Both competitors are designed to provide enhanced traction in resilient winter or snowy conditions. They are manufactured with a special cold-weather compound featured in their directional tread pattern to endure the severe conditions of a cold environment. This feature enhanced their durability and comfortability factor.
Evolution is a Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) Certified tire offering phenomenal snow handling. Evolution has great control over snow due to increased traction and wider lateral grooves. It provides great ice traction as high-density siping enhance its grip on wet and icy roads. It is a less noisy tire than its competitor due to a lower void ratio.
![Cooper Evolution Winter Vs Firestone Winterforce 2 Cooper Evolution Winter Vs Firestone Winterforce 2](https://comparethetire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cooper-Evolution-Winter-Vs-Firestone-Winterforce-2.jpg)
Like its competitor, Winterforce is also a Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) Certified tire with a premium snow grip. Due to wider circumferential grooves, it deals with hydroplaning resistivity quite well and is also is a more fuel-efficient tire due to its lower contact patch. It has larger shoulder blocks helping it to offer better dry handling than its opponent.
Table of Contents
Comparison
Specifications | Evolution Winter | Winterforce 2 |
Tire Type | Snow tire | Snow Tire |
Tire Season | Winter | Winter |
Tread Type | Directional | Directional |
Available Sizes | 14 – 20 | 14 – 18 |
Application | Sedans, SUVs, Coupes, and Crossovers and | Coupes, Minivans, and Sedans |
Workmanship And Materials Warranty | 6 Years | 5 years |
Price (225/50R18) | $ 178 | $ 149 |
Tread Design
Evolution has a studdable design that helps to provide maximum traction in the toughest conditions. It has a directional tread pattern with four circumferential grooves and three tread block columns with large tread blocks of different sizes and shapes. It has strong broader shoulders but those are comparatively smaller than its opponent. There are open notches on its shoulders which helps evacuate slush and standing water. It has high density and multi-angle siping on its tread columns and shoulders. It also contains two wide steel belts that support the tread area. Its internal structure consists of a one-ply polyester casing. It has comparatively wider lateral grooves on its shoulders than its competitor.
Like Evolution, Winterforce also has a directional tread pattern that contains a special cold weather compound. It has five circumferential grooves with the center one being the narrowest and two in the middle having a zigzag shape. It has open and larger shoulder blocks than its opponent. Its tread pattern consists of many biting edges which helps it to get a better grip on snow. It also contains twin steel belts on top of a polyester casing. It also has high-density siping on its tread pattern but when comparing the two contenders Evolution wins the competition here.
Road Grip
With a lower void ratio, Evolution will have a higher contact patch making its grip superior to its opponent on dry roads. It has high-density siping due to which it is more efficient in terms of wet and ice grip as more water can pass through at a faster speed. Evolution having comparatively narrower circumferential grooves than its opponent provides a less reliable grip on snow.
Having more circumferential grooves ensures a lower contact patch of the Winterforce tire. As the dry grip is dependent on the contact patch, Winterforce will be inferior to its competitor in this term. Although Winterforce has high-density siping, comparatively its siping density does not exceed Evolution’s siping density. So due to this fact, it is less efficient when talking about wet and ice grip. Due to wider circumferential grooves, Winterforce will have a higher void ratio helping the tire to resist hydroplaning and ensuring a better snow grip.
Contenders | Evolution Winter | Winterforce 2 |
Dry Grip | High | Low |
Ice grip | High | Moderate |
Wet Grip | High | Moderate |
Snow Grip | Moderate | High |
Road Handling
Evolution has smaller shoulder blocks as compared to its competitor; this makes it inferior to its competitor when talking about dry handling. Unlike its dry grip, it is superior to its competitor in wet and ice handling due to high-density siping on its shoulder blocks. Evolution has wider lateral grooves than its competitor which makes it superior in terms of snow handling.
Winterforce has larger shoulder blocks than its competitor which makes its handling facility more prominent on dry roads. It has a decent amount of siping on its shoulder blocks for wet and ice handling, but that is not enough to compete with its competitor. It has comparatively narrower lateral grooves than its opponent due to which it will have less reliable handling on snow.
Contenders | Evolution Winter | Winterforce 2 |
Dry Handling | Moderate | High |
Ice Handling | High | Moderate |
Wet Handling | High | Moderate |
Snow Handling | High | Moderate |
Hydroplaning Resistivity
Hydroplaning resistivity is directly linked with the void ratio. This means that the higher the void ratio, the better will be hydroplaning resistivity since there will be more room for water to evacuate. Circumferential grooves play an important part in deciding which tire has better aquaplaning resistivity. Since Winterforce has a greater number of circumferential grooves, it will have a higher void ratio helping it to resist hydroplaning more efficiently than its competitor.
Durability and Treadwear
Tread depth and Mileage warranty are of utmost importance when deciding about the durability of a tire. In this case, both the contenders have the same tread depth which means that both the tires will take almost the same amount of time to wear off. Both the contenders have no mileage warranty so tread depth becomes the ultimate durability deciding factor.
So, no contender is superior in this category making both equally durable.
Contenders | Tread depth |
Evolution Winter | 12/32’’ |
Winterforce 2 | 12/32’’ |
Comfort and Noise
The comfort of the tire has a direct relation to tread depth. A tire with a higher tread depth is considered more comfortable. This is because more tread depth means more cushion between the vehicle and the road. When talking about the two contenders in this category, we can conclude that they both are equally comfortable due to both having equivalent tread depths.
The higher the void ratio, the more noise a tire will produce. As Winterforce has a higher void ratio, it will have more space for the air particles to encapsulate and that will also be the reason why it will produce more noise. Basically, more space will allow more air particles to reside within grooves and strike the tread walls which would generate noise.
Rolling Resistance & Fuel Efficiency
Rolling resistance is simply the combination of forces that works against the forward motion of your vehicle and a large amount of energy is wasted in this process known as hysteresis. Rolling resistance is directly proportional to the contact patch of a tire. So, Evolution having a higher contact patch will have a higher rolling resistance than its competitor. Due to high rolling resistance, more energy will be wasted due to which Evolution will be less fuel-efficient than its competitor.
So having a lower rolling resistance than its competitor makes Winterforce a more fuel-efficient tire.
Load & Speed
Both the contenders have the same load index of 95 but Evolution has a higher speed rating of T which makes it superior to its competitor in this category.
Contenders | Speed Rating | Speed Value | Load Index | Value |
Evolution Winter | T | 118 mph | 95 | 1521 lbs |
Winterforce 2 | S | 112 mph | 95 | 1521 lbs |
Cost Comparison
Evolution has a price of $178 (225/50R18) while Winterforce has a price of $149 (225/50R18). The reason for its high price is that Evolution is better in dry/ice/wet grip, and wet/ice/snow handling. It will also offer a great ride experience by producing less noise during high-speed driving. Furthermore, Cooper provides a comparatively more warranty period for its product (Evolution).
Summary
Both the contenders;
- Are 3PMSF certified winter tires with directional tread design.
- are equally durable and comfortable.
- have the same load index of 95.
Evolution Winter;
- has better ice, wet and dry grip.
- is better in ice, snow, and wet handling.
- offers a less noisy ride.
- has 6 years of the warranty period.
Winterforce 2;
- has the better snow grip.
- is better in dry handling.
- is more fuel-efficient.
- has better hydroplaning resistivity.
- is less costly.
- has 5 years of the warranty period.