Winter Tires.

I'm pretty picky, so I'll probably do it myself. Then regret that decision just like opting to strip and stain my cabin myself. Haha

 

I got some falken at3ws on my Tacoma but run blizzaks on my Subaru during the winter. There is obviously a lot at play between the two cars but the blizzaks on the Subaru are a lot more confidence inspiring compared to the Tacoma. I will be interested in comparing the two after we finally get some snow in Tahoe.

 

I just put my summers back on haha, the snow is gone up here in Alberta for a few weeks.

 

We are somehow still hovering around 90% of average snowpack even though it hasn't snowed for a month we had a crazy storm in December but it's been bone dry since. At least it is looking like the pattern might flip soon.

 

I used to run a snow removal business as part of my winter income. After years of tire changes and trying different brands, i have settled on General Ultimax Arctic as my favorites… super aggressive, unstoppable, but stoppable, and tread life/wear was always great.

 

FWIW I live in Tahoe also. Had Blizzak DM-V2's on my taco, got a hole in one this weekend and put my Falken Wildpeaks back on. All driving confidence is out the window. The Falkens felt like slicks compared to the Blizzaks; the taco was unstoppable with proper snow tires.

 

Yeah I was testing them out yesterday and it was noticeably different. I really don't want to buy another set of tires so will just use our Subaru when necessary. Although on deep powder days I was psyched to have the taco for its clearance but I'm a little hesitant now.

 

What size blizzaks are you running? I may just keep an eye out for some used ones.

 

I have been juggling hardware and missed a PM. The treadwear on my Hakka 8s and 9s is terrific, but the studs wore down to flat in roughly one winter season of driving. Likewise, I just pulled my Hankook I pikeX studded in the last week or so, and those also were worn down to basically flat in one winter. The Ipikes had 4,475 miles total.

What I am seeing is the studs on the Hakka 8, Hakka 9 and the 2022 version of the Hankook Ipike is the studs last 3-5k miles in mixed driving. After that, I am on a functionally studless snow tire. I had to start running studless tires (again) starting May 1, 2022. I have worn flat studs on my Hakka 9's on 6" wide rims, and worn flat studs on Hankook Ipike on 5 inch rims, no brainer. I am dumping my Ipikes on Craigslist, and keeping the Hakkas on my wider rims. Worn flat to be a studless snow tire, the Hakkas are the superior snow tire.

FWIW the freeway between Fairbanks and North Pole Alaska is regularly plowed. From my office to the far end of North Pole is about 13 miles one way, and year after year that drive is death to my studs. If they would stop plowing that freeway the studs on my tires would last indefinitely for the driveways and secondaries I see when I get off the freeway.

FWIW I have a new set of Yokohama geolandar AT something something on my factory 5" wide rims now. They have the three peaked mountain and the snowflake stamped on the sidewall, but I am well aware of previous advice in this thread that AT tires don't work good below +/- 45 dF. I am going to run the Yokohamas over the summer and get back to you in six months or so when my weather cools down again.

As a snow tire, I can get four seasons out of my Hakka's tread routinely, just no useful stud for 3/4 years. Now that I have about 200 miles on them, the Geolandars limit me to about 60-65mph on dry freeway. My four year old Hakka 9's still have > 8mm tread depth, they are not down to the first wear indicator with 15-20k miles on them.

FWIW my Hakka 8s are long gone. My (3-4 year old) Hakka 9s say "made in Russia" right on the side wall, each. I do read the news more or less daily at helsinkitimes.something, the Finnish government is offering beans to companies operating in Russia for bail out, as operating in Russia has always been considered a "high risk, high reward" sort of proposition. So no government bail out for Nokian, with about 85% of their factory capacity in Russia. My tire guy mentioned (when I was buying the Yokohamas for summer last week) that the Hakka 10 will be made in Finland and I should order them in June or July 2022, with the shared expectation the sidewalls will be stamped "Made in Finland." It makes perfect sense to me that the Hakka is a profit leader for Nokian, they need to sell it to the west, and the writing is on the wall. If I had a bunch of sugar cubes wrapped in tin foil in my checked bag I would rather fly to Turkey or Algeria than Finland with that suitcase.

FWIW the Finns have a shared border with Russia that is either about 800 km or 800 miles, don't remember, it is long. At the end of WW2 the Finns dug some big pits in the ground, buried their guns, and told the Russians, more or less, if you start any crap we will dig our guns back out of the ground and go back to kicking your butt. The Finns haven't needed to dig their guns back out of the dirt, Comrade Vladimir looked elsewhere for a wimpier foe a couple months ago.

I have no idea what tires Nokian will actually be selling, to the west, in autumn 2022. Nor do I have any idea what Nokian tires made within Russia will be available in countries that do not belong to NATO. My plan for winter 2022/23 is to run my (relatively inexpensive) new Yokohama Geolandars as long as I can, and then run either my old Hakka9 with worn down studs or new (made in Finland) Hakka 10 studded through the cold weather until I can get back up on the Yokohamas in spring 2023.

As a regular daily reader of helisinkitimes.english, timesofisrael.english and bbscotland.kindofenglish for greater than two years for relatively unbiased pandemic data my expectation is that if Nokian were to make Hakkas in Russia and stamp them "made in Finland," Nokian would be stone cold busted in 60-90 days. Not only would they be stone cold busted, the Finnish government would leave their gluteals hanging in the breeze for anyone to spank often and unobstructed. Invited spanks even. The Finn's current commitment to neutrality goes both ways, and I fully expect Nokian will toe the line.

Looking at the current Nokian lineup on 05-03-2022: https://www.nokiantires.com/tires/p...MI1ILyiITD9wIV3xatBh3h5AtZEAAYASADEgL5zPD_BwE , the Hakka R3 is the non studded version of the studded Hakka 10 that should be an awesome snow tire. Current Finn PM Marin and current Finn president Niinisto are both strongly pro NATO. If Nokian makes tires in Russia, stamps them "made in Finland" and tries to export to USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway and Germany I expect their collective (Nokian) Johnsons will get slapped in a memorable way.

One man's opinion.

 

pretty sure owning a truck is winter tires

 

definitely not. Winter tires is winter tires.

 

Dunno, you can run Duratracs no issue 12months a year up here in the tundra

 

sure, and you can wear sneakers all winter too. Winter tires will be better than All Seasons in winter weather. Lower glass transition temperature and better snow traction from the tread pattern.

 

I run dedicated winter and summer sets of rims/tires. But I think many people don't know what to look for in a winter tire. Duratracs imo outperform a lot of the middle of the road dedicated snow tires.

 

Could be. I've only had Blizzaks myself. Going to try Hakkas next since they get great reviews.

 

Hi everyone, new to tires so my understanding is limited. First time truck owner in a northern snowy state, I'm used to AWD SUV with all season tires that work well. Debating to get AS for the truck or a dedicated winter only tire for those stormy events. As you probably know, the tire size on the truck is 245/75R16. I can't find any winter tires in that size... Micheline doesn't, I looked at those Hakka's and they don't. I don't want to go too large to save on MPG, what do you recommend?

 

You got to look at the stuff you drive on. I personally see a relative lot of black ice and white ice and hard packed snow in plowed intersections, and for my work I get to deal with customer's unplowed driveways. Those are the 2 things Nokian Hakka's are best at, so they are a good choice for me. if you are some kind of interstate salesman who does a lot on winter miles on cold plowed highway with a little venture into various towns along your route, a much less agressive tire that does good on the freeway and isn't hopeless in town might be a better choice.

Also, your location doesn't show in your profile, "northern snowy state" is kind of relative. Try just the last five pages or so of this thread and see if you have more specific questions.

 

Quick preliminary review on the Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 in wintry conditions. My new set has both the mountain and the snowflake. I had put about 300 miles on them as my new summer tire on dry pavement and surprise - second winter.

Over last week local to me temps were overnights lows 28-30 degrees F, daytime highs 38-45 degrees F, daily rain/sleet /snow mix with minimal accumulations on the pavement. We did have snow sticking and accumulating in the grass. I put 244 miles on them during the unexpected cold snap, so 300 miles on the set at the beginning, ~550 miles on the set at the end.

The tires did good. I was real gentle with them at first. There is a credible comment earlier in this thread that A/T tires don't ordinarily work well below about 45 degrees F, it sounded like the voice of experience to me. One of my concerns is my lawn is still frozen. The top inch or two is a soggy mess from melting snow, but the roots of my lawn are still frozen hard, so I was expecting ice patches, at least here and there, on the pavement, especially early in the mornings.

I didn't find any ice, or if I did I was going gentle enough the tires didn't flinch. I found a few places during the week where I could get a little stupid on wet pavement with the various pedals and have time and space to correct before any sheet metal got wrinkled. My ABS is still working fine, and I couldn't get the low traction indicator to light on wet pavement with full throttle from a standing start- with no weight in the bed, in 2WD.

With under one thousand miles on them, the Yoko Geolandar G015 seems like a pretty fine tire on wet pavement at temperatures near freezing. I will put some miles on them summer of 2022 and see how far into winter I feel comfortable on them, update the mileage on them, and post up.

I am not looking for these to be my new winter tire. On dry pavement above freezing (stock 245-75-16 on my 2015 SR5) they get a little noisy up around 60-65 mph but are quite capable in shallow mud and I find them predictable and dependable on wet pavement. I don't need any more speeding tickets, and already find these a bit more capable on dirt roads than the stock Dunlops were.

 

I'm with Poindexter!
A set of Nokian Hakka's helped bring blood flow back to my white knuckles....but then again, I am in the southern part of the lower 48

 

Question for the collective... I'm in Front Range Colorado, and have been running Hankook Dynapros full year for the last 40k and they've done well as an all-rounder (mileage, round town, ski season, some off road). I was going to switch to winters this year, and was looking for a second wheelset. In the process, I found a sweet deal on a wheelset with some 245-75-16 Dynapros on them... So I'm wondering if a narrower (245-75 vs stock 265-70) set of Dynapros is workable. I understand that they'll underperform the winters I was considering getting. But presumably narrower Dynapros would be marginally better in general winter conditions than my existing stock spec Dynapros? Thanks in advance for any help and thoughts!