New England B.S. Thread

Who just bought the HAKKAPELIITTA's? Did you get studded? I'm close to pulling the trigger on a set of those with wheels for my wife's car. On the fence about studs. Always put studs on her other cars because they were small and FWD, new car is heavier and AWD and these are better tires than the others. Do you really NEED studs this day and age with the evolution of snow tires?

 

Luckily Homo insurance covered it. His neighbor's house was struck by lightning (so powerful it caused their Wrangler to melt down and light itself and a nearby tree on fire).

It fried all the electronics in his place, as well as the well. It was all covered, but they "warranty" all the repairs for like 2 years.

 

I didn't just buy them, but I have them. Mine are studded but I bought them with a mind toward traveling north from MA to go skiing, the best ski days are some of the worst weather days and all that, so my usage may not align with yours. I don't regret them one bit, but for normal winter commuting, etc, you probably won't need studs down there.

Edit: FWIW, I've also run them in the past, studless, on a 2wd diesel Ram 2500, a Dodge Neon and my ex-wife's PT Cruiser. They are pretty much unstoppable.

 

I did. I got R3 SUVs. The dealer near me said if you're going studless, get the Nokians that don't take studs, not the ones the can. The ones that don't take studs have a glass-like material in the tread that's supposed to grip similarly to studs. https://www.nokiantires.com/innovation/innovations/nokian-cryo-crystal-concept/

I hate studs mainly because I hate the noise.

 

Thanks, good information to know!

Interesting... The online dealers I'm looking at don't list the studless versions for my wife's car. The other option I'm looking at is Continental Vikings. Studdless but great reviews. They're so close in price to the Hakka's that I figure I might as well go with the tire that's arguably the best.

 

What's the size?

 

Stock size is 235/55R19. I'm looking at wheel/tire packages in 235/60R18 though. Trying the 'build your own' kit now. We'll see what pops up.

 

Interesting--Nokian says the Hakka R3 and R2 SUV should be available in either of those sizes.

 

They very well may be available, I'm sort of limiting my search to what the online guys have in stock and will put into a tire/wheel package. I normally buy used wheels either on CL or through LKQ when Rob was there, but I can't find anything for the Flex. I'm looking at the online retailer package deals that they'll send mounted, balanced and ready to roll. The options seem to be the Blizzak, a Cooper tire, Hakkas or the Conti Vikings. For the money, I like the Hakkas.

 

Also, on a related note, if any of you know someone with a Ford Escape and needs studded snows that are mounted, balanced and ready to go, send them my way please! I was hoping they'd bolt up to the Flex but it appears the bolt pattern is off.

 

Yeah, I was between the Blizzak and the Nokians for my truck. @mach1man001 swore by the Nokians when I asked here and I also read that the Blizzaks don't do quite as well as they wear while the Nokians are pretty consistent as time goes on.

I found OEM take offs from a salvage yard selling on eBay for my truck. Vianor was the closest Nokian dealer to me so I bought the tires from them. The price they quoted was slightly better than any online price I could find and they mounted and balanced for free.

 

Bought the Hakkas... there’s a $50 discount on wheel/tire packages and another $80 mail in. Expensive, but they’ll come mounted, balanced and ready to roll with new lug nuts and everything.

 

I was at the same crossroads. Like you, I went with the Hakka R3. My local shop had them cheaper than I saw online and their mount / balance was reasonable. I'm curious to see how they compare to my Hankooks. I'm hoping to get ~6 seasons out of these, so we will see what happens. I only put about 5,000-6,000 miles a year on my snow tires. I'm sure by then I'll be ready to switch wheels out again.

 

Anyone used Trailforks for OHV stuff? I know Gaia is the go to and I like the too. But I’ve used Trailforks for MTB stuff just curious, looks like they’re trying to become a Gaia competitor with membership plans now.

 

Looks nice and even. How’s it look up close?

 

I am very happy with it. The exception is two corners i got the gun too close to and "smoothed" the surface.
The tape lines came out great. the raptor liner came with zero instructions about the mixing, how much hardener to use, open life, cure, application, etc.
I ordered an extra quart of liner and hardener and was glad i didn't need it because TCP global send two hardeners instead of a bottle of liner.
It sprayed very easy and almost any angle (once i figured out the tip issue). It is very sensitive to air pressure, distance from surface and the tip adjustment. I bought the $75 adjustable tip gun that can be completely disassembled for cleaning.

 

Can't wait to see the rest of the truck now, nice work!

 

Thats super strange. Mine came with exact instructions for everything. They are also on their website if you wanted to look.

You did a great job anyways without them, what were you using for PSI and stuff?

 

Raptor looks great!