[hebs]

Hi folks -

I've scoured this forum, but couldn't find any prior discussions covering this specifically, so hoping to get some advice. I'm looking for suggestions for the best All Weather tire for the '20 Ascent Touring that I can use year round in California.

Specifically:

• I only have space for a single set of tires, do not want dedicated winter tires
• I'd like All Weather tires that do perform very well in snow
• We had Nokian WR G3 tires on our Forester, and loved these, but heard from Nokian that they don't make the right size tires in the WR G4 for the Ascent. I would love a tire that performs like this or better.
• We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but travel to Lake Tahoe and the Sierras frequently, so need something that works in a lot of snow, but not necessarily extreme cold temps since it doesn't get extremely cold often here

Would appreciate advice on specific tires that anyone has, especially if they're on par with the Nokians I wish we could buy! Thanks in advance!

John

 

[Joe Mama]

Hi folks -

I've scoured this forum, but couldn't find any prior discussions covering this specifically, so hoping to get some advice. I'm looking for suggestions for the best All Weather tire for the '20 Ascent Touring that I can use year round in California.

Specifically:

• I only have space for a single set of tires, do not want dedicated winter tires
• I'd like All Weather tires that do perform very well in snow
• We had Nokian WR G3 tires on our Forester, and loved these, but heard from Nokian that they don't make the right size tires in the WR G4 for the Ascent. I would love a tire that performs like this or better.
• We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but travel to Lake Tahoe and the Sierras frequently, so need something that works in a lot of snow, but not necessarily extreme cold temps since it doesn't get extremely cold often here

Would appreciate advice on specific tires that anyone has, especially if they're on par with the Nokians I wish we could buy! Thanks in advance!

John

Falken Wildpeak 255/50 R20 gets my vote. Quiet for an AT tire and 65K mile warranty is nice too.

 

[Jim_in_PA]

There are actually multiple threads where the all-weather category of tires have been brought up. I'm running BFG Advantage T/A Sport and am happy with them. I would normally be using the Michelin Defender LTX, but they were not available in OEM size for 20" wheels.

 

[Ty3]

We put on Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady. They are awesome! Look em up. And it sounds like you are describing them to a T. They were designed to be an all season “almost” snow tire.

Assurance® WeatherReady® Tires | Goodyear Tires

Goodyear's Assurance® WeatherReady® tire is our best all-weather tire. Buy online and get free shipping to your local dealer.

www.goodyear.com

Ours are 18’s, but they have the size for 20’s Ascent.

 

[pro10is]

The obvious choice for All-Weather tires is the Michelin CrossClimate+ or CrossClimate2.

Google CrossClimate for more details and a lot of reviews. There are also many discussions about this here in this forum.

 

[John4287]

Hi folks -

I've scoured this forum, but couldn't find any prior discussions covering this specifically, so hoping to get some advice. I'm looking for suggestions for the best All Weather tire for the '20 Ascent Touring that I can use year round in California.

Specifically:

• I only have space for a single set of tires, do not want dedicated winter tires
• I'd like All Weather tires that do perform very well in snow
• We had Nokian WR G3 tires on our Forester, and loved these, but heard from Nokian that they don't make the right size tires in the WR G4 for the Ascent. I would love a tire that performs like this or better.
• We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but travel to Lake Tahoe and the Sierras frequently, so need something that works in a lot of snow, but not necessarily extreme cold temps since it doesn't get extremely cold often here

Would appreciate advice on specific tires that anyone has, especially if they're on par with the Nokians I wish we could buy! Thanks in advance!

John

Nokian is now listing on their website (CUV/SUV) that they have the WR G4 in the 245/50R20 size but they might not be out to the dealers as yet. I have been running Nokians for 25 years and love them but tire life isn't great and some of them get noisy with age. Up to now there hasn't been much choice but both the Falkens and Goodyears are possible alternatives.

 

[hokiefyd]

The Continental CrossContact LX25 was competitive with the Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Season Plus II and the Michelin CrossClimate SUV (first version of the tire), and you'll be able to cross rotate the tires to ensure even treadwear. The Conti even beat the two others in winter testing in Tire Rack's test. It's also available at a pretty reasonable price.

Fortunately, there are a lot of great choices in the tire sizes that come on the Ascent.

 

[Ty3]

Oh, not sure if you noticed, but almost every reply will land you a new tire answer.

You really just need to research research research and then buy the “Best” tire for your needs, that you can afford.

 

[Joe Mama]

Oh, not sure if you noticed, but almost every reply will land you a new tire answer.

You really just need to research research research and then buy the “Best” tire for your needs, that you can afford.

This.

See any oil/filter thread for an example.

 

[ericjkelly]

Just put on the Toyo Open Country and LOVE them. Check them out.

 

[kevinieung]

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada where winter weather is extreme (just went through -36C/-33F this week. My car has a set of BFGoodrich Advantage TA Sport LT and they are doing pretty good for me so far. Grip is adequate and stopping distance is good as well. The only thing to watch out is if you are on an icy surface, the grip is worse than winter tires but the car's traction control will kick in fast enough to get you up to speed. I did compare them to the Goodyear Assurance at the time of purchase and find that the performance and warranty are close between the two, but the BFGoodrich tires are considerably cheaper, by about 60CAD each plus tax. The only thing I notice about the tires is as the temperature drop, the road noise will increase as well, probably because the rubber gets harder at a colder temperature. After a year of use and about 11,000km of drive, I still have 9mm of tread on the tires as per my maintenance report completed last week.

 

[hebs]

Nokian is now listing on their website (CUV/SUV) that they have the WR G4 in the 245/50R20 size but they might not be out to the dealers as yet. I have been running Nokians for 25 years and love them but tire life isn't great and some of them get noisy with age. Up to now there hasn't been much choice but both the Falkens and Goodyears are possible alternatives.

John - I saw that as well, which confused me. I contacted a number of dealers, all of whom said that their computers are showing no US inventory and no ship date for more. I then reached out to Nokian directly and they told me they don't make the WR G4 in that size. Perhaps they will start, or perhaps it's just a website mistake - not really sure.

 

[hebs]

The obvious choice for All-Weather tires is the Michelin CrossClimate+ or CrossClimate2.

Google CrossClimate for more details and a lot of reviews. There are also many discussions about this here in this forum.

Pro10is - thanks! Do you know where I can find the article that has the comparisons that you mention below? I'd love to read more.

I'm also curious - why is the CrossClimate+ or 2 the "obvious" choice? It appears that the study you shared didn't include a lot of the tires others are mentioning here, so just curious why you went with these above all of the others. Thanks so much!

John

 

[pro10is]

Pro10is - thanks! Do you know where I can find the article that has the comparisons that you mention below? I'd love to read more.

I'm also curious - why is the CrossClimate+ or 2 the "obvious" choice? It appears that the study you shared didn't include a lot of the tires others are mentioning here, so just curious why you went with these above all of the others. Thanks so much!

John

The article is from Consumer Reports online. You may need a subscription to view it.

The CrossClimate series is the obvious choice because it does everything well, wet braking, dry braking, handling, snow traction, stopping, ice traction, hydroplaning, etc. whereas other tires do some things well but fall short on other critical factors.

The very best you can hope for with any tire is that it does everything well because that is so incredibly hard to do with any tire design. Most tires exceed in one or more areas and do not do so well in others because of the limitations of their design. You had to decide what was most important to you such as snow traction or handling, then find a tire that would best match that and then live with its shortcomings. That's why there are so many types of tires.

But with the CrossClimate tires, it does everything well across the board. That is very rare, I have yet to see another tire that matches that, although a few do come close such as the Continental All-Weathers which would be my second choice. Is the CrossClimate best at everything? No, of course not, but the fact that it does so many things so well is very rare in a single tire design.

If you research the CrossClimate series, this will become clearer. Michelin made some amazing advances with this design and I feel they have set the current standard for All-Weather tires. I don't own a set yet but my son does and he says they're amazing. He uses them all year round and says they're great in the summer and winter. He used to always run snow tires in the winter but he says that's no longer necessary. Today it's ice-cold (9 degrees) and snowy. He just headed up to the mountains to go skiing with them. It costs much less and it's so much less of a hassle to run one set of tires year-round rather than swapping two sets of tires twice a year.

 

[hokiefyd]

The CrossClimate tires are directional, which means you cannot cross-rotate them as recommended in the owner's manual. To Michelin's credit, they state they'll honor treadwear warranties without the conventional cross-rotation pattern, but a same-side only rotation pattern is more likely to contribute to uneven tread wear and, perhaps more critical to your day-to-day, tread noise as directional wear patterns begin to set in. Rotating a tire to the opposite side of the car on a regular basis helps to clean up those directional wear patterns.

Directional tires can have very high levels of performance, but there are trade-offs. I'm not saying not to buy them. I'm not saying to buy them. Just be aware of all the factors before making a decision.

Full disclosure: I've been a Michelin tire buyer all my adult life and all of my current vehicles have Michelin tires (save for our Ascent, which has the factory Falkens).

 

[Stubaru]

I went with the Falken Wildpeak AT Trails on my 2019 Ascent, looked hard at the CrossClimate2 but, decided the added cost of having to mount and remount, TPMS issues they just didn't seem the way to go. I've got almost 5k on the Falkens and love them, great in the rain, snow and slush we've had here in Minnesota so far this winter.

 

[pro10is]

The CrossClimate tires are directional, which means you cannot cross-rotate them as recommended in the owner's manual. To Michelin's credit, they state they'll honor treadwear warranties without the conventional cross-rotation pattern, but a same-side only rotation pattern is more likely to contribute to uneven tread wear and, perhaps more critical to your day-to-day, tread noise as directional wear patterns begin to set in. Rotating a tire to the opposite side of the car on a regular basis helps to clean up those directional wear patterns.

Directional tires can have very high levels of performance, but there are trade-offs. I'm not saying not to buy them. I'm not saying to buy them. Just be aware of all the factors before making a decision.

Full disclosure: I've been a Michelin tire buyer all my adult life and all of my current vehicles have Michelin tires (save for our Ascent, which has the factory Falkens).

This is the one disadvantage with CrossClimate tires and it's been discussed at length before. It is a minor disadvantage and is far outweighed by the advantages. No tire is perfect, they all have disadvantages.

Rotating the tires front to back is almost as good as an X pattern. I've contacted Michelin about this and they said it would not affect the longevity or performance of the tire and they will fully honor the tread life warranty if rotated front to back.

It would be foolish to not consider this tire simply because of one minor disadvantage since all tires have various other disadvantages of their own.

 

[pro10is]

I went with the Falken Wildpeak AT Trails on my 2019 Ascent, looked hard at the CrossClimate2 but, decided the added cost of having to mount and remount, TPMS issues they just didn't seem the way to go. I've got almost 5k on the Falkens and love them, great in the rain, snow and slush we've had here in Minnesota so far this winter.

There is no need to mount and remount the CrossClimate2's, you simply rotate them front to back. I inquired about this. This is straight from Michelin and they know far more about tires than anyone here.

Reply from Michelin on rotating the CrossClimate2 tires:

Thanks for contacting the Michelin Consumer Care Team. My name is Josée and I am part of the executive team at Michelin, in regard to your case 01737344.

We would like to clarify with you that if you purchase directional tires, they will have to be rotated front to back and back to front making sure the arrows on the tires point toward the front. Your tires do not need to be removed from the rim of the tire, the tires simply need to be reinstalled in their new position.

We hope that this issue has been resolved or addressed to your satisfaction. If we can assist you further, please respond to this email or call us at 866-866-6605 (toll-free) between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday, or 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Michelin.

Sincerely,
Josée
Consumer Care Department
Certified Michelin Product Expert

 

[RobertD]

Glad to see my cheaper costing general tires did well in the test report. My wife took it to Utah after Christmas and said they worked great in the snow. She has never driven in snow before so I was glad to hear how good the Ascent with General tires worked.

 

[hokiefyd]

This is the one disadvantage with CrossClimate tires and it's been discussed at length before. It is a minor disadvantage and is far outweighed by the advantages.

It's a factor that everyone should weigh for themselves, and should be discussed when directional tires are recommended so that an informed decision can be made. Every car manufacturer recommends a cross rotation pattern when it is possible, because there are legitimate benefits to reversing the direction of rotation. Michelin says you don't have to for these tires...but they're the ones marketing directional tires to a mass market application like this (sedans and SUVs), so they do have a hurdle to climb there.