Tire: Winter Slalom KSI
Category: Studless Ice and Snow
UTQG (treadwear): Not Rated
BFGoodrich is not known for their winter tires. They do a lot of things well, but winter tires could be a bridge too far. In fact, this is the only winter passenger tire they make currently...which might be a sign to avoid. Or perhaps this is an undiscovered gem. The Winter Slalom KSI happens to sit somewhere in the middle though. Not an abject failure, but certainly no slam dunk. They put some wood on the ball and got this tire onto the field. This tire is pretty versatile and can be used on passenger cars, SUVs, and even light trucks. The engineering on this tire is pretty impressive really. They use Diamond Cut Block Edges to increase rigidity as well as Full Lateral Grooves to help evacuate water under the tread. This tire meets the industry standard for severe snow service and BFGoodrich says you should only install these tires in sets of four because the traction quality of the tires.
Even though this tire can be fitted to a wide variety of vehicles, it just so happens that I've only seen it fitted to SUVs, many of which already have 4wd. So with that in mind, and like I wrote earlier, this is an average winter tire. It's far superior to running all season tires when it comes to ice and snow, but when stacked up to the very tough competition, the Winter Slalom KSI just can't hang with the best of what other tire companies can offer. Since so few people run this tire, it's hard to get an accurate idea of how long they'll last, but based on what I'm seeing, you should probably get about 30,000 miles out of a set, which is slightly below average. So at the end of the day, this is a tire worth passing on because you can easily get a better studless ice and snow tire for about the same coin.
