Sailun Tire Americas is promoting its new passenger and light truck winter tire, the Ice Blazer WSTX, which is available exclusively in Canada.
The tire, which will replace the Sailun Ice Blazer WST1, originally debuted in the fall of 2022.
The company recently held a ride-and-drive in Mirabel, Quebec, to let tire dealers test drive the product.
The new tire has V-shaped tread blocks and 3-D siping to perform in snowy, icy or wet conditions and also holds the 3-Peak Mountain-Snowflake symbol. It comes in over 60 sizes and is made for wheel diameters ranging from 14 inches to 20 inches.
The main upgrades on the Ice Blazer WSTX compared to the Ice Blazer WST1, according to Sailun officials, include an “enhanced and modernized contact patch; additional springs and siping; and the latest compound and tire technologies.”
“The tread design gives the tire a wide grip and reduces sliding by letting the water and slush pass through the tread,” says David Pulla, national sales manager, PLT, Sailun.
He says the 3-D siping helps control pressure distribution while driving and its silica-reinforced compound allows the tire to handle “the extreme colds of Canada winters” without losing its shape or stability.
The tire comes in a studded version, as well as a non-studded version. (The tire can use 12- or 13-millimeter studs.)
Sailun provided those options to comply with winter tire laws in different Canadian provinces, plus regional weather conditions.
“In southern Ontario, it is illegal to have your tires studded,” says Tomas Cleary, Sailun’s manager of marketing and communications.
“But if you go further north, then customers are going to need a studded tire. We wanted to make this a coast-to-cost tire and (that it will) be available to anyone in Canada.”
“A big thing we were trying to demonstrate in Mirabel was that our tire can perform or out-perform some of these more expensive tires at a much more reasonable price,” says Pulla.
Tire dealers got to see the Ice Blazer WSTX perform in real winter weather conditions against other competitive winter tires.
The Ice Blazer WSTC comes with a two-year road hazard replacement program or “3/32nds of tread life and 60-month coverage on workmanship and materials.”
Cleary and Pulla say as for now the tire is exclusive to the Canadian market, but there may be talk of bringing it to the United States in the near future.
