Hankook I-Pike RW11 - Worst Snow Tire Ever?

[SwampSurvivor]

I've also had good luck running studdable tires with no studs. I'm not sure what's up with these ones. I can try playing with pressure and I may be able to get them studded while used. We will see.

I hate to throw good money after bad. The money I would spend getting them studded would be at least 1/4 of the cost of tires that I know will be competent.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
I've also had good luck running studdable tires with no studs. I'm not sure what's up with these ones. I can try playing with pressure and I may be able to get them studded while used. We will see.

I hate to throw good money after bad. The money I would spend getting them studded would be at least 1/4 of the cost of tires that I know will be competent.


don't add studs to used tires

The holes where the studs go in will be dirty and cruddy, so the studs won't be able to be properly seated. Plus, the studs wear at the same rate as the tires themselves.

You're better off just getting new tires.

 

[MNgopher]

I run a set of these on our 2007 Explorer 4WD without studs.

They work just fine. No issues in slush or hardpack - they work great and like an old school snow tire without the studs. And they work way, way better than the all season tires it runs the rest of the year.

Ours are on their 4th winter and they are wearing well.

And these are light years ahead of the old Cooper Discoverer M+S (which yes, was a snow tire, not just an M+S)...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
I bought them from discount tire direct, so not returnable.

The plan was a good set of studless or studded, studdable tires. Unfortunately, with as late as I got the car, these were all I could find.

I read Overkill's review and expected the downsides he pointed out. But I didn't expect them to be this bad!


In my defence, I didn't have other brands available in the size

I'm guessing my JGC weighs significantly more than your 'roo, which may be the difference. I'm definitely not in love with them, but I don't find them awful. They are better in deep snow than the Latitude X-Ice tires on the Durango, but the X-Ice kicks their teeth out on any other surface.

 

[IndyIan]

Check your rear toe in, I was just driving my parents Forester and it had too much rear toe. I noticed if you hit broken pavement on one side, the other rear tire will move the back end over.
On dry or wet pavement the tread will squirm a bit but not slide, but on icy or slushy roads one side or the other can start sliding and gripping rapidly causing the backend to feel nervous. Both the Focus and the CRV had this issue and I had the alignment shop set the toe to zero and they track fine on dry pavement due to the negative camber at the back, and there is no nervousness in the snow anymore.
Also I have this size of tire on the CRV and find it a little large for good snow and slush clearance. 205 width would be better for this weight of vehicle. We have Latitude X-ice2 on it and they grip good on hard pack and are nearly silent on clear pavement. Deep snow/slush isn't good though.

 

[pkunk]

I have a set of the older Winter Pike studded on my Mini and they're great in light packed snow and ice. I wonder if they're mounted wrong, they are directional, and ditto the comments about studs.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL


In my defence, I didn't have other brands available in the size

I'm guessing my JGC weighs significantly more than your 'roo, which may be the difference. I'm definitely not in love with them, but I don't find them awful. They are better in deep snow than the Latitude X-Ice tires on the Durango, but the X-Ice kicks their teeth out on any other surface.


If your size is 295/45-20, Pirelli offers the Scorpion Winter in that size. However, it is a performance winter tire.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL


In my defence, I didn't have other brands available in the size

I'm guessing my JGC weighs significantly more than your 'roo, which may be the difference. I'm definitely not in love with them, but I don't find them awful. They are better in deep snow than the Latitude X-Ice tires on the Durango, but the X-Ice kicks their teeth out on any other surface.


If your size is 295/45-20, Pirelli offers the Scorpion Winter in that size. However, it is a performance winter tire.


Yes, it's a performance winter and in OEM width, which is pretty wide. I go out in deep snow on occasion and wanted something more aggressive so we went for a narrower tire, 265/50-20. I think there's a Blizzak available in that size now, which is probably a better tire.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
I go out in deep snow on occasion and wanted something more aggressive so we went for a narrower tire, 265/50-20. I think there's a Blizzak available in that size now, which is probably a better tire.


I looked on a couple Canadian tire sites and found a few options in the size 265/50-20
1010 has the Blizzaks, Dunlop Winter Maxx, and Wintercontact SI (and a few others)

Nokian seems to make the R2 in 265/50-20 as well, if you can find it. I heard Nokian is very restrictive in Canada with the distribution. But it is offered there. (They will soon replace it with the R3, though)

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
I go out in deep snow on occasion and wanted something more aggressive so we went for a narrower tire, 265/50-20. I think there's a Blizzak available in that size now, which is probably a better tire.


I looked on a couple Canadian tire sites and found a few options in the size 265/50-20
1010 has the Blizzaks, Dunlop Winter Maxx, and Wintercontact SI (and a few others)

Nokian seems to make the R2 in 265/50-20 as well, if you can find it. I heard Nokian is very restrictive in Canada with the distribution. But it is offered there. (They will soon replace it with the R3, though)


The Continental looks pretty decent, I really wish there was a Michelin available however.

At least in this size the options are a lot better than for the summer OE size where I have the option of the Pirelli OE or the other option of the other Pirelli OE

Thanks for the link BTW, didn't even know that site existed. I always just used TireRack to see what's available.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
The Continental looks pretty decent, I really wish there was a Michelin available however.

At least in this size the options are a lot better than for the summer OE size where I have the option of the Pirelli OE or the other option of the other Pirelli OE

Thanks for the link BTW, didn't even know that site existed. I always just used TireRack to see what's available.

Glad I could help you out

I found 1010 after shopping for winter tires for my car. (I eventually decided not to buy winter tires since I didn't anticipate on keeping my car this long) But when I was looking, 1010 showed some additional winter tires that we don't get down here. For example, Kumho sells winter tires in Canada, but not the US.This makes sense, for Canada to have more winter tire choices, since they are much more popular up there, and even required in some provinces. They ship to the US for only $15/tire, which is quite a bargain for international shipping of large, heavy items such as tires (I've seen domestic shipping charges within the US higher than that!)

Tire Rack's winter tire selection is kind of weak. For example, they don't even carry Hankook's winter tires (these are sold in the US, and not restricted like Nokian is)

I heard good things about Conti's winter tires, and the Winter Maxx is also supposed to be a very good winter tire.

 

[redhat]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: redhat
I am just here to also agree that the GT Radial Champiro IcePro have been excellent on our '14 Civic. Wife loves them and they seem to wear like iron. On the third winter with them and they have lots of tread.

I ended up returning my Winterforce 2 tires due to a bad balancing issue and have been running Blizzak WS80s this year on the Accord. They have been nothing short of excellent.


Are you running your GT's with or without the studs?


Hello, they are un-studded.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I was really amazed with how well the un studded GT Radials worked on hard packed snow and ice.

If I could get a set of those, studded, for the Forester for next winter, I would be happy!

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Check your rear toe in, I was just driving my parents Forester and it had too much rear toe. I noticed if you hit broken pavement on one side, the other rear tire will move the back end over.
On dry or wet pavement the tread will squirm a bit but not slide, but on icy or slushy roads one side or the other can start sliding and gripping rapidly causing the backend to feel nervous. Both the Focus and the CRV had this issue and I had the alignment shop set the toe to zero and they track fine on dry pavement due to the negative camber at the back, and there is no nervousness in the snow anymore.
Also I have this size of tire on the CRV and find it a little large for good snow and slush clearance. 205 width would be better for this weight of vehicle. We have Latitude X-ice2 on it and they grip good on hard pack and are nearly silent on clear pavement. Deep snow/slush isn't good though.


I was thinking about this same issue, there was a long thread on subaruforester.org about drivers having trouble with winter traction due to a stock alignment issue on brand new vehicles. I have a terrible time navigating that site on this PC for some reason, but I can post a link later.
Either my FXT didn't suffer from the issue or I am such a brilliant winter driver that I didn't even notice it... ;^)

 

[userfriendly]

My 275/65/20 RW11s are studded and seem ok. Not the best deep snow tire I ever owned, but good on hard pack. I found that no tire works well on ice without studs. For deep snow, nothing works better than Bandag's BDRW.

www.bandag.com

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Well, I have to say, for as bad as these things are on the road, they work pretty darn awesome off the road!

Friend of mine had everything either stuck or dead in his yard. Didn't feel like digging out the Jeep and kind of wanted to play around in the Subaru, so it was able to blast through the snow bank up to the head lights and drive through the yard with heavy snow up to the bumper. Sure, had to go back and forth a bit and do some spinning, but was genuinely impressed with how well the subaru did!

My Focus had an extremely toed out rear end from the factory. Caused some interesting handling in low traction situations.

 

[Rand]

If its your first subaru, its probably at least partially you being unfamiliar with the vehicle..

I had both 2011 and 2015 forester with MT and a 2013 outback with MT.. so quite familiar with how the subaru MT AWD feels.

if you goose the throttle the 4 wheels all slipping is a very different handling situation than FWD.
it acts similar to having both fwd and rwd and can be slightly unpredictable.



This is one of the reasons I bought the best winter tires for my subaru(s). If you drive in the winter with something marginal such as kumho ecsta 4x UHP all seasons.. it added a whole new meaning to white knuckled.. esp.. considering these are marketed as winter oriented cars..

Also did your '18 come with the 390CCA battery? those last about 2-3 years max. before falling well under 300CCA.

Final note: some subaru in the past have had alignment settings that are in spec but towards the limits.. can cause some odd handling in low traction situations.

You will never get stuck in the subaru on the road.. but it might not go exactly where you want it to at all times

 

[antonmnster]

I ran ipikes on my e46 bmw a while ago and while they clearly weren't as good on ice and hard packed snow, they were adequate. Long wearing, too.

 

[volvos_rock]

Had them on our VW Routan....not at all impressed.

Currently have Cooper wethermaster ST2, on both the Volvo and the Merc, very happy. (No studs)

ETA: surprised you didn’t like the winterforce, I had this on our 02 Volvo XC, it was unstoppable, until you plowed to much.

 

[SatinSilver]

Anyone know the best time to buy some new winter tires as far as deals go? Didn't want to start a new thread. Thanks!