Many motorists read the ADAC comparative tests in order to make an informed choice of the new tires that they are going to buy. In 2019, the experts of this German motoring club again made a through test of the performance delivered by various winter tires in two sizes.

The first test involved tires of size 185/65 R15 designed for compact vehicles; the second — tires of size 205/65 R16C, engineered to be installed on vans.
The test of light truck tires that we are going to cover today, included 15 models vying for victory, relevant in the season 2019–2020. Here we go!

List of commercial winter tire models tested:

• BFGoodrich Activan Winter
• Bridgestone Blizzak W810
• Continental VanContact Winter
• Falken Eurowinter Van01
• Goodride SW612
• Goodyear Cargo UltraGrip 2
• Kumho PorTran CW51
• Matador MPS 530
• Maxxis Vansmart Snow WL2
• Michelin Agilis Alpin
• Pirelli Carrier Winter
• Sava Trenta M+S
• Uniroyal Snow Max 2
• Vredestein Comtrac 2 Winter
• Yokohama W.drive WY01

Test Results

The result summary of the 205/65 R16C winter tire test. Places 1–10. ADAC, 2019. Click to enlarge.

The result summary of the 205/65 R16C winter tire test. Places 11–15. ADAC, 2019. Click to enlarge.

Prize winners

In the final standings, the winners’ pedestal was occupied by the premium models Continental VanContact Winter (1st place), Pirelli Carrier Winter (2nd place), and Michelin Agilis Alpin (3rd place). Nevertheless, the demanding ADAC experts considered the downsides of these models rather significant, and these models only got a «satisfactory» verdict.

Continental VanContact Winter

The Continental tires demonstrated their strong sides on wet and dry pavements, while on snow their braking performance was not as efficient. Because of its proneness to wear, the VanContact Winter model is recommended to be installed on cars with small to average year’s mileage.

In addition to its dependable grip on winter surfaces, the Michelin model pleasantly surprised everyone with its high resistance to wear, yet, at the same time, its performance on drive pavement definitely falls short of that of Continental and Pirelli.

Pirelli Carrier Winter

The Pirelli model is more oriented on dry pavement and optimization of fuel consumption, while its lateral grip on wet pavement is weaker than that of its rivals.

Average

Places from four to eleven include models rated as «average». Their price is by no means lower than that of the three leaders of the ADAC test 2019, but at the same time you cannot speak about any well-balanced performance on all winter surfaces in their case.

Vredestein Comtrac 2 Winter

All the eight models without exception confidently passed the ice tests, but further on the downsides popped up. Vredestein Comtrac 2 Winter (4th place) and Falken Eurowinter Van01 (6th place) were failed by their grip on snow.

Falken Eurowinter Van01

The dry pavement brought out the worst in Goodyear Cargo UltraGrip 2 (5th place), Bridgestone Blizzak W810 (7th place), Kumho PorTran CW51 (8th place), Matador MPS 530 (9th place), and Uniroyal Snow Max 2 (10th place). As the pilots shared, all these tires lacked steering preciseness, demonstrating a delayed steering response, and it took them more time than the other models to stabilize the situation.

Uniroyal Snow Max 2

On wet pavement, the worst performance was demonstrated by Yokohama WY01 (11th place).

The outsiders

The «unsatisfactory» verdict was bestowed upon four winter tires. Three of them — Sava Trenta M+S (12th place), Goodride SW612 (14th place), and Maxxis Vansmart Snow WL2 (15th place) — were seriously failed by their snow performance.

BFGoodrich Activan Winter

BFGoodrich Activan Winter (13th place) could not count on scoring any decent position because of its extremely weak grip on wet pavement.

The follow-up

The generally strict ADAC test brought two positive pieces of news as well: 15 winter tire models, tested in size 205/65 R16C, performed on wet pavement much better than the light-truck tires, the results of whose tests ADAC published in the run-up to the summer season 2019. On average, the braking distance of van winter tires is eight meters shorter than that of the summer ones, whose «achievements» left the test experts extremely disappointed.

Now to the bad news, though! When it came to expected mileage, none of the commercial models could satisfy the ADAC test group. The 40000 km, achieved by Falken Eurowinter Van01, is definitely a decent result, yet it still not as good as one would want it to be. To compare, the best summer tires for vans had expected mileage of more than 80000 km.

Price