Buying snow tires is now like buying summer tires. There are lots of niches and lots of choices in the niches. The general groupings I have seen as I have editted the
Snow Tire FAQ (
http://www.snowtire.info) are
- Studded - Snow & Ice. Best solution for ice, but can be loud and not allowed in some states.
- Studless (Friction) - often sold as Ice Tires. These tend to be great on glare ice, but not so great in deep snow.
- Touring (high speed, unstudded) - Good compromise if you only see occassional snow and little ice
- Slow crawl (deep/heavy snow) - these are the old style, big luggy treads. Great if you need to grind through deep/heavy snow, but not good on the highway.
For rally cross, you want a dirt or gravel tire, not a snow tire. The snow tire might be better then a summer tire, but a tire designed for dirt or gravel will work the best.
Before you pick a snow tire, you need to look and decide what your values are. When I am running rallies, cost is secondary, performance is primary, and if I can run studs, I will. For my wife's car, I preffer something that is quieter and a better all round tire.
spegull03 said:
it looks like there are a few different haaka's. the Q's, 1's, and 2's i think... are they all pretty comparable, just newer or something?
They are all different. The Hakka-1, 2, 4, (and 5) are all studded snow tires. Their primary source of ice traction comes from studs. The Hakka-1 is about 10 years old. The 2 replaced the 1. (The 1 replaced the 10, the 10 replaced the 9, the 9 replaced the 8..... I've been using Hakkas for a while.) The Hakka 2 and 4 are the quietest snow tires I have ever tested (and I have tested about 16 tires in the last 6 years). The studded Hakka 4 has the best ice traction of any street tire I have driven.
The Hakka WR, NRW are "all-year" snow tires. They provide very good snow performance, but can stand up to year round usage. BTW, in Germany, these three were marketted as Autobahn snow tires.
The Q, and RSI are non-studded, friction tires. They get their ice grip primarily from the rubber (tread compound) itself.
Havng said all that, I really encourage you to take a look at the reviews found on the Snow Tire FAQ and to read the Snow Tire FAQ Forum (
http://www.snowtire.info/forum). In the forum you will find input from other drivers and the latest results from The Real World Snow Tire Tests. This past year we tested the Nokian RSI, Nokian 4, Vredestein SnowTrac 2, and the Green Diamond Icelanders.
BTW, Check out this
http://www.hakkapeliitta5.com/.
- John