Dedicated winter tires?

I am in Calgary as well I drive all over British Columbia and Alberta to ski during the winter months! Great experience with vikingcontact 7, nokian hakkapellita on a CRV and had blizzaks which was great but after a couple of seasons with them it felt that they did not perform as well the seasons following. But looking to get general arctic grabbers for my tacoma and installing it on the stock wheels.

Also have used all terrain tires on my Dad's truck and they just don't compare with dedicated winter tires.

 

You can run studs in Ottawa with very low risk of a ticket, because of all the Quebec cars on the road. Police are not looking for them, at all.

I did get a ticket once. If you read the law, the officer has to prove the Moh's hardness of the metal the studs are made out of. Unless the crown can produce a lab report, you will win your case, as I did.

 

I live right beside the Kanata OCP station lol so chances of them seeing/hearing my studs are good. Don't want to deal with the headache of challenging ticket but I get your point.

 

I recommend factory studded winter radials. I run Hakkas but there are lots of good options. 100 kg in the back and drive to the conditions.
On ice or packed snow I actually feel safer in a front wheel drive sedan or AWD SUV, properly equipped with good winter tires. Key I guess is the weight over the driving wheels.

 

Grabber LTs?

 

Too funny. I think the police give up when they see the Quebec license plates. Or maybe there is some kind of provincial French protection agreement that the Quebecois can go anywhere they want with studs on and not get a ticket. I am fairly certain that if you pull over a car with Quebec plates you are subject to endless hours of Celine Dion until you give up!

In case my family is reading this, I am just kidding.

But here was a good review of snow tires:
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15102773/best-snow-tires-for-winter/

I must admit I never heard of Nokian until I was north of Montreal and my cousin said you have to put them on your car and do it now. I didn't regret it. Best tires ever. But I wonder if anyone has put them on their Tacoma? I would really like to hear about anyone who has them specifically on a Tacoma because I've only had them on my BMW which drives really well in the snow, surprisingly.

EDIT: Yes it is Friday. Too late for serious work but not quite time for a beer.

 

I think it is since it is meant for "light truck". I have heard good things and is somewhat reasonably priced.

 

+1 for Nokian Hakkapliittas!

 

Just wondering since I'm debating arctic grabber LTs or regular....don't tow much and couple 100lbs in back maybe a few times and mainly pavement so I think LTs are overkill for me

 

I just looked it up and it was just a regular Arctic grabber. which I am fine with since I only have skis on the bed most of the time during the winter.

 

I live in Alaska, so snow and ice in winter are the norm. I run the Blizzaks on 2 of my vehicles and the improvement of going from All seasons to those was exponential! It helped with starting stopping, cornering, everything. Night and day difference. I also run the Nokian Hakkapeliitta studded tires on a Sprinter van. I'm not sure I like them as much as the Blizzaks, but it's a much larger/heavier vehicle so I'm not sure its a fair comparison.
I think Nokian makes a non-studded tire as well that is a direct competitor to Blizzaks. I think they are more expensive, and I don't know they're any better. We drive on ice, a lot. These tires are awesome. In fact I'm swapping to them this weekend! Hitting freezing temps on occasion here already .

 

Great insight since you have experience with both the Blizzaks and the Nokkians in an extremely harsh environment!

Thanks for the feedback. I can't really tell about the pricing difference because the Nokian are priced all over the place.

EDIT:

Discount Tire Direct (which seems to be good but is not near me because, well, I am on the East Coat and we can't have nice things) has the Blizzak's at $164 per tire and the Nokkians at $195 per tire ($199 for the studded ones). Minor price difference but a different nonetheless.

 

I would look hard at any General winter tire that will fit a Tacoma, because they tend to be last-generation Gislaved Nordfrost tires, rebranded and half price. I had Gislaved Nordfrost 5 tires on my wife's Volvo for a long time, they were fantastic tires.

When I need winter tires, I spend the afternoon looking at what tires Sweden and Finland have approved, and test reports. Google translate works pretty well. (Sometimes it gets a little slow in my government office)

 

Here in BC KalTire is the exclusive Nokian dealership, because they don't compete their prices are higher than other brands. Costco sells both Michelins and Blizzaks for less.

I've run Observe Garit(subaru), X-ICE2(subaru), Blizzak W80(subaru), Blizzak DM-V1, and now have these brand new DM-V2 waiting for snow;


I was very tempted to try out the Toyo Observe Gsi5 this year but all reviews placed it just below the Blizzaks.

Wouldn't go back to all-seasons, even all-terrains and flashing ABS/TCS are too annoying once you've had winters..

 

You are going to love them, I've used them for two winters and I never even have to engage four wheel drive.

 

So has anyone run Nokian Hak on tacoma ?

 

I got 9 seasons out of the DM-V1 on our old 2nd gen and then this 3rd gen.. They probably would have made it another with careful driving but I don't fool around with tires.

 

I live in Montreal and ran Duratracs on my Sierra all-terrain. It was a death trap on ice. I opted for Nokian hakka r9 which in my opinion, are the best winter tires you can buy. I have previously run the r7 and r8s. They are fantastic tires.

 

Ok, let me rephrase that....anyone running Nokian Hak's LT2 non studded winters?