OFF with Nokian WR's, on with Assurance TripleTred!

[SubeeTed]

Hi ALL!

Well about a month ago I hit a Pothole here in MAss. It destroyed my Alloy Rim and one of the Hakka 1's that I had on my 1997 Legacy GT Wgn. Well they don't make Hakka 1's anymore, it wouldn't matter because I'de have to do 4! So...I got a used rim. I was just going to put my "Summer" tires on, figure out something later. Well that didn't work because I waited too long to get an all wheel alignment, the rear tires were getting into the cord, on the two most inner edges! So I was sort of stuck at my locale tire dealer. Well he's a Nokian dealer, not a GoodYear guy! HE sold me on those WR's, real 4 Season tire, great in snow! Don't need to put on Summer then Winter tires, save on that etc. And they give a 30 trial! Well I went for it, AND he was able to do a 4 wheel alignment then also! He also sold me on Nitrogen! I had 35 PSI in all 4 corners!

 

Well I drove around for a day......I HATE THESE TIRES! They sucked all the fun of driving my GT! Maybe if I had OBW wagon I wouldn't notice! But the GT is set up for more spirited driving that I indulge in! So I waited about another week....really didn't want to make the call....felt kinda stupid! It's TOO much money to be this unhappy! What these tires do or don't, is that they don't track well, your always adjusting the wheel, they don't cut corners well either, alot of understeer. They don't brake well either! This is all in dry weather I'm talikng about, witch is most of the time when you have these on all year. The article in Canadian Driver desribes them well, http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/hl/nokian.htm

 

So I went with the Goodyear Assurance TripleTred. This was my first choice but it would have been days to get them in 205/55/16. The first time I was there. So...I now have the TT's on....WHAT a differnece! Tracking is much better, it cuts turns well! I have been in snow once about 4", it was slick underneath, they didn't do as well as I expected. But I also have 35 PSI of Nitrogen! When it warms up around hre I'll adjust them down to 2 PSI above normal. I think that would be 32 in front, 30 in the rear, see what happens then! And they are rated for 80,000 miles instead of 50K for the WR's! They are a bit noisy, maybe that will go away with the Nitrogen PSI adjustment!

 

SubeeTed

[blitz]

I just keep hearing good things about the Triple-Tred.

 

I've never had a tire get quieter with age, only noisier.

 

Noise tends to be a hallmark of directional tread.

 

**** ******!

[Scottbaru]

I put the Triple-treads on this Fall, nice tire. Excellent on ice! I read they use lava pumice in the rubber, that makes a lot of sense. I've always sought all-weather tires with the best possible snow/ice performance, these are the best I've seen. They rate highest in snow of all the all-wx tires at tirerack.com.

[dmanaenk]

Tried both, WR&TT. They both are fairly crappy in snow/icq compared to decent winter tire. WR slightly better in winter but were scary on highway.

[Ranger83]

Canadian Driver has a test of the WR at:

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

 

And the Winter RSI at:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/winter/tires/hakka_rsi.htm

 

And a winter traction test that includes an Outback at:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/pw/traction2006.htm

[rizzo]

Tried both, WR&TT. They both are fairly crappy in snow/icq compared to decent winter tire. WR slightly better in winter but were scary on highway.

 

would you mind elaborating on the "scary on highway" part? what sort of conditions do you normally drive?

 

i'm currently considering 5 tires for my car (which i need to get switched in the next 2 weeks). the nokian WR, the goodyear tripletread, the goodyear comforttread, the bf goodrich traction TA, and the falken ziex ze-512.

 

i can't find much for reviews on the nokian. the goodyear tripletread is ranked highest in its category on both tirerack.com and consumer reports. the falken is ranked highest in "performance all seaon" (a different category than the tripletread is in) on consumer reports. the bf goodrich seems to have a lot of happy customers here on USMB, whose advice i also value.

 

so since no one seems to really give a nice in depth review of the nokians, i was wondering if you could do that for me. what did you like about them and what didn't you like about them? also compare them to the tripletreads since you've used both...

 

i'll explain the conditions i drive in to give you some reference. first, i have an 03 OBS. i live in providence, RI (southern new england). we get snow in spurts, but a lot of times, it ends up icy because RI doesn't know how to use a plow. i also go up north to NH, VT, and ME for skiing, where there's usually considerably more snow. it also rains here a lot, but the summers are warm and can be dry as well (we've had drought warnings). because it only snows about 3 months out of the year, i don't see a point to having dedicated snow tires that i swap out in the winter. so i really need a good all around tire with decent treadwear (the falkens are only rated for 30k, while the nokians seem to be rated for 50k and the tripletreads and comforttreads 80k, not sure on the traction TA's).

 

i'm also going to make a new post to try to get people to elaborate on why they like the tires they do.

[LosDiosDeVerde86]

you gotta be carefull voer inflating the triple tread. the middle rib of tread, the "snow" tread, will wear a lot quicker than anything else, especially over inflated.

[dmanaenk]

Little intro first: I come from a country where majority of drivers use dedicated winter tires. So I am used to good winter grip.

Keep in mind that you need winter tires not only because you get snow and ice, but because allseason tire compound looses a lot of traction in temperatures below 40s. So even on dry highway at 37f winter tire has better grip.

 

Back to TT & WR

Few month ago I decided to try TT and WR and see the difference for myself. I used them for about 2 weeks each. Not much of course, but I did ~500-600 miles on each set, so it should have been enough to decide for myself.

In snow they both were ok, in ice breaking TT sucked and WR was better but not ok for me. On highway late in 2 week trial TT felt better than WR mostly because they weren't slipping sideways as much when I was going fairly fast over joints in concrete during fairly sharp turn. Or WR might have been unlucky here because it was colder when I was testing WRs. And both were worse than winter tire.

What I did not like in TT - when my rears were starting to slip the traction was decreasing a lot. When WRs were just starting to slip -no big decrease in traction.

I also tried them in slush. They were about the same, WR maybe slightly better.

I did not test them in wet conditions.

I do not care about ride comfort and noise level of the tire so I have nothing to say there.

So I did not like both of them. Winter tire is the way to go for me.

 

 

As for other choices - I do not know much about Traction T/A. Only that they are fairly good in snow compared to other all-season.

I was driving a car with falken 512 last summer. I did not like their wet grip much. But most people I asked about them seem to be happy. In a discussion on another forum we conculded that the key difference was that I was driving 60-series tire, and good ones are 55 and below. Those two have different treadwear rating. Never heard about 512 snow capabilities, but I would suspect they are below average.

And a general note about tirerack ratings - I personally only look at negative reviews by people driving sporty cars, who did more than 5-10k on tires and who specify which tires they used to drive before. Other ratings/reviews make no sense to me. As well as overall ratings. Sure enough, when you change old&bald oem tire with any new one you will get immidiate (after initial ~200 miles) improvement, but it says nothing about the tire.

[Ranger83]

Usually the antidote for lack of directional stability is alignment. Have you had the wheels aligned or checked, by chance?

 

I had a car that became downright treacherous to drive in rain after I backed into a concrete stopper in a parking space. After I got the rear wheels aligned, it was fine again.

[dmanaenk]

Sorry, I probably did not express what I wanted to say well enough. I am not talking about directional stability.

I am talking about the following - say you go into a curved exit with a recommended speed of 30mph doing 45-50mph. WR were sliding sideways (all 4 of them) a little on road imperfections (like a bump, crack etc) at the speed TT weren't. That's all I wanted to say.

 

And yes, I had my wheels aligned before I took those tires for a test. And also my car does not have traction control, otherwise it would have probably kicked in.