It's 100 Degrees but Snow Tires - specifially Hakkapeliitta vs Blizzak and sizes

I've been researching some snow tire options and maybe a few of you have some experience here.

I'm looking for tires for mostly winter commuting but also winter camping trips and other CO mountain driving. Hakkapeliitta LT2 (non-studded) and Blizzaks seem pretty much ideal for my needs.

I'm assuming I should be looking at LT tires. There is a Hakkapeliitta SUV option but not really sure how it's different. Lower load rating? Anything else?

I was also thinking 235/85/16 for size. These would be a little bit narrower and taller which should equate to better winter handling. Any downsides?

Finally, I'm familiar with Blizzaks on an outback and they are great. What about the Hakkapeliittas? Anyone use them?

 

I have the Nokian's on my 16 TRD OR, live in Canada, and won't run any other snow tire. Third vehicle, third set of Nokia. Blizzards are fine if your commuting on groomed rounds and ice. If you get into deeper snow, especially slush, nothing is better than the Nokia Haks, nothing. I don't know the diff between LT and SUV, your tire supplier can explain that.

 

Here is my April, 2017 post on winter tires. Check out that thread as most everyone endorsed the Nokians:

I travel a lot in Northern Michigan in the winter. We are devoted to Nokian winter Tyres (as they spell it). They are from Finland. And yes, it is the same company that brought you Nokia cell phones back in the day. These are premium winter tires - good on the open road (unlike many winter tires and you can run them year around if you want -- about 50,000 mile tread life because of the winter rubber compound). We change them out seasonally. Performance on ice, hard packed snow, and variable conditions is outstanding -- which we have all the time in the winter due to "lake effect" snow. Unlike Blizzaks, the entire tire is made of the rubber compound, not just the tread. Check them out. Good luck.

 

I'm on the Blizzak train.

Put hundreds of thousands of miles on them in soft snow / packed snow / slush / ice all over the midwest. Lived in Minneapolis but traveled for work to the Iron Range, UP of Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and everywhere else that people actually know what ice fishing is haha.

Used to get ~50k miles out of them, but that was only in winter driving. Once the average temperatures got into the 40s I took them off. I wouldn't run them all year.

Can't speak for the Nokian tires as I haven't tried them myself, but I've got no reservation telling somebody that Blizzaks are great. I'll never be without them in the winter.

 

the SUV hakkapelitta R2s are fine for the taco. I have them.
They have a SL112 load index which is the same as a C Rated LT tire which is factory for our trucks.

Its a midsize truck for fuck sakes not a 1ton lol. Shit there's SUVs that are probably heavier than your truck.

I'm in Canada so winter tires are a must where I live.
I've had the Blizzaks, Michelin X ice, and now the nokians.
The x ice I still use on my Jetta as I get them so cheap I may as well use them and they're good, prefer them to the Blizzaks.

Got the Nokians last winter for the taco and absolutely loved them. One of the best winter tires I've ever driven on.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Since the taco is a light truck I figured LT was appropriate unless LT means anything less than a semi. I'll talk with the tire dealer to get a better sense of what load rating is appropriate and how the SUV vs LT tires differ. I do hear lots of good things about Nokian tyres and actually have a set currently for my Outback but not sure if they are the Hakkapeliittas or something else. My only hesitation is that on my various Subarus the Blizzaks seemed a bit better on plowed city/highway roads but comparing across seasons is pretty subjective. I went plowing through some deep snow last winter in Outback with the Nokians and tried pretty hard to lose traction and couldn't (I tell my wife this is called testing) but on ice didn't take much to spin out if I was trying. Of course any tire will do that but that's where I felt the Blizzaks were a bit better.

 

I've had the Hakka LT and Hakka SUV. Make sure you check the PSI required for the advertised load range. You may find you need to run high PSIs in the LTs in order to surpass the max load of the SUV tire. For what it's worth, I run studded Hakka SUVs and love them. My daily drive in the winter entails about 5 miles of iced-up dirt road with elevation change. We have Blizzak WS80s on our family car and the tread compound is top notch as well, but only for the top half of the tread.

 

I have no need for snow tires but if i did I would get the Blizzak's based on the name alone. That name is TIGHT