Initial review - Hankook iPike RW11

[OVERKILL]

This is the 2nd review from today for the other tires on the other vehicle. These are significantly wider at 265 than the Michelin tires fitted to the Durango, and so keep that in mind if one wishes to compare the two.

While the Durango and the Jeep share a platform, the Durango is a bit longer and heavier. Adding to the difference is the Durango's full-time AWD versus the Jeep's variable and selectable system, and of course the significant difference in power output between the two vehicles cannot be ignored either.

Ride impressions: The ride compared to the OEM Pirelli rubber is similar, with a bit more yield in corners, but not significant.

Noise: These tires are a bit louder and not as smooth as either the OE rubber or the Michelin tires on the Durango. However, they are not offensive by any means.

Traction: Traction is excellent and it took effort to break traction this morning. Performance on ice was also excellent and behaviour was progressive and predictable. I observed absolutely no sliding about, similar to the performance observed in the Durango.

Handling: Cornering traction was also predictable and the limits were not sudden; you could feel it starting to go and compensate accordingly. Having been the first time out on these tires in inclement weather, figuring out how hard and far they could be pushed was a priority for establishing a baseline for the winter.

Overall, I am quite impressed with these tires given their cost and I expect them to do exceptionally well in deep snow, as they seem eager to self-clear and have a more open and snow-friendly tread than the Latitude X-Ice XI2.

 

[MNgopher]

We've been running the RW11's on the Explorer for a few years now. Your description is pretty much spot on.

The biggest thing we have enjoyed with these is the predictability. As described, the limits are not sudden and give you warning so to speak before there is no traction...

And yes, they do very well in deeper snow. Treadwear has also been very good for a winter tire to date.

Tough to beat the cost too...

 

[edyvw]

From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: edyvw
From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?


Not any distance that mattered, since it warmed up later in the day and so now there is significantly less accumulation. Hopefully the next big dump we get I will have a chance to evaluate.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: edyvw
From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?


Not any distance that mattered, since it warmed up later in the day and so now there is significantly less accumulation. Hopefully the next big dump we get I will have a chance to evaluate.

Please do, and slush performance. I am eying them seriously for next year since I got baby and not traveling to mountains as often now. Only reason why I am iffy about them is that reputation of being bad in deep snow and slush.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: edyvw
From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?


Not any distance that mattered, since it warmed up later in the day and so now there is significantly less accumulation. Hopefully the next big dump we get I will have a chance to evaluate.

Please do, and slush performance. I am eying them seriously for next year since I got baby and not traveling to mountains as often now. Only reason why I am iffy about them is that reputation of being bad in deep snow and slush.


Not sure if thats the best tire for your high performance vehicle edyvw. They are basically a knockoff of the altimax arctic.

Just from the tread pattern you can see they will have excellent deep snow traction, Ice traction to be determined.. since they are studdable they will probably be less than a good ice tire but more than an all-season unless of course you got them studded.

I would run these, but so many options with triple rebates here.. probably never will.

Hakka 8's are the best studded tire if you want something for really serious weather.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: edyvw
From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?


Not any distance that mattered, since it warmed up later in the day and so now there is significantly less accumulation. Hopefully the next big dump we get I will have a chance to evaluate.

Please do, and slush performance. I am eying them seriously for next year since I got baby and not traveling to mountains as often now. Only reason why I am iffy about them is that reputation of being bad in deep snow and slush.


Not sure if thats the best tire for your high performance vehicle edyvw. They are basically a knockoff of the altimax arctic.

Just from the tread pattern you can see they will have excellent deep snow traction, Ice traction to be determined.. since they are studdable they will probably be less than a good ice tire but more than an all-season unless of course you got them studded.

I would run these, but so many options with triple rebates here.. probably never will.

Hakka 8's are the best studded tire if you want something for really serious weather.


I believe he's talking about the ones I have on the Durango, not these ones.

 

[OVERKILL]

Was out and about in the slush today with the Jeep. I did make it a point to try it on some ice and as expected, the performance was decent, but not as good as the Michelin on the same surface, which took more braking to slide. This was in my work parking lot, which had not been sanded/salted.

I'm extremely impressed with how these shed even heavy wet snow however, I drove right up through a snow bank and onto the sidewalk this morning into 8" of snow and basically none of it stayed in the tread.

We are supposed to get even more snow, so hopefully will have a chance to try them out on the main roads with lots of accumulation.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: edyvw
From previous review;
Have you had a chance to drive in those 5-6 inches of snow in Xi2? How they behaved?


Not any distance that mattered, since it warmed up later in the day and so now there is significantly less accumulation. Hopefully the next big dump we get I will have a chance to evaluate.

Please do, and slush performance. I am eying them seriously for next year since I got baby and not traveling to mountains as often now. Only reason why I am iffy about them is that reputation of being bad in deep snow and slush.


Not sure if thats the best tire for your high performance vehicle edyvw. They are basically a knockoff of the altimax arctic.

Just from the tread pattern you can see they will have excellent deep snow traction, Ice traction to be determined.. since they are studdable they will probably be less than a good ice tire but more than an all-season unless of course you got them studded.

I would run these, but so many options with triple rebates here.. probably never will.

Hakka 8's are the best studded tire if you want something for really serious weather.

Nah, I was referring to Xi2.
As for Hankook, I know overkill knows what he is doing, but I had once Hankook W300, and that was by far the worst winter tire I ever had. Since then I am not touching Hankook winter tire.
But you are right, finding winter tire to be able to take beating from BMW suspension is hard. Few days ago i was entering curve that leades to enteranse on HWY, and I managed to smoke inner rear tire. Right now I have Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 255/55 R18 T109T, and yes, while they are great ind eep snow and slush, dry leaves much to wish for (and of course I do not expect winter tire to behave like AS or not to mention, summer tire).

 

[OVERKILL]

Further update:

Snowy roads this afternoon meant slick surfaces. While going forward and backward is handled well, turning is a whole other matter. There is a lot of slide when trying to change direction; you can push the front wheels easily, which isn't overly confidence inspiring. This is not the case with the Michelin tires. I'm going to double-check the pressure that is in these "just in case", as I'm not overly happy with this.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Further update:

Snowy roads this afternoon meant slick surfaces. While going forward and backward is handled well, turning is a whole other matter. There is a lot of slide when trying to change direction; you can push the front wheels easily, which isn't overly confidence inspiring. This is not the case with the Michelin tires. I'm going to double-check the pressure that is in these "just in case", as I'm not overly happy with this.

Precisely problem I had with Hankook W300 like 10 years ago (or 12). They were ridiculously bad in slick and going through corners was real drama on slick roads.

 

[Rand]

Sometimes the AWD setup can affect the "push" you get trying to turn.

My subaru is terrible with All seasons and pushing/understeering on snow.

never get stuck.. but with winter tires its mostly gone.. still get abit of rear push.

Before condemning the hankooks you might want to consider the vehicle abit.. I wonder how they would perform on a FWD or RWD vehicle... esp since this is your first winter with both new vehicles.

Not saying its NOT the hankook tires either.. but just my experience with subaru awd and winter driving... its not a part time 4x4 truck that is for sure.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Sometimes the AWD setup can affect the "push" you get trying to turn.

My subaru is terrible with All seasons and pushing/understeering on snow.

never get stuck.. but with winter tires its mostly gone.. still get abit of rear push.

Before condemning the hankooks you might want to consider the vehicle abit.. I wonder how they would perform on a FWD or RWD vehicle... esp since this is your first winter with both new vehicles.

Not saying its NOT the hankook tires either.. but just my experience with subaru awd and winter driving... its not a part time 4x4 truck that is for sure.


This issue is I'm directly comparing them to the tires fitted to the Durango, which is also AWD, and built on the exact same platform, and the performance difference between the tires, during turns, is quite noticeable

However, I dropped the air pressure down about 5psi (they were over-inflated by the shop that mounted them it appears) and it has improved. I'll know more once I'm back and have a chance to drive some more.

 

[Rand]

so the SRT GC has the same AWD tuning as the durango limited? I'm surprised.. the the High performance subaru versions were tweaked quite differently vs "regular" models.

I guess that aids somewhat in comparing them.

However I readily admit I am mostly ignorant about all of the Chrysler/fiat AWD platforms.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Rand
so the SRT GC has the same AWD tuning as the durango limited? I'm surprised.. the the High performance subaru versions were tweaked quite differently vs "regular" models.

I guess that aids somewhat in comparing them.

However I readily admit I am mostly ignorant about all of the Chrysler/fiat AWD platforms.


The Jeep has selectable AWD with "snow" putting it at a 50/50 power split IIRC. In "Auto" I believe it primarily drives the rear wheels. On the other hand the Durango is just 50/50 split all the time, so if one was to expect push, it would be in that vehicle, not the Jeep IMHO.

 

[Rand]

I read the first line and a light bulb started to light up.. then I read your whole post.. and yes that is odd.. OTOH Plow is mainly from RWD I notice it a ton on the subaru with All-seasons.

A FWD based system that just kicks abit of power to the rear will definitely handle better in the snow.. not when you are stuck.. but when cornering etc.

It comes from the Rear wheels having more traction than the front so you understeer and overwhelm the traction on the front making it slide and feel unstable.

Would be interesting to test out those tires on a CVT subaru, or honda crv.. and see if it handles similarly.

It really seems these are not class leading(captain obvious here)

Because you are getting similar antics that I would have on all-seasons in the 50/50 split subaru but the blizzak ws80 calm it down immensely.

 

[OVERKILL]

Well, ultimately I can whine and complain that these don't perform as well as the Michelin tires, but at the end of the day, due to the size, I couldn't get them so the point is moot. They work well enough for sure, just would have appreciated the improvements the Michelins offer.

 

[360kid]

I have the I Pike W419 I believe on my Odyssey. They are great in snow. As the OP stated, a lot of tires are really focused on ice traction and sacrifice some snow grip. I find the ipike to be really stable on snowy roads. I'm sure they aren't as good in slick conditions as many tires, but where I live, the winter driving is all snow covered. Once or twice a winter we have to deal with some freezing rain. But the vast majority of the time, its thick, deep, snow and the wide pattern of the ipikes does a great job.

 

[OVERKILL]

I updated my vehicle review thread, but figured I'd update this one as well. Had a chance to take these out in some deep snow today on the path to the hunting camp. One of the worst surfaces, it was that granular sandy stuff that is really fun when it is any depth and it was quite deep in spots. I got stuck a few times on the way in breaking the trail. The first time I was on a hill and slid off the pack-down up to the door, the 2nd time I was stopped on the trail to clear a tree. I also got stuck turning around in the field, but in all instances I was able to just back up and take another run or two at it and get through.

I will add that, I know they cannot be directly compared given the applications are different, but this is the same snow my buddy got stuck in a couple of years ago back in the same area. It took us several hours and a winch to get the truck out. He got stuck in the same spot I did today and had to shovel himself out as well this time. He's running a set of GoodYear Duratracs which, at this point, are pretty much shot, but the first time they were quite new. To me, the primary difference is that we both got stuck, but the Jeep with snows was able to get itself out every time, whilst the A/T tires, once stuck, he was there.

Obligatory winter pic: