Winter Tires?

[SamirD]

I knew about the Blizzaks even before I was looking. Confusion, confusion. I know at this point any tire will be better than what we have.

[WESHOOT2]

No, seriously, if one seeks superior winter traction simply default to "Bridgestone Blizzak".

[Zeid]

I've had 16" General Altimax Arctic tires on separate rims for four winters now and bought 315Mz TPMS sensors off of Amazon ($32/each).

These are SUPERIOR winter tires at a great price. I've had several friends with Blizzaks and they're not all they're hyped to be. They wear VERY quickly and don't offer any especially unique winter driving characteristics over the Altimax tires.

My Altimax tires are at 9/32; they're 11/32 of tread depth when new. Amazing!

I've found that only the dealer can program the TPMS sensors because Suzuki's ECU needs a specific programming tool that only the dealer has, otherwise be prepared to cover your gauges with electrical tape as the TPMS light comes on, a triangle with an exclamation point blinks, and the center display goes orange and says "Service TPMS."

Good luck and be safe out there!

[SamirD]

I've had 16" General Altimax Arctic tires on separate rims for four winters now and bought 315Mz TPMS sensors off of Amazon ($32/each).

These are SUPERIOR winter tires at a great price. I've had several friends with Blizzaks and they're not all they're hyped to be. They wear VERY quickly and don't offer any especially unique winter driving characteristics over the Altimax tires.

My Altimax tires are at 9/32; they're 11/32 of tread depth when new. Amazing!

I've found that only the dealer can program the TPMS sensors because Suzuki's ECU needs a specific programming tool that only the dealer has, otherwise be prepared to cover your gauges with electrical tape as the TPMS light comes on, a triangle with an exclamation point blinks, and the center display goes orange and says "Service TPMS."

Good luck and be safe out there!

Thank you for the information on the Arctics as your statement mirrors what I've been finding. They seem to be a little known secret to someone new to snow tires, but veterans seem to know then and buy them regularly.

I'm working on figuring out how to do the tpms reset without the dealer. It's easy to get the car into relearn mode, but triggering the sensors without the $500 ATEQ VT55 is a bit of a challenge. I have a VT30 that is supposed to work, but doesn't seem to have enough 'reach' to trigger the sensors more than 1" away. I'm working with ATEQ on a fix for that.

I've also purchased a Bartec tool that should be similar if not the same as the Tech 100 that Bartec made for Suzuki as a dealer tool. We'll see how that goes on Friday.

I'm determined to trigger the sensors myself so I can change the tires when I want. I know there's a solution out there that's within a consumer's budget.

[bootymac]

I've had 16" General Altimax Arctic tires on separate rims for four winters now and bought 315Mz TPMS sensors off of Amazon ($32/each).

These are SUPERIOR winter tires at a great price. I've had several friends with Blizzaks and they're not all they're hyped to be. They wear VERY quickly and don't offer any especially unique winter driving characteristics over the Altimax tires.

My Altimax tires are at 9/32; they're 11/32 of tread depth when new. Amazing!

The Altimax tires are one of the best winter tires for the money. They're rebranded Continental Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tires.

[SamirD]

The Altimax tires are one of the best winter tires for the money. They're rebranded Continental Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tires.

Very good to know!

I can get the Cooper Himalayan ws2s locally for $100 mounted. There's not much information on them in the US, and they were telling me that they're a really great tire in Canada. True or false?