David Samuel - SnowyTires

Kleber Krisalp HP3 Review

The Kleber Krisalp HP3 is a pretty decent budget pick, which offers superb performance, especially in terms of road noise reduction, and snow traction. Let’s see if this tire’s for you.

Ford — Kleber Krisalp HP3 is pretty decent budget pick.

Key Takeaway

The Kleber Krisalp HP3 excels in:

Snow Traction: Featuring laterally-arranged continuous running lugs and interlocking sipes, the tire ensures optimal snow contact and superb snow scooping abilities.
Noise Comfort: Thanks to a well-engineered tread design and a special rubber compound, the tire offers reduced noise, enhancing ride comfort.
Wet Performance: Showcasing a clear directional pattern with V-shaped grooves, it provides impressive resistance to aqua or hydroplaning and effective water evacuation.

Though the tire needs improvement in terms of the following:

Ice Traction: Despite its thermally adaptive rubber, the tire lacks efficient biters and multi-directional siping, resulting in limited ice grip.
Dry Performance: The tire’s design affects its linear grip and steering feedback, leading to suboptimal handling and braking in dry conditions.
Tread Longevity: With a softer compound that is more prone to wear, the tire’s lifespan is comparatively short, delivering fewer miles on average than some competitors.

Info on Sizes: The Kleber Krisalp HP3 comes in 99 total sizes, in 14 to 20 inches rims, with T and H speed ratings, and all sizes having 10/32″ tread depth. Moreover, they all have SL/XL load ratings, and range 16 lbs to 32 lbs, in terms of weight.

Also Note: Since the tire offers best float speeds (resistance to hydroplaning), I added it to my list of top winter tires (stud-less), check it here:
https://snowytires.com/best-studless-winter-tires/

Tire Construction

The Kleber Krisalp HP3 comes with a very streamlined directional tread pattern.

Kleber HP3 — Kleber Krisalp HP3 has reinforced foundations underneath all the lugs.

Each lug acts as a single unit here, that goes from one end to another.

So you can say it’s a dual rib design, where there are just shoulder lugs meeting together in the middle.

Towards the middle area of the tread, one can clearly see how all lugs are placed on a secondary rubber layer.

Moreover, here sipes are linear and laterally oriented.

Though towards shoulders, they change into wave-like interlocking patterns.

Moreover, these shoulder lugs are also characterized by thick in-groove notches.

And yes, there are longitudinally oriented notches on these outer lugs’ area as well.

Tread Longevity

When it comes to tread longevity, a lot of factors have to be considered, including tire’s weight, tread compound and tread design.

And looking at all of them, one can see why the Kleber Krisalp HP3 is pretty lacking here.

Though the tire keeps its weight in check, and comes generating just an average rolling resistance, relatively, its softer compound is very prone to wear.

So at best, the tire is only able to give you 30k miles overall, on average.

Moreover, I’d like to add that, as the tire wears down more easily, it isn’t able to provide you with as much overall value. I mean there are better budget picks out there, and out of them, the one providing the most value is Barum Polaris 5 (review).

Overall Winter Performance

Tire efficiency during winter is largely determined by its aptitude on two primary terrains: ice and snow. And in both the tire’s design and material compositions are critical factors to consider.

Let’s check both of them out.

Snow Traction

For snow-covered roads, a tire’s efficacy lies in its ability to form snow-to-snow contact, while excess snow is scooped out of the way.

That’s why with (laterally-arranged) continuous running lugs, the Kleber Krisalp HP3 offers one of the best acceleration performance (in its budget friendly category of winter tires).

They offer superb snow scooping abilities, throwing back snow particles, generating forward momentum.

Moreover, the tire offers interlocking sipes on its shoulders, engineered to provide you with proper snow contact (which is a big deal, as snow doesn’t stick so well with rubber).

This offers you with pretty decent overall snow handling, relatively speaking.

Ice Traction

Tires designed for icy conditions incorporate specialized rubber compounds and biters (on their treads).

Since ice relatively has the lowest friction of all (terrain types), the overall tire’s grip relies predominantly on these elements to maintain vehicular stability and control.

Having said that, although the Kleber Krisalp HP3 offers a great thermally adaptive rubber, which keeps its biters pretty soft and flexible, its still isn’t able to provide you with good enough ice traction (relatively, comparing other winter tires).

That’s because the tire doesn’t offer efficient enough biters, to begin with. It’s tread lacks the multi-directional/angled biters highly needed here, and only comes with linear siping, (mostly towards the middle).

And although the tire does offer interlocking sipes on shoulders, they again with single angle/orientation aren’t effective to provide decent ice bite.

And besides, they are mainly designed for snow grip, instead, as already discussed.

So overall, the Krisalp is pretty lacking, when it comes to ice performance.

Overall Wet Performance

Wet performance is largely determined by a tire’s tread design and rubber composition, both of which are crucial for displacing water and maintaining grip on wet roads.

Now the Kleber Krisalp HP3 showcases advanced tread features good enough for these conditions.

First off, it forms a clear directional pattern with it’s V shaped grooves, and interconnects them laterally in a way, so that water from the middle could effectively evacuate out towards the shoulders and out of the tread.

So you get one of the best float speeds and overall resistance to aqua or hydroplaning.

While the design efficiently evacuates most of the water, the sipes play a role in managing residual moisture. These sipes act like mini vacuum cleaners, drawing in water particles.

However, their uniform (laterally arranged only) angles limit their effectiveness in providing comprehensive wet traction and multi-directional grip.

Although the tire comes with a soft rubber composition, its linear siping design tends to restrict flexibility during cornering (for the most part), resulting in reduced response times and lateral grip.

Nonetheless, it performs reasonably well in straight-line wet grip, as indicated by its braking distances.

Side Note: Out of all winter tires in the category, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 (review) is pretty great. Though its also been replaced with PA5.

Dry Performance

While wet and winter performances are crucial, dry traction remains an integral aspect of tire efficiency too. This traction is influenced by the extent of rubber contact with the road and encompasses both grip and tire’s steering response/handling.

Let’s check all these dimensions.

Dry Linear Grip

Linear grip is the tire’s traction when it moves in a straight line. And it relies on the central tread’s contact with the road. Moreover, as this grip is directional it’s measured by tire’s braking efficiency.

Having said that, it makes sense why the Kleber Krisalp HP3 here is pretty lacking here, I mean relatively, comparing others in its category.

But why is that happening, even though the tire features lighter structure with reinforced foundations (adding to its on-center feel).

Well, this has to do with the tire’s relatively more voided up design, with laterally arranged lugs. It’s simple really, as with laterally arranged voids, the tire isn’t able to make proper contact with the road, as it rolls straight, leading to limited overall grip.

Lateral Grip And Steering

Dry handling combines lateral traction and steering feedback. The tire’s shoulder lugs determine its lateral grip since they interact more with the road during turns, while steering comes by a lot of variables.

Now, in terms of grip, the Kleber Krisalp HP3 is actually pretty great, offering decent values, as seen by its lateral g forces generated (on average).

However, overall the tire still comes below average when it comes to overall handling.

But why? Well, this has to do with it’s lacking steering feedback.

Actually, the tire comes with a pretty relative softer tread, causing lugs to flex more as the tire corners. This leads to lagging and vague steering, especially when it comes to mid-cornering feedback.

Moreover, with slower braking, the tire also takes more time slowing down before entering the corners, hurting its overall handling scores.

Fuel Economy

Fuel efficiency in tires is influenced by their weight and traction characteristics.

But why? Well, heavier tires with significant tread gaps experience more lug flexing during motion. This flexing consumes energy that could otherwise be used for rolling, leading to increased energy demands and reduced fuel efficiency.

Now, the Kleber Krisalp HP3 doesn’t carries a lot of weight, and has all its lugs backed up by foundational supports. Moreover, there aren’t a lot of in-groove notches and multi-angled biters, as mostly seen on other winter tires.

So although the tire generates less overall grip (on dry), it pays you back (literally), with its economical fuel consumption instead.

So the Krisalp is a pretty average tire, in terms of its fuel consumption.

Noise Comfort

Tread design influences the acoustics of a tire a lot, where the size of tread voids are directly correlated with the amount of noise generated.

But that’s not really the case when it comes to Kleber Krisalp HP3, as the tire offers a pretty well engineered design, where air particles although enter through the voids of shoulders, don’t get to hit around the tread walls (which generates noise to begin with).

Instead those grooves are streamlined in a way, that most of the air just pass by without impacting.

Moreover, the tire also features special rubber compound, which diminishes in-groove resonance as well.

To Conclude

The Kleber Krisalp HP3’s performance across various terrains and conditions reveals a mixed bag.

In terms of winter performance, although the tire shines on snowy terrains, lacks with its below-average performance on ice, mainly because of its lack of biters.

These lacking biters also can’t provide this tire with ample wet traction as well. Though the tire’s effective directional pattern do offer superb resistance to aquaplaning, that’s for sure.

Moreover, its dry performance is also not impressive, where although its lateral grip is decent, the tire falters in terms of linear grip and steering feedback, leading to subpar handling.

Moreover, its softer compound also lacks in terms of tread longevity, decreasing its overall value.

Though on the positive note, the tire offers above average fuel economy and one of the quietest ride, when it comes to budget-friendly winter tire category.

Pirelli Scorpion Winter vs Winter 2

Both Pirelli Scorpion Winter and the Winter 2 are the superheroes of the winter tire domain, where the updated model shows-off even better abilities to combat the toughest icy conditions. Let’s check out the differences of both tires.

Key Takeaway

The Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 takes the lead when it comes to:

Superior traction on icy terrain due to its unique tread design and aggressive siping pattern.
Extended tread life attributed to its lighter structure, reducing wear.
Enhanced performance in both dry and wet conditions, particularly in terms of directional grip, handling, and resistance to hydroplaning.
Better fuel efficiency due to reduced rolling resistance.
Greater overall ride comfort due to noise reduction and a smoother ride.

On the other side, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter:

Faces challenges under icy conditions because of larger tread voids and fewer notches.
Tends to wear faster because of its heavier weight and larger tread voids.
Although it exhibits excellent snow performance due to its aggressive tread pattern and spacious structures, it falls short in comparison to the Winter 2 in other conditions.
Is less fuel-efficient because of greater rolling resistance values.
Provides a softer ride due to its rubber compound but is outperformed in overall comfort by the Winter 2.

Ice Performance

In terms of performance on icy surfaces, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 excels, showcasing its unique and sophisticated tread design that features a combination of different-sized angled slits and snow vices, setting a high standard in the tire industry.

This tire’s performance is further amplified by its aggressive siping pattern, which enhances braking distances and vehicle handling by providing additional biting edges, thereby improving its traction on icy terrain.

On the other hand, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter struggles to perform under icy conditions due to its larger tread voids and fewer notches.

Its primary tread area struggles to maintain a firm grip on compacted ice, while the absence of multi-directional sipes reduces its overall performance on ice.

While the tire does offer good enough inter-connectivity of the lugs to enhance traction on highly icy surfaces, it just can’t offer the same amount of grip as its successor.

And it makes sense since the Winter 2 is so much more biting in comparison, so it offers better overall ice performance, where its excels in all, directional ice grip/lateral traction, and steering response.

Tread Life

The lifespan of a tire’s tread is significantly influenced by the tire’s weight and its tread design.

The Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 stands out for its excellent tread life, largely attributed to its lighter structure, which reduces the force exerted on the rubber during road contact, thus prolonging tread wear.

On the contrary, its predecessor carries a heavier weight and features a design with larger voids.

This means, there’s an increased weight in the first place, and since that weight is distributed over a smaller surface area of rubber, each lug ends up getting more stress.

This stress causes the tread to rub against the road/surface with greater friction, thereby accelerating tread wear.

As a result, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter tends to wear faster compared to its counterpart.

Dry Traction

In dry conditions, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 performs better in terms of directional grip and handling, which are the two primary aspects of dry performance.

The tire’s directional grip, largely determined by the central tread area, offers a more streamlined lug design with the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2, providing consistent road contact for improved braking and acceleration.

If you consider it’s tread pattern again, you can see how its more streamlined in comparison, and has fewer voids, allowing for greater connectivity with the road, resulting its grip.

And with a more streamlined directional pattern, it shifts its weight towards shoulders better, as the tire corners.

This effective weight shifting allows for faster steering response, where the tire’s lighter weight in the first place is already helping the overall steering dynamics a lot.

In contrast, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter, despite its wider grooves, carries additional weight that may induce lug movement during cornering, diminishing steering feedback and negatively affecting handling.

So overall the newer tire is better in terms of overall dry performance as well.

Snow Performance

Both tires exhibit excellent performance in snowy conditions, but closer testing with them, reveal some unexpected results.

Now interestingly, although the Pirelli Scorpion Winter is a older tire here, it still has a slight advantage due to its aggressive directional tread pattern, amplified by lugs with spacious structures that effortlessly capture loose, fluffy snow particles.

Moreover, the tire’s numerous snow vices and interlocking grooves aid in trapping snow, providing better ground contact, given that snow adheres more readily to itself than to rubber.

In comparison, the newer tire’s design is more compact and lacks an interlocking groove structure, restricting its ability to gather as much snow as its competitor, thereby slightly compromising its snow performance.

Though the tire does offer better snow acceleration in comparison, where it’s proper V shaped lugs act as snow shovels, throwing snow backwards generating forward motion.

But yes, overall scores, from my tests, are better on the predecessor, the Scorpion Winter.

Wet Traction

The ability of a tire to maintain a firm grip on wet surfaces is largely influenced by the rubber compound it uses and its tread design. These two factors significantly impact the overall wet performance, which consists of two primary components – wet grip and hydroplaning resistance.

Let’s check them both.

Wet Gripping

Similar to dry conditions, wet grip depends on the amount of rubber that makes contact with the road. However, water forms a barrier that prevents full tread-to-surface contact, necessitating the removal of this water layer.

This removal is facilitated by the tire’s grooves and sipes. While grooves channel out most of the water, providing resistance to hydroplaning (discussed further down), sipes handle the remaining water particles at a micro level.

In the case of the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2, greater number of sipes, and its design offering more multi-angled notches provide superior grip.

These biters act as water contains on wet roads, where they suck up water, and clear the road relatively, so that rubber can grip on.

This way, water does not come in the middle, and the tire does not float. This is actually the very definition of hydroplaning.

Resistance to Hydroplaning

Now both tires are great here, whey they both provide decent hydroplaning (or tire’s floating) resistance, displaying remarkable float speeds in both straight and curved water tests. (Float speed refers to a tire’s speed over standing water).

But still, as this resistance comes form the effectiveness of grooves, the overall scores are better on the newer tire.

I mean even though the predecessor is more voided up, the Winter 2 has better inter-connectivity of its grooves, where, if you consider its tread again, you’d note that all it’s V shaped grooves are joined up with each other, with the help of slanted longitudinal slits.

This allows for more water displacement in all directions, contributing to overall wet performance too. As more water leaving via grooves, means less would be there for biters to suck up.

So the Pirelli Scorpion 2 offers better wet traction and resistance to hydroplaning, compared to its predecessor.

Fuel Efficiency

Fuel efficiency in tires is intrinsically linked to rolling resistance, which is affected by traction and the tire’s weight.

This is because heavier tires, for example, with larger tread voids tend to have more flex during cornering, braking, or acceleration, requiring more energy.

And since this characteristic is notably seen in the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2, you get to see slightly better mpg readings on this tire.

In contrast, the predecessor, with its less streamlined and aligned ribs, creates greater rolling resistance values.

And so the Winter lacks in overall fuel efficiency compared to Winter 2.

Ride Comfort

A tire’s comfortability is a balance of several factors, including road noise, vibration dampening, tread pattern, and sidewall design.

Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 has a minor advantage in noise reduction due to its compact tread design, which minimizes noise generation by reducing air circulation within the voids.

Furthermore, its lighter weight ensures quicker response times and a smoother ride.

However, Pirelli Scorpion Winter offers superior comfort due to its softer rubber compound, absorbing road irregularities more effectively.

But since the bumps are more controlled on the newer tire, the Scorpion Winter 2 ends up getting greater overall scores, in terms of ride comfort.

Concluding Words

So overall, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter 2 outperforms its predecessor in several areas.

On icy terrains, it showcases superior grip and handling due to its unique tread design and aggressive siping pattern.

In terms of tread life, the Winter 2’s lighter structure significantly prolongs wear compared to the heavier, stress-prone predecessor.

In dry conditions, it offers enhanced grip, handling, and steering dynamics.

And although the older Scorpion Winter edges out the successor in snow performance with its aggressive directional tread pattern, the Winter 2 rebounds in wet conditions with improved grip and hydroplaning resistance.

Fuel efficiency is also superior in the Winter 2, thanks to its reduced rolling resistance.

Lastly, while both tires offer comfort, the Winter 2 narrowly surpasses its predecessor in noise reduction and ride smoothness, despite the older model’s softer rubber compound that absorbs road irregularities better.

Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra Review

With Goodyear’s WinterCommand Ultra, winter roads become less daunting. Let’s start things off, with this tire’s main highlights.

Winter Tire Comparison — The WinterCommand Ultra is one of the quietest options, when it comes to winter tires.

Main Highlights

The Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra is pretty good when it comes to:

Bump absorption and ride smoothness.
Efficiently channeling away water to reduce hydroplaning risks.
Snow traction, rivaling some of the top winter tires.

Though the tire lacks in:

Wet grip and handling.
Optimal performance on dry conditions, especially in braking.
Ice traction, particularly when compared to competitors in its price range.

Info on Sizes: Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra comes in 15 to 18 inches, where all sizes have speed ratings of H only, load ratings of SL and XL, tread depth of 11/32″ (on all), and weight ranging from 18 pounds and going up to 28 lbs.

Also Note: Since the tire is one of best in terms of noise comfort, I added it to my list of top studless winter tires.

Tire Construction

The Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra comes with a directional tread pattern.

It’s tread is clearly divided up in to two sections, with the help of outer 2 circumferential grooves.

Here the outer ribs, or shoulder blocks, (notably the largest), showcase keen chamfered edges while preserving a siping pattern akin to the central lugs.

Moreover, their outer edges (sidewalls), showcase unique T-shaped biters.

Moving towards the middle, lugs seem segmented, but closer inspection reveals that, they have in-groove notches rather than full-depth cuts.

These central lugs effortlessly merge with the adjacent blocks, culminating in a sharp V-shaped design.

And these blocks are further enriched with a ton of interlocking sipes arranged laterally.

Comfort Performance

Tire comfort hinges on two pivotal factors: the ride’s smoothness, which relates to stability and the capacity to absorb road irregularities, and its noise levels across varied surfaces.

These attributes are shaped by the tire’s construction, specifically its rubber composition, tread pattern, and sidewall design.

Let’s discuss both these factors.

Bumps Absorption

When it comes to handling bumps, tires, being the primary interface between the vehicle and road irregularities, play a crucial role alongside the vehicle’s suspension.

And here, a tire’s proficiency is determined by its absorption capabilities and overall stability.

Now the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra excels in this area, where its performance is mainly due to its generous tread depth, combined with well engineered tread rubber, which although offers the needed pliability, also ensures tire’s overall stability.

So road shocks/bumps aren’t just soaked up by its compound, but are also controlled as well.

Noise Comfort

The tread design significantly affects a tire’s noise levels, where typically, larger tread gaps lead to increased noise due to air colliding with tread walls.

However, the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra defies this norm, where its well engineered design ensures that while air enters the shoulder voids, it doesn’t collide with the tread walls, a primary noise source.

This design ensures the smooth passage of air, minimizing disturbances.

Furthermore, the tire incorporates a specialized rubber compound that reduces in-tread sound resonances.

Wet Performance

Tire performance on wet surfaces largely depends on the tire’s design and rubber composition.

These factors are engineered to ensure effective water displacement from the tread, which in turn guarantees superior wet grip and reduces the risk of hydroplaning.

Let’s check both these out.

Resistance to Hydroplaning

Hydroplaning occurs when water interrupts the tire’s contact with the road. To understand this, you must first know the main property of water, that it’s not compressible. So if it isn’t effectively channeled away, it forms a barrier, leading to traction loss.

Now all tires typically combat this with grooves, which guide water away, thereby diminishing the chances of aquaplaning (another word for it)

Having said that, the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra is notably proficient here, as it efficiently dispels water, maintaining great float speeds.

Its unique directional tread pattern, marked by squared central lugs, forms channels in multiple directions, allowing for swift water evacuation.

Moreover, the tire features a well crafted contact patch that exerts added pressure on water, pushing it out with greater force.

Thanks to this design, most of the water is skillfully directed through the grooves, leaving minimal work for the sipes and thus enhancing its wet performance.

Wet Grip

The sipes in a tire handle the residual water not cleared by the grooves.

However, the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra falls slightly short in this department.

While its grooves are effective, its sipes, owing to their relatively stiffer rubber composition, don’t provide optimal wet traction. (This is one of the tire’s few shortcomings).

Despite featuring interlocking sipes, the tire lacks multi-directional angles, crucial for multi-angled grip. And this negatively affects its wet handling capabilities and steering responsiveness.

However, it’s essential to note that when compared to other tires in its category, the difference is evident, but the tire still delivers a reasonable performance.

Fuel Economy

A tire’s fuel efficiency hinges on its weight and traction, both crucial determinants of rolling resistance.

To illustrate, a heavier tire with pronounced tread voids often undergoes greater lug flexing during maneuvers due to the increased pressure exerted on the lugs.

This flexing diverts energy from the actual motion of the tire, leading to energy wastage (in the form of heat, for the most part).

However, the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra, designed with streamlined and aligned ribs, does a decent job here, leading with its limited rolling resistance.

Even so, there’s room for enhancement in its overall fuel efficiency I feel, especially when you consider its XL (load rated) sizes.

Dry Performance

While the efficiency of tires on wet and snowy roads is vital, their performance on dry surfaces, influenced primarily by the rubber’s contact with the road, is equally paramount.

This contact determines the tire’s grip and its steering response and handling.

Let’s check all these dimensions.

Dry Linear Grip

Linear grip pertains to the tire’s traction as it moves straight forward. This grip depends on the central tread’s contact with the road and is indicative of the tire’s braking efficiency.

In this context, the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra exhibits certain limitations, especially when compared to other tires in its category.

Now it seems odd, that the tire lacks here, especially when you consider that its a lighter structure, having reinforcements under all lugs.

But the thing is the tire features more void ratio, with its laterally arranged lugs. Simply put, this lateral arrangement prevents optimal road contact as the tire rolls straight, resulting in compromised grip.

So you get below-average braking on this tire.

Dry Handling and Steering

A tire’s overall handling combines its grip with its lateral stability, (crucial for sharp responsiveness).

And here, while the Goodyear’s tire offers you with respectable lateral traction (as seen from its decent overall g-force readings), it still ranks below its peers. This shortfall is primarily attributed to its deficient directional grip.

So the tire comes with good enough lateral grip and steering response, but its slower braking renders corner entry sluggish.

Likewise, its less effective acceleration also affects its performance as it exits corners.

Thus, in terms of dry handling, the WinterCommand Ultra finds itself lagging behind its direct competitors.

Snow Traction

Snow traction revolves around a tire’s ability to penetrate, secure, and subsequently shed accumulated snow in/from its tread.

In other words, a good tire here would provide decent snow-to-snow contact, and create positive momentum, scooping up the snow.

And that’s exactly what the WinterCommand does here.

The tire offers interconnected grooves which ensure substantial and effective snow-to-snow contact, enhancing traction. Moreover, its directional pattern is pretty great at throwing snow backwards, getting decent overall acceleration.

To put it in perspective, its snow braking and handling is parallel to some of the best winter tires in the market.

For Your Info: Out of all it’s direct competitors, the Michelin X-Ice Snow (review) offers the best overall snow performance.

Tread Longevity

The lifespan of a tire’s tread is closely tied to two factors: rolling resistance and tread depth.

But how are they related?

Well rolling resistance is the obvious one.

While with greater tread depth, a tire would take longer to reach down to the point of needing replacement.

Though one thing to note here, is that, too much tread depth also increases rolling friction, and heat, ironically.

Now the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra delivers a very average performance here, for a winter tire.

It although doesn’t offer any treadwear warranty. Yet, users can anticipate a reasonable mileage of around 35 to 40k miles from this tire without compromising on traction.

(And that’s a pretty good number if you ask me).

Ice Traction

Ice traction reflects a tire’s ability to adhere to and maneuver on exceptionally slippery ice surfaces. Considering the inherently slick nature of icy roads, which offer limited natural friction, you need right tires here, with soft rubber compositions and superior tread designs with biters.

Now, although the Goodyear Ultra is not too bad here, as a winter tire, its performance is still average, which should not be the case, given its price tag, I mean.

The tire notably lacks multi-directional siping and biters, essential for maintaining grip during icy cornering.

So unlike competitors such as the Blizzak WS90 (review), (which gives superior ice grip with its advanced siping strategy), the Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra delivers just an okay overall ice performance only.

To Conclude

The Goodyear WinterCommand Ultra showcases a mixed bag of performance across varied terrains and conditions.

Starting with comfort, it stands out with excellent bump absorption, ensuring a smooth ride, and an innovative design that reduces road noise.

On wet surfaces, it efficiently channels away water, diminishing hydroplaning risks. However, it could use some improvements in the wet grip department.

For dry conditions, its performance is below average, where the main culprit is its lacking linear grip.

For winter conditions, the tire does great in terms of snow traction, still can be improved in terms of ice.

Lastly, as the tire generates less rolling resistance, its overall tread life and fuel economy is doing okay.

Nexen WinGuard Sport 2 vs Winspike

Nexen WinGuard Sport 2, known for its superior snow traction, and Nexen Winspike, celebrated for its impressive performance on icy roads, are set to compete. Who will reign supreme in this winter tire showdown? Let’s find out!

Mercedes — Winspike is better in dry braking.

Key Takeaway

The Nexen Winguard Sport 2 takes the lead when it comes to:

Wet Traction: Showcasing superior grip with its better siping design. Moreover, it exhibits impressive hydroplaning resistance owing to its well-interconnected grooves too.
Snow Performance: The Winguard’s design ensures better snow-to-snow contact, excelling at displacing heavy snow. This design aids in forward progression by pushing snow backward during rotation, making it a preferable choice for snowy terrains.
Comfort Levels and Tread Life: The Winguard offers a quieter ride due to its smaller tread voids. Its comfort performance stands out thanks to its superior shock absorption abilities, resulting from a softer rubber and greater tread depth. In terms of tread life, it promises longevity because of its closely spaced lugs and greater tread depth.

On the other side, the Nexen WinSpike shines in the following areas:

Dry Traction: Particularly in directional grip, the WinSpike has a continuous central rib, ensuring superior braking distances and unbroken contact with the road.
Handling: Though WinGuard has better grip, the WinSpike’s lighter construction gives it an edge in handling performance, resulting in faster lap times and better communication properties in steering.
Ice Performance: The WinSpike consistently outperforms in icy conditions, presenting shorter braking distances and exceptional acceleration, attributed to its lighter weight and the added feature of stud-able lugs.

Also note that, both tires offer similar fuel economy, where they perform comparably, with neither standing out as significantly better than the other.

Wet Traction

When it comes to the wet traction of a tire, two key facets come into play: the tread design and the rubber compound. These components largely determine the tire’s grip and its resistance to hydroplaning. Let’s delve into each of these characteristics.

Wet Grip

While both tires are adorned with ample siping and flexible tread rubber, the Nexen Winguard Sport 2 distinctly outperforms when it comes to grip.

This tire is equipped with a dual siping design, exhibiting a varied mix of rectilinear and interlocking sipes.

As you can see the linear longitudinal slits, with the wavelike siping pattern, throughout the tread.

For those unfamiliar with the term, sipes work by drawing in water particles, thereby allowing the biters to grip onto the somewhat dried surface, with dual siping designs offering superior performance.

Moreover, see how the shoulders and central lugs have multiple angle orientations when it comes to siping.

These basically provide grip in all directions, meaning, it can be used to explain why the tire offers better directional and lateral wet grip in comparison.

Moreover, the tire also has one another advantage too, its superior hydroplaning resistance. Let me explain this in the next section.

Nexen Winspike offers wider circumferential grooves.

Hydroplaning resistance

Hydroplaning transpires when water prevents the tread from making proper contact with the road.

This phenomenon can cause the tire to slightly lift off the surface, leading to a complete loss of traction, which is, needless to say, a hazardous situation indeed.

Now this resistance depends on grooves ability to throw water out.

And among the two, the Nexen Wnspike although offers wider grooves, especially when it comes to outer circumferential channels, the Winguard is still better in overall hydroplaning resistance, as seen by its greater float speeds.

So why is that?

Well, the answer lies in the fact that the WinGuard offers better inter-connectivity of its grooves, plus a more streamlined directional pattern.

See how lateral slits join up with the V shaped grooves. These basically provide this tire with faster water evacuation properties.

Moreover, the tire also has the advantage of greater tread depth, and with that more volume of water goes out at a given time.

So overall wet performance is superior on Nexen Winguard Sport 2.

Dry Traction

Dry traction comprises two aspects: directional grip and handling. Let’s explore these individually.

Directional Grip

Dry grip primarily depends on the central tread area, as it forms the majority of the contact with the ground. In this regard, the Nexen Winspike reigns supreme.

This tire features a continuous central rib, ensuring unbroken contact between the tire and the road, which results in superior braking distances, a key measure of directional grip.

I mean sure, it more voided up with its outer circumferential grooves, but its central area is still more packed up, and that allows it to brake quicker.

Nexen Winguard Sport 2 on the other hand, although is not voided up, lacks with its greater weight. This is because it creates greater momentum, which is not easier to stop, relatively.

So overall WinGuard is lacking to its counterpart, when it comes to directional or straight line grip.

Handling

The tire’s lateral traction or cornering capabilities hinge largely on its shoulder lugs. Two factors are considered here: how well the lugs connect with the ground as the tire turns, and the extent to which the lugs bend during this maneuver.

In other words, for optimal handling, you need lateral grip and superb/clear feedback from your wheels.

Now the WinGuard excels in terms of grip, and it makes sense, looking at its more packed up shoulders, but overall handling performance is still better on its counterpart.

This has to do with weight.

The Nexen WinSpike with its lighter construction, basically causes its lugs to stay more composed, and that offers better communication properties in terms of its steering.

That’s why overall the Winspike takes the lead, as seen by it’s faster overall handling lap times.

Snow Performance

Both tires exhibit remarkable performance in fluffy snow. And they both have great features contributing to that.

Both of them offer well engineered voids, primarily formed by in-groove notches that trap snow particles, thereby enhancing snow-to-snow contact. The trapped snow forms the contact patch with the ground as the tire rotates, improving traction, as snow sticks better to itself than to rubber.

Though still, the WinGuard takes the lead here, where it’s greater relative weight, putting down more pressure on the lugs, provide better snow to snow contact.

And in terms of acceleration, the Nexen Sport 2 with its streamlined sweeping V-shaped lugs excel at displacing heavy snow, aiding forward progression by pushing the snow backwards during rotation, much in line with Newton’s third law.

On the other hand, the WinSpike comes out with longer braking distances and handling times on snowy terrains, and that can be attributed to its less efficient in-groove notches, which fail to offer ample snow-to-snow contact.

Moreover, the absence of sweeping lugs further impairs its performance by eliminating the plowing effect.

So overall, its a win for WinGuard.

Tread Life

Tread longevity is substantially influenced by rolling resistance, a direct byproduct of the tire’s weight and rubber composition.

Now even though the Nexen Winguard is a heavier tire, and technically, it should put more pressure on the lugs, as they rub against the surface.

The tire still wears down slower, due to two main things.

One, it’s lugs aren’t spaced apart as much, especially towards shoulders, and so each of the tread blocks, still ends up getting less weight on them.

Moreover, its greater tread depth takes longer to reach down.

So in terms of tread longevity, WinSpike is lacking behind its rival here.

Ice Performance

When navigating icy terrains, the Nexen WinSpike steals the spotlight, consistently delivering shorter braking distances and exhibiting superior acceleration.

This can be attributed to its lighter weight, creating less momentum, which is easier to stop.

And that directly affects the handling, since entering the corner, requires drivers to slow down.

Moreover, the tire also has the additional advantage of stud-able lugs, missing in the WinGuard.

So overall, WinSpike ends up getting more scores, in terms of ice performance.

Comfort Levels

Tire comfort is largely determined by factors such as road noise and vibration absorption. These attributes are shaped by the tire’s construction, the materials used, tread pattern, and sidewall design, which ultimately determine the smoothness of the ride, especially during cornering.

Noise, essentially the result of air particles colliding with the tread walls, tends to increase with a voided tread. Hence, with its smaller tread voids, the Nexen Winguard Sport 2 leads in this department, offering a quieter ride.

Moreover, the tire also offers better shock absorption abilities too, since it has a softer rubber, followed by greater tread depth on average. Meaning, the road vibrations get better cushioned, with this tire.

So overall comfort performance is better on WinGuard in comparison to WinSpike.

Fuel Economy

The fuel efficiency of tires is closely tied to their traction and structural weight, the two areas which can be used to explain, why both tires offers similar results here.

In terms of WinGuard the tire’s relatively larger weight should result in additional lug bending during cornering, braking, or accelerating, leading to extra energy expenditure, but it gives out just as great of a fuel consumption like any other average winter tire, including its rival here.

This is because there’s more rubber area, which distributes that large weight in a way, that each lug ends up getting less overall weight.

On the contrary, the WinSpike is lighter, but is more voided up, so the opposite is happening here.

So moving from one tire to another, you would not see any difference in fuel economy.

To Conclude

Both tires have their pros and cons.

The Nexen Winguard Sport 2 emerges better when it comes to wet performance, where it’s tread is more biting, and its grooves offer better resistance to hydroplaning.

Moreover, when it comes to snowy terrains, the tire’s design, adept at displacing heavy snow and ensuring optimum snow-to-snow contact, becomes a favorite.

And it also promises a smoother ride experience with its smaller tread voids and excellent shock absorption from a softer rubber compound.

And although its a softer rubber, its greater tread depth still allows it to have more tread life.

On the other hand, the Nexen WinSpike dominates in dry traction, handling, and ice performance.

Its continuous central rib promises stellar directional grip, and its lightweight nature enhances handling capabilities, delivering faster lap times and more precise steering feedback.

Furthermore, its performance on icy terrains is also superior, with its faster braking and acceleration results, thanks to its lightweight design. Moreover, its ice traction is improvable too, as its lugs are stud-able unlike its counterpart.

P.S. Both tires have similar fuel economy.

Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 Review

The Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 is a pretty reliable winter tire, which is not replaced by PA5. Now, although the Pilot Alpin series is a little pricey, it justifies that with it’s long lasting and fuel efficient design. Let’s see if this tire is made for you.

Ford Focus — Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 replaced PA3, and how is replaced by newer PA5, which is even more fuel efficient.

Compare both PA4 and PA5 in detail here: https://snowytires.com/michelin-pilot-alpin-pa4-vs-5/

Key Takeaway

So overall, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 tire exhibits exceptional performance, where it leads in:

Ice Performance: Leading the way with excellent acceleration, braking, and traction on icy surfaces.
Wet Grip and Handling: Outperforming competitors with outstanding wet grip and handling, even surpassing tires marketed for their wet performance.
Linear Grip: Impressive grip and speed ratings, making it suitable for sporty driving in winter conditions.
Dry Handling: Demonstrating above-average lateral traction and superb steering responsiveness.
Tread Longevity: Above-average tread longevity with a treadwear warranty for peace of mind.
Fuel Economy: Achieving Michelin’s Green X certification for fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.

Though the tire has some drawbacks too, when it comes to following two:

Snow Traction: Although offering effective snow contact, it could enhance snow handling for even better results.
Resistance to Hydroplaning: The tire’s continuous running shoulders and central rib result in average float speeds, leaving room for improvement.

Info on Sizes: The Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 comes in 51 total sizes in 17 to 21 inches. These sizes have speed ratings of H, V and W, while load ratings are standard (XL and SL). Moreover, all sizes have tread depth of 10.5/32″ and come with weight ranging from 20 to 36 lbs. Tire also offers 30k miles treadwear warranty.

Tread Appearance

The Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 showcases an asymmetrical tread design, featuring four main ribs.

The (almost) central-most rib is continuous running, with one side being pretty smooth and straight, while the other side is serrated with sharp edges and notches.

This rib incorporates numerous sipes and slanted slits.

Adjacent to this rib are technically shoulder ribs, forming two circumferential grooves.

One of these ribs, located towards the serrated side of the central rib, covers a significant portion of the tread area.

It has chamfered outer edges and a combination of rectilinear and interlocking siping at various angles. Additionally, there are curving in-groove notches running parallel to the lateral tread voids that separate these blocks.

On the other side of the tire, you’ll find a denser arrangement of in-groove notches and longitudinal slits that don’t split up the lugs.

Meaning this rib is also continuous running, and is more longitudinally aligned, in terms of biters. Though that doesn’t go for the wave-like siping you see there, and thick in-groove notches.

Wet Performance

On a rainy day, roads can become glossy and slippery, so tires need to navigate these wet roads with precision, where their tread patterns and the type of rubber they’re made from play a big role.

These basically define the tire’s overall grip/handling and resistance to hydroplaning.

Wet Grip and Handling

Now the wet traction comes from two main factor. Tire’s ability to clear off water from its tread, and it’s gripping elements, including rubber composition.

Basically grooves and sipes clear off water (where sipes literally suck up water particles), and biters/rubber come in later, forming a water-free contact with the road, providing traction.

Now, in this regard, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 is one of the best tires you can get, outperforming all its direct competitors, and by a large margin too.

To give you an idea, it outranks the Continental VikingContact 7 (a tire marketed for its superb wet performance), by over half a feet in braking (distance test).

(While handling on both tires is literally the same, referring to their compared lap times on average).

Review that tire here: https://snowytires.com/continental-vikingcontact-7-review/

Resistance to Hydroplaning

Have you ever seen a car almost glide or skim on water? That’s hydroplaning.

To avoid this, tires are designed with grooves that act like water channels, directing water away and keeping the tire firmly on the road.

Now the thing is, hydro or aquaplaning directly influences overall wet traction, as sipes would have less water burden, if more goes out through grooves.

That’s why the Pilot Alpin PA4 could have been even better in overall wet performance, if it weren’t for it’s continuous running shoulders and central rib, hindering it’s lateral water evacuation.

Meaning, the Michelin’s tire here only offers average results here, as seen by its float speeds.

Though this advantages the tire in terms of noise comfort.

Overall Winter Performance

When you think of winter tires, picture a landscape covered in ice and snow. Now, how efficiently a tire moves over these both landscape types, determines its overall winter performance.

So its best, we split this section in those two.

Ice Performance

On ice, every step can be treacherous, as tires need to hold their ground here. And they mostly do that with the help of special polymers in their compounds combined with a ton of biters.

That’s why top tier tires here have a lot of tiny grippers, which also stay flexible and responsive at all times (I mean even during harsh maneuvers and temperatures).

Now, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 is leading its way literally, compared to its direct competitors, as it offers excellent acceleration values (going from 0 to 30 mph, fastest).

Moreover, the tire also offers just as great braking, and overall traction values, thanks to its superior cornering responsiveness and appreciable on-center feel.

Snow Traction

This landscape includes powdery, soft, salt-like snow (covered roads), where the tire’s job is to sink into the ground, holding onto snow particles (forming snow-to-snow contact), while letting go the excess, so they don’t accumulate and become a hindrance.

But why this contact is important here? Well, its because snowflakes stick well to others on the ground (as they have interlocking fingers). So those captured in the tire’s tread, create a bond that’s stronger than if it was just rubber touching snow.

Having said that, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 offers effective contact path here, allowing for above average results overall.

The tire although lacks a little in terms of snow handling, it still offers above average results in terms of snow acceleration and braking.

Tread Noise Comfort

Noise is generated by a lot of variables and factors, but air is the biggest contributor here still.

When air rushes into the gaps in a tire’s tread, it can create a hum or buzz. Generally, the bigger these gaps, the louder the noise. It’s like the difference between blowing over the top of a wide vs. narrow bottle.

Moreover, the impact of these air particles (mainly entering through shoulders) hitting the tread, further generates additional noise and in-groove resonances.

Now the Michelin PA4 comes in the list of top quietest winter tires, with such closed up shoulders, which restrict air entry in the first place, limiting noise at the source.

Bumps Comfort

Tires act like cushions. When the car moves over bumps or potholes, the tire’s design and materials help soften those jolts, giving passengers a smoother ride.

Now the Pilot Alpin 4 having such thermally adaptive rubber, featuring Helio Compound (as Michelin likes to call it), offers great absorption to the road vibrations.

This compound basically has a lot of silica in it, which primarily offers wet traction, also helps in the overall ride comfort performance too.

Tread Longevity

Everyone wants tires that last.

And how long a tire lasts is a dance between its design resistance and the depth of its tread. I mean, although deeper treads often mean a longer-lasting tire, they can also be a bit more resistant, producing more heat.

Now, the Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 offers a good balance here, where it’s slightly above average (relatively), tread depth of 10.5/32″ takes a good enough time to reach down to 2/32″ (which is the legal tread-depth-limit allowed in the US).

So you get above average tread longevity, especially when you consider that even all sizes, (even those with speed ratings of W), have 30k miles treadwear warranty.

Dry Performance

Even in winter, there are clear days. And on these days, the tire’s ability to stick to dry roads becomes crucial. This involves how much of the tire’s rubber touches the ground and how it responds to turns and stops.

Let’s check both of these performance metrics.

Linear Grip

Imagine a car speeding down a straight road. What do you think will measure the grip there? Well, of course here the acceleration and braking matters (both being directional metrics).

Now, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 does pretty well here, and it makes sense why the tire is certified by sports cars’ manufacturers, like Porsche and Audi.

I mean it’s much better on wet roads than it’s on dry, it’s still pretty impressive, I mean for a winter tire, offering tremendous grip and speed ratings up to W.

To give you a rough idea about its performance, the PA4 only lacks by a mere 3 feet in overall braking (from 60 to 0 mph), when compared to a reference summer tire (with above average dry scores).

Dry Handling

When a car turns, the edges or shoulders of the tires play a big role, determining how securely the car handles the turn.

That’s because most of the weight on the tire shifts there.

Now just like the directional grip, the Michelin PA4 also offers pretty nice results in the overall handling too, offering above average lateral traction and superb/direct steering.

The result: You get only a mere 2 second lacking handling (lap times, on average), compared to reference summer tire (with above average dry handling efficacy).

Fuel Economy

A lot of factors are at play when it comes to economy, though weight and tread compound are the most important ones.

Heavier tires or those with balder relative treads consume more energy when turning or accelerating/braking. It’s like wearing heavy boots and trying to run. What would happen? Well, you’d use more energy than if you were wearing light sneakers.

Now, the Pilot Alpin 4 is one of the most fuel efficient tires out there. That’s why it’s branded with Michelin’s Green X certification.

Tires with this label are designed to be more energy-efficient, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

To Summarize

In summary, the Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 is an exceptional winter tire that excels in various performance categories.

When it comes to ice performance, this tire leads the pack with excellent acceleration, braking, and overall traction, and although it performs admirably in snow as well, its handling capabilities could be improved slightly.

Though for wet roads, the tire’s a king, outperforming nearly all its competitors, even some pretty great ones, like the Continental VikingContact and WinterContact.

However, its resistance to hydroplaning could be better, resulting in average float speeds.

In terms of comfort, this tire shines with low tread noise and excellent bump absorption, providing a smooth and quiet ride.

And on dry, you get impressive linear grip and dry handling capabilities, making it suitable for sporty driving.

Moreover, the tire’s tread longevity is also impressive, especially when you consider it’s speed rating (going up to W), and same goes for its fuel economy, where the tire earns Michelin’s Green X certification.