Studded tire vs dedicated winter tire?

[GENINC]

I drive alot in winter snowboarding all over Bc on my Q7 and my studded Hakkapelitas are the bomb. Never gonna buy anything less than that. My parents are on their 6th season now with them as well. Never cheap out on your tires; your life and the ones around you depend on it.

[sharpstick]

Wow, the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT at Kal Tire are $460.45/tire for my truck... I wasn't expecting to pay $2000 for winter tires, I will keep shopping.

[Norwest Alta]

Originally Posted by sharpstick

Wow, the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT at Kal Tire are $460.45/tire for my truck... I wasn't expecting to pay $2000 for winter tires, I will keep shopping.

Wouldn't be bad if they'd last more then 60000 miles.

[tool]

Have you seriously got 60,000 miles out of a set of winter tires?

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by sharpstick

Wow, the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT at Kal Tire are $460.45/tire for my truck... I wasn't expecting to pay $2000 for winter tires, I will keep shopping.

Being that Kal Tire is the exclusive distributor of Nokian there is no way to shop around for competitive prices on Nokians (in Canada anyways).

Last January I bought a set of studded General Arctic LT's from AO's own Tirebob and his pricing was stellar, they performed very well for the 7000 to 8000 km I put on them and considering last winters significant snowfall it was a very good decision. I now have a new vehicle with dually's so I might wind up selling those 245/75/16 load range E's, they're mounted on GMC steel wheels that fit the Savana's (got a 4x4 Mercedes Sprinter 3500 so they don't fit my new set-up). Contact Tirebob and he can set you up with something that's more
economical than Nokian's and as good as or darned close to them. I already have him looking into options for me as I'm thinking of getting
creative with my sizing.

[Stinky Buffalo]

One thing I was wondering about was, I don't see a correlation between traction and temperature when tires are being reviewed.

For instance, a tire may have great ice traction at -5C, but what about -35C? Of course, I know that traction on ALL tires degrade as the temperature drops, but how do you find out which tires are better than others in that regard?

[GENINC]

Originally Posted by Stinky Buffalo

One thing I was wondering about was, I don't see a correlation between traction and temperature when tires are being reviewed.

For instance, a tire may have great ice traction at -5C, but what about -35C? Of course, I know that traction on ALL tires degrade as the temperature drops, but how do you find out which tires are better than others in that regard?

The softer the compound on them the better they will perform in colder temperatures. But of course they won't last as long when it gets warmer.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by GENINC

The softer the compound on them the better they will perform in colder temperatures. But of course they won't last as long when it gets warmer.

Of course... My point is, it would be nice to have some kind of rating for that, so it can be compared across tires, though.

[Homesteader]

Originally Posted by CaberTosser

Being that Kal Tire is the exclusive distributor of Nokian there is no way to shop around for competitive prices on Nokians (in Canada anyways).

You are correct as far as I know in that they are the exclusive distributor, but I have found substantial savings on the same Nokian tire, by calling around to different KalTires.

[Hindsight]

Enjoying all these tire discussions, probably gonna pick up a set of Bridgestone Blizzaks at Costco in the next couple of weeks

[lmtada]

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

Wouldn't be bad if they'd last more then 60000 miles.

45,000 on my Hakkepalita #5. Good for 2-3 more winters. Excellent tire. I take these tires on the Subaru, Ice roads Maxhamish lake area, Rainbow lake, and through the Rockies. Picked up at Kal Tire Sherwood Park in 2008.

[Steelhorse Cowboy]

Haven't used a "modern" winter with studs but from the comments I will definitely look into it on the next set.
it seems the removal never gets rid of the ice columns at every intersection

[CaberTosser]

These are what I bought last year in a load range E, I'd recommend them. Tirebob beat the absolute pants off of Canadian Tire's price on them:

http://generaltire.com/tires/winter/grabber-arctic-lt

The tread pattern reminded me a bit of the previous-generation Hakkapellitta LT's that I had. They were my first studded tires, I was not particularly annoyed by the noise the studs make. A loaded plumbing van has all manner of cargo and tool-rattling noises so another noise just adds to the existing orchestra.

[Albertacoyotecaller]

I ran a pair of studded Nitto Exo Grappler last season. Liked them a lot on my diesel in oilfield conditions.