by John Gaudio, Posted 9:37 AM MST, Picked up by Google, approx. 2:00 AM MST, 01/22/08 Imagine a tire with thousands of small industrial diamonds molded right into the rubber. Initially it looks and feels like an all weather tire with a smooth rubber surface, but after a thousand or so miles on dry pavement, the outer layer of the tire wears away to expose these "diamonds" made of silicium carbide. Like the studs on a typical studded snow tire, they stick out just a little bit to grip the snow, and to a lesser extent, the ice on which we travel. They don't stick out as far as the studs on new studded snow tires, but there are many more of them, and because they're embedded throughout the rubber of the tire, they're constantly being replaced as the tire wears down. I first heard about Green Diamond Tires on the radio, and contacted the Denver based distributor to learn more about them. It's strongly recommended that you always put four Green Diamond tires on a car, not just two in the front or on the back, and the distributor, Rich Gostenik, worked through my local Big O Tires store to get me a set for review at about half price. They've been on my car for a little under three months now, Fall into Winter, so while my data is limited, they seem to work well. My wife, Madonna, especially likes the fact that they're so quiet on dry pavement. One major advantage is that unlike conventional studded snow tires, Green Diamond Tires can be used year round. Also, they're supposed to last about 45,000 miles. I don't have direct data on the tire mileage yet, but that would be much better than I typically get from studded snow tires. I also like the idea of not having to change and store tires twice a year. Another review I looked at, linked below, brings up the question of handling problems under changing road conditions at highway speeds. I haven't had the opportunity to test that yet, and hope it will not be an issue. I also don't know yet what effect, if any, the Green Diamond Tires are having on my gas mileage. Gas mileage on our Sienna seems to be down in the last few months, but I don't know if that's attributable to the tires or not. Time will tell. In short, while I'm no expert on tires, the Green Diamond Tires seem to be as good as, or better than, new studded snow tires, except for situations involving sheet ice, and possible changing road conditions at highway speeds. They're certainly much quieter on dry pavement, and the idea of having just one set of tires that works as well as studded snow tires in nearly all conditions, and for all seasons, really appeals to me. This is especially true in Colorado where the seasons change not four times a year, but six or ten times a day in some cases, going from dry pavement to packed snow, to ice, to wet, and back again, all in the course of a day trip through the mountains in Fall, Winter, or Spring. |
