correct" pressure doesn't follow the model of tire, it's a combination of vehicle character and tire size and THEN, perhaps, modified based on model or class of tire. If you're running the same size as on the sticker, start with the sticker. If you've changed to a different size then modifications will be necessary.
 
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