Who's running on Crossclimate 2 SUV tyres? Speed rating?

[Nick72]

Especially PHEV owners but still generally interested in hybrid driver experience.

Been reading a few reviews saying the V ratings are too stiff and ride quality bad. Plus I'm not going to be doing over 130mph any time. Rare if it's much over 70mph!  H rated seems better suited.

What size and speed rating are you using?

Planning on swapping the stock tyres out on the R4P replacement to be delivered on 1st September. Desire better grip and stopping distance in wet and snow. Some light muddy off road also.

Anything worth mentioning?

I'll also have 4 stock tyres for sale with probably what will be less than a couple hundred miles on them. What do you think they'd be worth? Not so bothered about how much I'd get for them so fully expecting probably less than half their new cost. 

Ps. I get up in the mountains a lot and literally need to drive over a mountain to get to my home from home. Unavoidable. Never really had a problem with the current R4P on the Yokohamas so this is really extra insurance. 

[Nick72]

Great explainer...

 

 

[forkingabout]

Cross Climate 2 is getting on now & other large tyre manufacturers have brought new all seasons products out now that can out perform it.

[ernieb]

13 minutes ago, forkingabout said:

Cross Climate 2 is getting on now & other large tyre manufacturers have brought new all seasons products out now that can out perform it.

What tyres/evidence please - I'm just about to buy new tyres for my '21 PHEV?

[philip42h]

We've run Cross Climates on both cars for quite a few years / sets of tyres now. They ride well, handle well, work well both summer and winter and are generally excellent tyres. TBH I've no idea whether we are now on CC, CC+ or CC2 and really don't care - they are still excellent tyres.

And I don't know what speed rating they are either - I could go out and look but ... they will safely go much faster than the car is capable of. And I don't believe that the speed rating has a material impact on the 'feel' of the tyre - or that I could actually get 'derated' Cross Climates if I wanted to! 😉

So, they do the job very well and I am very happy with them. But I haven't done any comparative tests and don't intend to either.

I do believe that the set I have are described as "SUV tyres" - they certainly suit my RAV4 very well.

Reviews saying "the V ratings are too stiff and ride quality bad" are simply wrong - the statement simply isn't true. On the other hand, it may well be the case that other brands of tyre under a specific set of circumstances are more compliant and give a better ride - I can't comment on that other than to accept that it is probably true.

Cross Climates are excellent, and they will continue to be excellent but there may well 'excellenter' tyres on the market today. If I were to look for an alternative, I'd include the Conti All Season Contact and the Bridgestone Weather Control in my shortlist.

[Vainona70]

Don't forget the tyre load rating also impacts side wall performance.

I see no reason to stray from the OEM size & ratings.

My 2022 HEV...

 

[ernieb]

I’ve had CC and CC SUV’s on a number of precious cars and they are my current choice to replace the OEM tyres currently on my PHEV. That said if there are better options I’d be happy to see what they are. I’ve seen plenty of comparison tests but so far none have me convinced that they are significantly better than the CC options.

[Strangely Brown]

3 hours ago, ernieb said:

What tyres/evidence please - I'm just about to buy new tyres for my '21 PHEV?

https://www.tyrereviews.com

[NASY]

Cross Climate 2 SUV VR rated on mine - superb. Sidewall is fairly compliant and comfort is good. I would be hesitant to go for another tyre as the wear rate on CC's is so good and grip retention when worn is high too.

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Strangely Brown said:

https://www.tyrereviews.com

Thanks for posting that - I've watched all the way through, and it's a perfectly 'fair' test and I would dispute his results. And, TBH, I'd have pretty much guessed the results based on history and prejudice! 😉

His test methodology is based on track times under certain conditions - I don't really care about track times and am never going to test any tyre that hard. But it allows him to give an objective scoring.

I've always quite liked Pirelli, but they wear out too quickly if you are doing high mileages - that seems to have been his finding too. These days I'm doing relatively low mileages so Pirelli would be back on my shortlist.

The Continental is going to be good - if I were to switch brand that's where I'd go. I've had Conti Winter Contacts in the past that were just brilliant.

But for me, the Cross Climate still 'wins'. It's a good balance as a 'summer' tyre in wet and dry conditions, where I'm not going to stress it too much anyway, and remains 'best' in the snow which is where I want my tyres to perform (without having to swap to proper cold weather tyres). As he says in the review, we each may have our own criteria for choosing tyres.

(Oh, and, I promise that I will never buy cheap tyres! 🙂 )

[TonyHSD]

The Michelin cross climates aren’t the very best all seasons tyres as rated so highly especially by this guy from tyre reviews. His opinion and tests aren’t even close to real world performance and how tyre ages as some car owners found using these from new to almost illegal and replace with new sets. 
Yes, they are very good all season tyres but the likes of Goodyear vectors 4 season, Hankook , Bridgestone, Continental aren’t any worse with some actually outperform the Michelin. 
Whatever is your favourite brand they all make great all season v shape  tyres and they will deliver better performance in cold and snowy winters. 

Very important here is to stay on your speed rattling recommended by the door labels, you can do higher speeds or extra load but you should not go down speed rating, these is only ok  in pure winter tyres. 
By default all all season all weather tyres like the one in question has stiffer sidewalls and stronger , harder tyre carcass. This is to allow better dry handling and tyre wear during hot summer days., as usually these tyres has softer rubber compound than typical summer tyres. This indeed affects car comfort and you may feel your car lose a bit of softness over bumps and loss of 2-4mpg, the tyre tread patterns grips the road surfaces and kills the inertia, something very important in highly efficient cars like hybrids and evs. 
If me I will not buy all season tyres for most of the uk driving unless live in Scotland or somewhere very rural, midland and below a summer tyres can do better than all season 90% of the time. 

[Nick72]

8 hours ago, Strangely Brown said:

https://www.tyrereviews.com

Good find ❤️👍

[Nick72]

Great advice and opinions folks. Appreciated as ever. 

All things considered and from weight of opinion here and elsewhere on the web I'm going for CC2, same speed rating at current, V rating. Sure there may be tyres that pip the CC2s but there are more users of the CC2s on the RAV so I'm going to play safe. 

New car on 1st September when I give the R4P 2021 back. Will aim to get the new tyres on in a week or two from there. 

Value of second hand almost new stock tyres? Any takers?

[Nick72]

One other thing I forgot to ask is whether cornering is a lot worse with the CC2s. Rationale is they're a round section rather than square section like the stock tyres. 

Any thoughts?

[philip42h]

46 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

One other thing I forgot to ask is whether cornering is a lot worse with the CC2s. Rationale is they're a round section rather than square section like the stock tyres. 

Any thoughts?

It's very difficult to give a 'quantifiable' objective answer. I test drove a car on 'new' stock tyres and took delivery of a car on new CCs. Subjectively, I believe that the car handles better on the CCs ...

More importantly, I'm happy to chuck the car into a corner as fast as I want to and be totally confident that it will go around without any drama. But, there again, I'm not looking to set any track records ... 😉

Edit: It's probably worth adding that I corner faster than the wife wants me to ... 😄

[TonyHSD]

47 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

One other thing I forgot to ask is whether cornering is a lot worse with the CC2s. Rationale is they're a round section rather than square section like the stock tyres. 

Any thoughts?

This will be subjective feeling however those v shaped all season tyres and winter tyres generally gives lighter steering feel and very responsive steering to input, you need to take care when switch to this as result can be mounting the kerb when turning. Another difference from straight line summer tyres is that steering return a bit slower to centre after turn.
When pushed to the limit in an emergency braking on wet and dry these lose grip way faster than summer tyres. These are the main differences. 
 

[ernieb]

9 hours ago, Strangely Brown said:

https://www.tyrereviews.com

Thanks for posting.

[NASY]

When it comes to cornering ability let's face it the wet performance is all that really makes a tyre stand out in normal road use especially a 2 tonne SUV. CC's are way better than the stock tyre in the wet and in my experience really secure and confidence inspiring in the wet. Snow performance is really crucial for me in the winter which I guess is not a factor for most people.

[Nick72]

Great points all. Cornering in the wet and snow is what matters. 

[Nick72]

Now I'm worrying about Toyota putting the tyres on the wrong way around. Hadn't occurred to me but the V should point forwards as the wheel rotates forwards. 

[Cyker]

Yeah it should... that is inexcusable...

That will badly affect its ability to clear water in the wet as the pointy bits should hit the ground first and guide the water out to the sides to clear it from the middle - That way round will pull water into the tyre!

[ernieb]

7 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Now I'm worrying about Toyota putting the tyres on the wrong way around. Hadn't occurred to me but the V should point forwards as the wheel rotates forwards. 

The whole tyre is designed around the 'V' construction and so there are rotation arrows on the side walls to aid the fitter. Another thing to add to your check list. (plus bonnet gaps?)

[philip42h]

7 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Now I'm worrying about Toyota putting the tyres on the wrong way around. Hadn't occurred to me ...

They are directional tyres. This means that once fitted to a wheel rim they can go on one side of the car only. We need a pair fitted to go on the lefthand side and another pair to go on the righthand side.

Which, of course, but maybe not obviously, if you want/need a full-size spare you would need a pair of spares - one for each side. That's not an issue if you carry a space saver spare or a can of gunk, but something to be aware of ... 😉

Oh, and, tyre fitters are well used to directional tyres these days - they've been around for quite a while. They'd really have to be pretty 'dumb' to get it wrong! An owner or the other hand ...

[Strangely Brown]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

They are directional tyres. This means that once fitted to a wheel rim they can go on one side of the car only. We need a pair fitted to go on the lefthand side and another pair to go on the righthand side.

Which, of course, but maybe not obviously, if you want/need a full-size spare you would need a pair of spares - one for each side. That's not an issue if you carry a space saver spare or a can of gunk, but something to be aware of ... 😉

Oh, and, tyre fitters are well used to directional tyres these days - they've been around for quite a while. They'd really have to be pretty 'dumb' to get it wrong! An owner or the other hand ...

My guess would be that the wheels are fitted to the wrong side of the car rather than the tyre fitted the wrong way round. Simple solution is to swap sides and hopefully there are 2 N/S and 2 O/S available.

[Torrox]

I have used one set of cross climate and 2 sets of CC2 on my other car. My impression was the CC2 is noisier than the original CC but they seem more sure footed than the CC. With my new RAV4 Phev GR Sport I have been driving with the stocked tyres and I've found that the Bridgestone compound is quite soft so when cornering at high speed you don't feel as confident as the CC2. I thought of changing the tyres to CC2 but they cost around £800 for a R19 set so I will keep on driving these and replace them when there's a big discount or until they need to be replaced.