Nokian Hakkapeliita WR Review

I know several of you have WRs on your Prius so feel free to share your experiences too!


After much debate, I decided to go with the WRs. I had them mounted on Sat and not a moment too soon! It started snowing on Sat and snowed til mid afternoon today before changing to rain.

So basically with 72 hours, I would've tried the WRs on snow, ice, slush and rain.

Here are my initial impressions for those still sitting on the fence.

Ride Comfort:
Seems to be the same. I had them put 35/33 to start and I bumped them up to 38/36 this morning. Didn't notice a difference but then again I haven't tried them on dry roads without the snow interfering.

Noise:
They seem just as noisy as the Integritys, maybe a tad quieter but definitely not a noticeable difference. They made quite a bit of noise over rutted ice surfaces (no idea which vehicle made those tyre tracks when the ice was slush cause now that it's frozen, it sounds like going over those strips at the side of the highway that's meant you wake you up if you nodded off)

Dry Grip:
Can't comment. It hasn't been dry yet.

Wet Grip:
In the slush, they will slip a bit as TRAC kicks in. Also the car will still slide around in the slush if I travel any faster than 20km/h (we had about 10cm of snow that turned into slush today). Limited exposure this evening when some of the snow washed away and I was presented with the wet asphalt. I can probably say they'll be grippier than the Integritys in that case. Again, I'll update when I get the chance.

Snow Grip:
This is probably the main reason why I went with these tyres. The snow traction on these are a HUGE contrast to the Integritys. I can pull away with no wheel spin!! Cornering is safe and uneventful. When pushed, it doesn't understeer (unless you're in inches of loose snow), rather it seems that my speed is reduced quite a bit. It's a different feeling. Hmm, what's the best way to describe it? I just don't seem to plow forward but I'm not turning either. It seems that VSC is able to reduce the speed quicker with these tyres. That's all I can say based on the 3 times I've tried it. Even with a quicker left-right, I'm still pointing straight after yanking the steering wheel left then a full right lock lol.

With the Integritys, VSC would kick in early and it'll understeer for a second or two before gaining grip and continuing in the direction you were turning.

Ice Grip:
Well like most tyres (except dedicated ice tyres), they're not particularly good. In places where the snow was packed until it was gleaming in the streetlight, the ABS will come on. They will slide to a stop with the ABS on unless you do really really gentle braking from about 3 car lengths before the stop sign. Acceleration from a stop sign is good. (Maybe it wasn't icy past the point I stopped?).

Other features:
The tyre depth readout is a great features. When new, it shows "8 6 4". As the tyre wears out, the 8 disappears, then the 6 and forth. I haven't figured out the Info Pin yet. I see that symbol of a car (sorta like a 4WD symbol) but only the front wheels are turned .The rear wheels are straight in the symbol. Anybody have any idea how that's used? Also note that they're uni-directional tyres so they can be mounted on one side only. The max sidewall pressure is 47PSI. Subaru forums say that 38-42PSI seems to be the sweet spot for the WRs on their Subarus.

Update 1:
Ride Comfort
Still running on 38/36. Had a chance to try them now that the snow's washed away. The road is still damped. They seem slightly more comfortable than the Integrity.

Noise
Now that I've had more driving time, I can say that the sounds are a bit more muffled than on the Integrity. You still hear them and feel them but they sound a bit better. Oh and they do make a drone when you take corners. It doesn't have to be a hard corner, even a simple roundabout to an onramp will generate the sound. I can only hear the drone when the radio is off. It's not too intrusive (no different than hearing the elec. motor whine) but the drone is there.

Update 2:
Dry Grip
Dry grip is pretty good. Again the howl or drone is there when you corner. Braking is good.

Other Features
So apparently the Info Pin is this green pin that inserts into the hole in the tyre. My tyres didn't come with a set of green pins. Am I supposed to?

Update 3:
Noise
Ok, there's definitely a wind noise associated with the tyres at highway speeds. Methinks it's the wider-than-normal gap between the treadblocks at the edge of the tyres that are making that wind "flapping" noise. So if you do a lot of highway driving, it might be annoying. However, fortunately, it's not intrusive enough that the radio can't cover it.

Other Features
I asked the folks at the Tire Factory again. They don't put the green pin any more since it's not exactly the most useful thing on earth.

Click here to see craigk's review of the Nokian Hakkapeliita RSi winter tyres

 

Yeah these are AS tyres (or all-weather plus as Nokian calls them) so I can run them in the summer too.

Oh trust me. If I don't have to switch, I won't. Why? Cause remember how I said it was snowing and it's -1°C yesterday? We had about 15-19cm of snow. Well at the time of this reply, it's +10°C and raining and all the snow's gone. Also back in October, it went from +5°C to +15°C in one day. I had to keep adding and removing the foam insulation (I use +15 as the upper limit since I don't have a scangauge).

Hmm, I thought "uni" = one. So uni-directional is one direction. Oh well, I think I did mention that they can be mounted on one side only so hopefully no one will get confused.

As for the Hakka, I thought it's a category and WR is the model. Just like the Energy line is for Michelin and the MXV4 Plus and the MXV4 S8 are the models under the Energy line. You can also call it Michelin MXV4 S8 and skip the "Energy" bit.

Anyway, we're just nick picking . The reason I engaged ABS is because I was trying to get a feel for grip. It wasn't a hard stop by any means, Just a more deliberate one (I had passengers onboard so I don't think they'll appreciate hard emergency stops lol). Glad to know they're great in the dry. No doubt I'll get to try them soon given the west coast weather.

I'll post your link in my original post for reference!

 

lol thanks.

 

ha! It hasn't rained this hard since Nov 1998 when we had the... 2nd? 3rd? wetttest Nov on record.

 

Updated Original Post with Ride Comfort and Noise updates.