The van is needing some new winter tires (and rims) to go with it. I’ve started pricing things out, and I’ve got a few options.
I had a look at what Kal Tire had to offer. The cheapest winter tire they had to offer that looked slightly reasonable is the Sumitomo Ice Edge. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of reviews out there, but it did seem to be a fairly soft compound and the tire looks nice and chunky. Does anyone here have experience with Sumitomo as a brand?
The other options from Kal Tire include the Michelin X-Ice (~$100 more than the Sumitomo), and the Kakkapeliita R3 (not cheap - about $1200* for a set with rims, mounting and balancing, etc.). The reviews for the Michelin X-Ice seem mostly reasonable, but there does seem to be a small minority that hates them, and think they are pretty much the worst winter tire ever. The R3s, if they are anything like the R2, seem like the gold standard for winter tires, but all together are insanely expensive.
I’m trying to figure out how to do this on a budget, and it seems like Costco’s mounting and balancing is $5 less per tire, and they have a $70 rebate if I bought the Michelin X-Ice tires there. They would end up being about $30 cheaper than the Sumitomos, at least in theory.
Part of me wonders if I could buy the tires from Kal Tire, and the rims from Costco and have them mounted there.
I’m also wanting new winter tires for my car. I already have rims, and I don’t have any sort of TPMS sensor stuff to deal with, so it ends up being quite a bit less expensive. Costco ends up coming out to $~470 CAD for a set of Michelin X-Ice tires, while the Nokian/Nordman 7 ends up being about $20 more. Given the price difference for my car, I’m tempted to go with the Nordman 7.
So, anyone have any advice they’d like to share?
* Prices are in CAD, with taxes and everything else.