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Snow Tires? What Do You Like?


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I love my Hakki's also. But I can't spell it (seems no one can). It's

 

HAKKAPELIITTA

 

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

As for wear, my son is still driving the Q's I bought 5 seasons ago. Of course they come off in May and on again in November on his '83 GL wagon. Even though they are half worn, they still do the job in the snow. He's a ski-bum and drives up to Stevens Pass every chance he gets. I put all season Hakki's on my Legacy this year because I couldn't see the annual changeover on a car that seldom will see snow.

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The Goodyear Ultra Grip is a good snow tire.

Tire Rack rated them "Superior"

I can't tell you about Finnish tires, but I'm happy with these in Ohio winters.

I agree with other posters, get a set of winter wheels to save your tires from mounting damage. Plus, you can switch them yourself when needed in about an hour.

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I have a set of Falken Eurowinters on my 87 GL, I had got them with the 15 inch Legacy wheels (200 bucks for 4 wheels + 4 brand new snow tires, not bad eh?) Doing me good, it's supposed to snow tonight and I just spent $48 to have them mounted today. Gonna start looking for another set of wheels to mount my summer tires on.... 15 inch alloys.. 5 lug...

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I bought a set of four steelies with Yokohama Gaurdex 600's (studless snows) mounted (got them off e-bay for $187 and no shipping since I picked them up). Got to try them for the first time last night. We got between 2"-3" of snow in Tumwater, and these tires felt great on my '98 OBW. They had approx 80% tread left when I bought them, and I put them on this last Sunday.

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  • 1 month later...
Originally posted by Zaphod

 

Also, to anyone, how much would a dedicated set of rims cost me for my snow tires?

 

Howdy Beeblebrox the 4th :D I think you'll find anywhere between 40-50 for steel wheels the norm @ junkyards, while some places like tirerack.com will package deal them with snow tires. My suggestion: shop around.

 

PS, say "Hi" to Ford for me ;)

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I thought I was going to get 4 winters out of my Blizzak's , but as it turns out I only got 3 & 1/2 out of them. When those tires wear past the winter ice compound they really suck. I've replace them with Hakka 2's & so far they seem just great. The rubber compound on the Hakka's is the same through the entire tread. So hopefully I won't have to get rid of snow tires with 50% of the tread remaining like I just did with my Blizzak's.:mad:

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  • 7 months later...

Looked thru the thread and wanted to put a good word in for Semperit Sport Grips. Have run them for two winters on a 98 GT (205/60-15) mounted on old Outback mags bought from a local wrecker. Summers are 55 series 16 inch.

 

Have had Falken EuroWinters that were only so so. Semperit is onwned by Continental and these tires were made in Portugal, go figure. Directional thread pattern not unlike the Hakka 10's but much less expensive. I used Semperits year's ago on a BMW rally car so they've been around at least 25 years. Comes in Winter Grip and Sport Grip models depending on size.

 

I paid about $52 a tire from Tire Wearhouse here in Vermont. This tire on an AWD car really gets the job done and still offered very good dry weather performance. Great fun heading up the Sherburne pass and watching all the SUV's sliding off the raod on their all season tires.

 

Glenn

Vermont Winters

 

Just curious to find out what people have out there for snow tires. Up here in CT the winters do not get too bad. However alas, my subaru is FWD. I haven't had many problems with getting around though.

 

Just contemplating getting some snow tires for the car. Wanted to know what people reccomend.

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I have a 1993 subaru legacy. I put studded snow tires on the front. My spouse thinks I am crazy, the garage guy thinks I am crazy -- BUT I never ever get stuck, never slide, have ultimate road grip -- its a great feeling, a little loud when there is no snow, but its a small price to pay for that amount of control in bad weather. I live in CT also.

 

 

 

Just curious to find out what people have out there for snow tires. Up here in CT the winters do not get too bad. However alas, my subaru is FWD. I haven't had many problems with getting around though.

 

Just contemplating getting some snow tires for the car. Wanted to know what people reccomend.

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I did not put snow tires on the back of the '93 legacy, it is only front wheel drive. I do own a '97 legacy, GT, 2.5 - I don't have to put snow tires on it at all. The awd control is great, but the front wheel drive with studded tires is an awsome vehicle in snow or ice.

 

I got stuck once in a nasty place with no phone, that is when I swore I would use studded tires on that car - I have stuck to it, and am very happy about it, even though everyone else thinks I am nuts.

lvdpb

 

 

Do you have them on the rear also? I always thought that was a prudent thing to do, especially with a Legacy (AWD - full time).
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At moderate to high speed on dry roads the studs will lift the rubber of the road severly reducing traction, in most cases 80% or more traction is lost!! It feels like the you are driving on very uneven grooved pavement or metal grating when you drive studded tires on dry pavement. They do not have enough traction for emergency manouvers or even hard lane changes. Studded tires should NEVER be driven above 55 MPH..... its too dangerous..

I dunno about 55 Mph being max speed. I run a set of new studded tires every winter. Making serveral trips every fall down to anchorage doing about 80 mph. Half the drive is on snow/ice and the rest is on dry pavement. I hardly notice the "loss" of traction.

 

Just my thoughts.

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I am pleased with Blizak LM18. Used to run Yokohama F310, which are very good in snow but lacking wet weather braking grip.

 

 

I have two sets of rims. This means that swapping tyres is done by me, when the need arises. ALSO! Tyre mounting and dismounting does stress the rims, so it's best not to have this done twice a year.

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Always run four identicle tires regardless of AWD. The imbalance in traction between studded snows in the front and regular tires in the rear can cause the car to be extremely dangerous in very slippery conditions, especially in corners.

 

Ask me how I know.:rolleyes:

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If you want a year round set of basically snow tires (no need to remove in the summer) look at the Nokian WR. You scarafice a tiny bit of dry handling (if pushed hard) but these tires are great in snow/rain, pretty quiet, decent on ice and no need of changeover hassle. They have a 50k warranty also. We have them on a 96 Civic and love them.

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If you want a year round set of basically snow tires (no need to remove in the summer) look at the Nokian WR. You scarafice a tiny bit of dry handling (if pushed hard) but these tires are great in snow/rain, pretty quiet, decent on ice and no need of changeover hassle. They have a 50k warranty also. We have them on a 96 Civic and love them.

These sound great.

I read this article about them.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

Here in Colorado we have very weird weather conditions. One day it will be 10 degrees, next day 18 inches of snow, couple days later 55 degrees. It would be a giant pia to change from snow to back and forth. I like the sounds of this all-season tire.

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Good point. For a lot of environments, a snow tire's personality on dry pavement is just an important consideration as is the snow & ice performance.

 

In that regard I've found the Dunlop Wintersport M2 to rival the dry performance of the Bridgestone RE-950 and still kick major butt in the slippery stuff (probably not as good as Hakka's tho). They wear reasonably well on dry pavement also.

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Good point. For a lot of environments, a snow tire's personality on dry pavement is just an important consideration as is the snow & ice performance.

 

In that regard I've found the Dunlop Wintersport M2 to rival the dry performance of the Bridgestone RE-950 and still kick major butt in the slippery stuff (probably not as good as Hakka's tho). They wear reasonably well on dry pavement also.

I also found this page.

 

http://www.snowtire.info/

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Just curious to find out what people have out there for snow tires. Up here in CT the winters do not get too bad. However alas, my subaru is FWD. I haven't had many problems with getting around though.

 

Just contemplating getting some snow tires for the car. Wanted to know what people reccomend.

A dissenter. Not worth it where you live. Nor I. The trade-off you pay in dry handling, wear, and rain isn't worth the relatively small improvement in snow for a dedicated snow tire. Take a look at some of the reviews on tirerack and you'll see the dedicated snows sacrifice significant dry and wet road performance to get that edge. Ice is worse around these parts than snow, anyway.

 

Sure, there might be a couple times each winter where they would be "nice to have," but the best all-year M&S rated tires are very good, last a lot longer, and there's no changeover required.

 

I put Michelin HydroEdge on my OBW last Fall at 120K miles. Just checked the tread depth before rotating them at 146,000 miles, and they have 9/32nds at front and 10/32nds at rear. New is 11/32nds. BTW NTB gave me a neat little tread depth gage last time I was in (to buy $600 worth of truck tires).

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Thanks Rich. From that link I found another great link of snow tire reviews:

 

http://www.snowtire.info/tirecomments.html

 

There looks to be about 60 conscise, individual reviews.

 

Yea after all I have read I am going with the Nokian WR. I have read numerous reviews and they all are great. Plus all the over Audi/Volvo/BMW clubs rave about them.

Thanks for the advise Pugelly

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Just curious to find out what people have out there for snow tires. Up here in CT the winters do not get too bad. However alas, my subaru is FWD. I haven't had many problems with getting around though.

 

Just contemplating getting some snow tires for the car. Wanted to know what people reccomend.

Good Year Ultra Grip ICE

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Snow tires aren't possible for me here in Philadelphia. I need somewhere to store the 4 tires that aren't being used. I think my next tire purchase will be the Nokian WR. But I'm a few years away from a purchase. Last winter I put on Bridgestone Turanza LS-T's.

 

~Howard

:banana:

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Snow tires aren't possible for me here in Philadelphia. I need somewhere to store the 4 tires that aren't being used. I think my next tire purchase will be the Nokian WR. But I'm a few years away from a purchase. Last winter I put on Bridgestone Turanza LS-T's.

 

~Howard

:banana:

if you have no friends to tote about, there's always the back seat and trunk option. :grin:

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