Hi - I've been lurking/reading/searching through the multitude of posts regarding the topic of winter tire selection for our beloved Foresters.
I live in the Denver area, which is known for lots of sunshine, thus sloppy wet slushiness almost immediately after a snow is pretty common. I usually travel to the higher elevations 1-2 weekends a month for skiing. So, I do need a mix of competence in dry, slushy, wet, snowy, and to a lesser extent icy conditions.
The XI3 had been my #1 contender until stumbling on the concerns centered around slushplaning. However, so far, I have only found a couple anecdotal claims of the issue, and only one source with empirical data in a scientific test - the Russian article that's been referenced a couple of times here.
With the assistance of a well known search engine's translation, I was able to decode most of the article, however, the meat of the data is in the graphs showing the relative performance in each category. . and these graphs, being images not text, aren't captured by the the translate algorithm, so I'm unable to tell exactly what they represent, or determine the units of measure.
Also in the running for my top contender is of course the Hakka R2. Wet/dry braking performance is purported to be great in the Russian test linked above. Yet, another review (can't find the article now dang it - will update post if I do) says it's dead last in wet/dry when pitted against the XI3, WS70, among others.
So, let me distill all of this into my key questions!
-is the Russian test-source a trusted one?
-are there any other published credible scientific tests for slushplaning?
-why isn't slushplaning a more common test if it's truly a critical metric?
-what exactly was measured in the Russian slushplaning test, and is it truly a concern that the XI3 measured 22.6 mystery units, while the R2 measured 26.5, a ~17% difference?
-how does the purported "worst" slushplaning performer, the XI3, compare to all-seasons in the same test?
-how related are hydroplaning and slushplaning? and would temperature have much of an influence in this category? It appears all seasons will generally outperform the best ice/snow tires in the hydroplaning category. Interestingly, the R2 comes in last among the tested winter tires according to CR in the article here.
Thanks in advance for your input!!
I live in the Denver area, which is known for lots of sunshine, thus sloppy wet slushiness almost immediately after a snow is pretty common. I usually travel to the higher elevations 1-2 weekends a month for skiing. So, I do need a mix of competence in dry, slushy, wet, snowy, and to a lesser extent icy conditions.
The XI3 had been my #1 contender until stumbling on the concerns centered around slushplaning. However, so far, I have only found a couple anecdotal claims of the issue, and only one source with empirical data in a scientific test - the Russian article that's been referenced a couple of times here.
With the assistance of a well known search engine's translation, I was able to decode most of the article, however, the meat of the data is in the graphs showing the relative performance in each category. . and these graphs, being images not text, aren't captured by the the translate algorithm, so I'm unable to tell exactly what they represent, or determine the units of measure.
Also in the running for my top contender is of course the Hakka R2. Wet/dry braking performance is purported to be great in the Russian test linked above. Yet, another review (can't find the article now dang it - will update post if I do) says it's dead last in wet/dry when pitted against the XI3, WS70, among others.
So, let me distill all of this into my key questions!
-is the Russian test-source a trusted one?
-are there any other published credible scientific tests for slushplaning?
-why isn't slushplaning a more common test if it's truly a critical metric?
-what exactly was measured in the Russian slushplaning test, and is it truly a concern that the XI3 measured 22.6 mystery units, while the R2 measured 26.5, a ~17% difference?
-how does the purported "worst" slushplaning performer, the XI3, compare to all-seasons in the same test?
-how related are hydroplaning and slushplaning? and would temperature have much of an influence in this category? It appears all seasons will generally outperform the best ice/snow tires in the hydroplaning category. Interestingly, the R2 comes in last among the tested winter tires according to CR in the article here.
Thanks in advance for your input!!
