Topic: Why Costco rocks for tires

[tortoise]

Seeing as it's a newer generation of tire I am sure they'll be fine.  And that's a great price for that size of tire.

[dkaz]

Good price. Can you get it studded?

[HeliDriver]

Good price. Can you get it studded?

Need to do it before they’ve been driven on, but maybe a few km is ok.

I also had studdable IPikes and thought they were horrible. Maybe with studs they would have been decent, but the rubber on those studdable tires is still just an old-school winter compound. I ditched them after two winters & bought Blizzaks. Huge improvement.

Hopefully they have improved a bit. Mine were bought in ‘08 and were RW09s, IIRC.

[Ex-airbalancer]

Good price. Can you get it studded?

He is Southern Ontario , studded tires are not allowed

[carcrazed]

Good price. Can you get it studded?

He is Southern Ontario , studded tires are not allowed

Yeah I wouldn't want the noise with studded tires anyway. 
I will report back with my experience with them, good or bad.

Maybe I will go back to Blizzaks or even to XIce3 next year, or stick with these for the next four winters.  Time will tell.

[marcus_go]

This is the fourth time i bought tires at Costco and it was an not an ideal experience. The first three times were perfect.
So i take the car in for a tire change. 45 minutes in they call me and say they cannot take the summer tires off and they seem stuck. So they put the winter tires on the rims, align and balance it and put it back in the trunk and send me my way.
I call my local indy and he said come over and he will have a look. 
Well he puts the car up and lo and behold the locking nut is not in the car. Costco was a 30 minute drive (rush hour) and the BMW dealer was less than a 10 minute drive. So i drive to the dealer and buy a new locking nut ($25+taxes). Then i go back to the indy who removes all the wheels with absolutely no additional effort than what is required to take the wheels off.
He laughs and makes a comment about students and newbies working at Costco. Set me back another ($35+ taxes) so about $75 in all, but more importantly wasted a lot of my time (which is rare to get with a long commute to work and 2 young kids)

Weird. Costco usually employs more experienced folks making a decent wage. When you say students and newbies at minimum wage, I think Kal Tire. That's too bad you went through that.

People still have wheel locks? I don't bother anymore, if people are going to steal my wheels, they're going to steal my wheels. My Mazda's wheel lock broke apart at about 4-5 years old and I didn't bother replacing it.

Yeah that's weird. When I've gone into Costco to get tires they are usually always older more experienced individuals. And I am always asked before hand when I check-in if I have wheel locks.

[dirtyjeffer]

Yeah that's weird. When I've gone into Costco to get tires they are usually always older more experienced individuals. And I am always asked before hand when I check-in if I have wheel locks.

aside from some temp staff (during busy periods), most of Costco's employees have been there a VERY long time...i have several friends who work there, and i used to play hockey with some of them back in the day too...there's a lot of people there that have 20+ years of service...unheard of in a retail environment, really.

[dkaz]

How many km should I expect tires to be broken in? A few hundred km in and my Blizzak DM-V2 has not been quite meeting my expectations. The snow traction is absolutely outstanding but I’ve expected these tires to be very good on ice and they’re just not there yet. The X-Ice on the Mazda just feels so much better about 1000km in although they didn’t feel good brand new either but my wife thinks the tires are the best things ever and I agree.

Edmonton has been one big sheet of ice the last week which is probably not helping with the tire break in.

[johngenx]

Remember too that the Big Tree is mucho heavy.  My HL can't stop in the same distance that the Corolla can.

[tortoise]

This.

The earlier generation of ABS can't be helping.

[johngenx]

This.

The earlier generation of ABS can't be helping.

I'm not sure if the Sequoia has a 3 or 4 channel ABS,  It might have 4 as the stability control demands it, but the newer systems are faster cycling for sure.

[ktm525]

mass is not your friend, plan your braking accordingly.

[dirtyjeffer]

mass is not your friend, plan your braking accordingly.

yea, it's something many people forget..."But I have this big 4x4 truck, I don't need winter tires"...4x4 doesn't help you stop, and the fact you have the added size and weight means the winter tires will actually help quite a bit.

[tortoise]

It's like driving around the Sienna with a thousand pounds in the back.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

mass is not your friend, plan your braking accordingly.

yea, it's something many people forget..."But I have this big 4x4 truck, I don't need winter tires"...4x4 doesn't help you stop, and the fact you have the added size and weight means the winter tires will actually help quite a bit.

 

[dkaz]

Remember too that the Big Tree is mucho heavy.  My HL can't stop in the same distance that the Corolla can.

Makes sense. I mean it is a lot better than the 14 year old all season tires it replaced but I'm still hoping for a little better once the tires are broken in, or else maybe I should consider studded tires if studless is not meeting my expectations. But that sounds expensive, I should've done this when Kal Tire had their $106 off a set of four tires promotion. Looks like Costco extended the Michelin tire rebate until Friday.

This.

The earlier generation of ABS can't be helping.

I'm not sure if the Sequoia has a 3 or 4 channel ABS,  It might have 4 as the stability control demands it, but the newer systems are faster cycling for sure.

My 99 Sienna had the same type of ABS sans traction/stability control on worn X-Ice 2 and it extremely good the one day we had frozen rain.

It's like driving around the Sienna with a thousand pounds in the back.

Pretty much. We were doing a Christmas lights drive through so five adults and three kids, so yea we were at the GVWR of 6600 lb and yea it felt like we were going wherever the ice ruts were directing us and I had to force it to go where I wanted to go.

mass is not your friend, plan your braking accordingly.

yea, it's something many people forget..."But I have this big 4x4 truck, I don't need winter tires"...4x4 doesn't help you stop, and the fact you have the added size and weight means the winter tires will actually help quite a bit.

It's scary, I don't get how people are driving these trucks or even bigger ones like they're invincible. I still remember traveling to Edmonton years ago and Hwy 16 was so slippery with ice ruts that everyone was in the right lane doing 60-70, but occasionally these semis, pickup trucks, and SUVs would roll by in the left lane doing at least 110. Then we passed a vehicles that have gone into ditches every few kms and what were they? Mostly semis, pickups, and SUVs. The occasional car.

[johngenx]

I remember when my dad bought a Subaru. The first bad day he nearly crashed because it was nothing short of astounding how fast he could get going, but the OBW couldn't stop any better than his previous RWD or FWD cars. Add in a lot of weight, and stopping distances get long enough to pay close attention to, even on the best winter tires.

I'm very conscious of this when I drive the Highlander because it's one of the heavier vehicles I've owned (and still a lot lighter than the Sequoia) and I've noticed that no matter the season or tires, getting out of the Corolla and especially the Miata, it needs more room than they do.

And what a trial for tires we've had. From 20cm of snow to intense freezing rain that turned every inch of the city into shiny ice, we've had some days that have pushed winter tires to their limits.  On one of the worst evenings I went to the gym as the forecast called for the rain to come after midnight. It arrived early. I've never had the TRACS light on so much as that drive home. I crept up to every intersection because people were just sliding through them all, but I never got out of control or failed to stop when I needed to. Between the nannies, the AWD and the tires, I was able to avoid the carnage. An EPS officer friend of mine reported that a busy day collision wise is 150, and that next day EPS had over 500 reported collisions. Carnage indeed!!

[dkaz]

Does that explain why absolutely nothing else I've owned since my Corolla has been good in the snow as the Corolla? Which was 2,530 lb. My Mazda 3 is 330 lb heavier.

Well I still like my Sequoia and I don't want to go with studded tires. I could try rotating my tires early since I assume the rear tires might be more broken in than the front tires and see if that improves stopping and steering control. I also haven't been running 4WD except when I need extra traction going up a hill so should I have 4WD anytime I'm on an icy surface even if I don't think I need it? I don't think 4WD helps with steering/stopping whatsoever but the lack of traction getting out of Castrol Raceway for the Christmas lights was very apparent.

[Gurgie]

Maybe just drive it for a bit more until you get used to it? Seems like you need to just get a feel for the vehicle, I'm sure the tires are performing fine.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[ktm525]

OK things make sense now,  I didn't realize the Sequoia was a part time 4WD.  There is a reason why 99% of all trucks sold in Alberta are now 4WD/AWD because winter tires or not  RWD vehicles will struggle for traction when things are icy (like Edmonton is). The 4WD will obviously help with traction but be mindful of the heft of the beast as it will be easy to overcook corners with limited traction. The heft of the Sequoia will help in beeper/snow slush and won't get bounced around as much.