I ran Yokohama A034's and Yokohama IG20's back to back on the same shakedown stage on Friday at Perce-Neige... The stage was pretty icy, but not a complete ice rink... the IC20's were far better as evidenced by me stuffinging it into a snow bank and alomst rolling with the A034's. It's a pity we didin't have the camera on because I said heading into the corner - this will be the first real test for these tires as this corner is slippery - about 1 second later WAM! We drove it out and kept going, minimal body damage which we added to with several other encounters thorughout the rest of the event!

We ran the IG20's on all the ice stages, they were awesome, but not invincable.. we still stuffed it a couple more times :-) I've run several different blizzaks before and like the Ig20's better, maybe because they are brand new, and the last Blizzaks I drove were 3 or 4 ytears ago... I've never run studs but would like to one day. I hear they are more fun :-)


-Martin.

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MRWmotorsports
I ran Yokohama A034's and Yokohama IG20's back to back on the same shakedown stage on Friday at Perce-Neige... The stage was pretty icy, but not a complete ice rink... the IC20's were far better as evidenced by me stuffinging it into a snow bank and alomst rolling with the A034's. It's a pity we didin't have the camera on because I said heading into the corner - this will be the first real test for these tires as this corner is slippery - about 1 second later WAM! We drove it out and kept going, minimal body damage which we added to with several other encounters thorughout the rest of the event!

We ran the IG20's on all the ice stages, they were awesome, but not invincable.. we still stuffed it a couple more times :-) I've run several different blizzaks before and like the Ig20's better, maybe because they are brand new, and the last Blizzaks I drove were 3 or 4 ytears ago... I've never run studs but would like to one day. I hear they are more fun :-)


-Martin.

Don't look bad those Yoke-your-hammas:


Lotta sipes.. kinda square shoulders, just wish the voids were bigger..

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

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Blizzak's work great when they are new. They are sufficient when used, almost more fun cause they still grip but lose some lateral ability.
Nokian Nordman tires are the Hakka 10 and are probably a 15 year old design. In snow pack they walk circles around other tires. Ice, they could definitely use studs.
The Hakka 2's were all around amazing with studs and the newer design.

Cheap studded tires I've found just suck all around. I had some cheap Hankooks that I thought totally blew.

Reinforced sidewalls on those Kumho's eh. Might have to look into that. We double punctured a Blizzak on a hidden rock a few weekends ago. Sucked.

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Grant Hughes

In the constructive criticism of tires department:

Had IG20s on our (former) Outback for winter they were GREAT for 1.5 winters (probably best winter traction I've driven), then went away to being meh all seasons. Had those Hankook iPike 409s on my Legacy (no studs), and they were good solid performers for 2.5 winters (probably would've been great with studs), then went away to being a meh all season tire. This year I'm running General Altimax Winter whatevers (not studded) on the Legacy, but we haven't had much snow and I was running around with 2wd for a while thanks to a blown center diff, so I can't really give an opinion yet.

The minivan has Hakka R SUV tires on it, they couldn't help our 2wd Sienna (the electronic nannies had two settings, no wheel movement or one wheel spin), so I upgraded to an AWD model and they go OK with more than one wheel to drive. Not sure if I'd go with them again, they're competent in the turns and stopping, but not sensational...but they are attached to a huge hulking Sienna.

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

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Morison
The Kumho KW22 is the new 'flavor of the month' around here, replacing the KW19, and it can be studded. It also comes in a heavy duty version with thicker sidewalls.

I couldn't find the heavy duty version. If so and it's really heavy duty that would be pretty cool.

I did find a Kumho press release about Teknikens Värld, a Swedish car magazine ranking the KW22s second in their winter tire review this year. Hakka 7's were in first place. As is typical.

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Grant Hughes

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john vanlandingham

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MRWmotorsports
I ran Yokohama A034's and Yokohama IG20's back to back on the same shakedown stage on Friday at Perce-Neige... The stage was pretty icy, but not a complete ice rink... the IC20's were far better as evidenced by me stuffinging it into a snow bank and alomst rolling with the A034's. It's a pity we didin't have the camera on because I said heading into the corner - this will be the first real test for these tires as this corner is slippery - about 1 second later WAM! We drove it out and kept going, minimal body damage which we added to with several other encounters thorughout the rest of the event!

We ran the IG20's on all the ice stages, they were awesome, but not invincable.. we still stuffed it a couple more times :-) I've run several different blizzaks before and like the Ig20's better, maybe because they are brand new, and the last Blizzaks I drove were 3 or 4 ytears ago... I've never run studs but would like to one day. I hear they are more fun :-)


-Martin.

Don't look bad those Yoke-your-hammas:


Lotta sipes.. kinda square shoulders, just wish the voids were bigger..

Yeah, just like that only with more tread :-)

They worked surprisingly well in snow,due to the mix of stages in a lag, we ran them on the first pass through Kitigan Zibi, which had ice to 8" of snow and they worked pretty darn well.

-Martin.

Grant, I think the Nordmans are now Hakka 2's with a harder compound. They were Hakka 10's with a harder compound, then they were Hakka 1's for a while. Wait, there's a Nordman 4 and a Nordman SUV, too!

I remember at Perce Neige a few years ago, there were some people cutting blocks out of the IG20s to make a poor man's (or a cheapskate's) A034.

Here's a review site that has a few of the tires mentioned here that might be useful.

http://marathonauto.com/tires/snow-tire-ratings-reviews.html

I did like the old Nokian WRs on my Legacy as a true all-season when I didn't live in the sticks, haven't tried the newer ones.

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

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fiasco

I did like the old Nokian WRs on my Legacy as a true all-season when I didn't live in the sticks, haven't tried the newer ones.

My wife has the WR-G2 on her Jetta...they do great at moving around in any weather (at least on the flatland).

I've got the Nordman Hakka 4 on my WRX. Great in deep snow, mediocre at best in slush and ice (which I guess you'd expect from a studdable tire).

I know the Hakka RSi was a significant improvement over the Hakka Q, I think the R may be a slight step backwards in terms of grip to address wear issues on the RSi (the perils of competing on "street" tires...)

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fliz
My wife has the WR-G2 on her Jetta...they do great at moving around in any weather (at least on the flatbed).

Fixed that for you.

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Grant Hughes

grant - you are looking for KW22s with an XL at the end of the sizing... Xtra Load. The sidewalls are significantly thicker than those of the 19s, but still flexible enough to work well.

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

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NoCoast

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fliz
My wife has the WR-G2 on her Jetta...they do great at moving around in any weather (at least on the flatbed).

Fixed that for you.

haha...Only 45K miles, but no problems yet. DSG warranty was extended to 100K, and the TDi seems to be a much better engine than anything else...although the maintenance is stupid expensive.

I have IG20's on the Forester and have used them for winter TSDs.rally-x etc... very good for ice, not the best for heavy snow. The Firestones were much better in the snow, but weren't nearly as good on ice. For mixed/unknown conditions, I use 2 of each mounted cross-corner style.

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Runamuck Rally

I'm running a set of General Altimax non-studded tires for Tbird. The past many years I have run various flavors of the Nokian Hakkas with studs on my WRX but now that I am campaigning in a 25 year old Subaru RX with 13" tires I thought I'd save some cash for the stage rally prep.

The General Altimax are rebranded Gislaved tires from Sweden (I believe). The Altimax trad pattern is amazingly similar to the one on my Hakka 4s (AMAZINGLY) and I found them to be at least adequate at Totem. I did find myself in the ditch once but I am going to blame that on driver error and dicking around with left food braking in the snow in an unfamiliar car and not on the tires themselves. Granted, it wasn't an ice-fest like Tbird is shaping up to be, and I may indeed regret not buying studded tires but I feel pretty comfortable with my choice at the moment. But I will say that once I found myself in the ditch at totem, I was able to back out with a combination of a locked center diff, low gear, and the narrower smaller Altimax tires. I'm convinced I would not have been able to get out with the WRX and fatter Hakkas.

Take that for what it is worth.

If you go unstudded, you won't be the only idiot. At least two Team Honey Badger cars will also be without spikes.

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Morison
grant - you are looking for KW22s with an XL at the end of the sizing... Xtra Load. The sidewalls are significantly thicker than those of the 19s, but still flexible enough to work well.

From what I can find for sale, only 15 available with the XL is 195/55R15... not that that is really a bad size, it'd be nice to have a 65 with more give but I'd wager that a XL tire would be less prone to puncture versus a regular 65 series.

Seriously considering a reciprocating saw and some snow tires. Never seen it done, would be interesting. I wonder if the US Nokian distributor would donate a tire or two. They're here in Denver somewhat close to our shop.

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Grant Hughes