I have owned my last 2 wheel drive pickup

[therrien]

Hakkapalitas work good for smaller vehicles. But full size vehicles..... not so well.

They are good on ice. But plug up and don't shed the snow out of the tread on heavier vehicles turning the tires into racing slicks. I figure it's the extra weight of the vehicle driving the snow into the tread.

Back when I lived and worked in Vermont, my boss was talked into putting a set of hakkapalitas on a 3/4 ton work van that we had.

Those tires turned the van into a bob sled on snow.

We lasted about a week with them on the van before it went back to the tire shop.

Now they worked great and as intended on my Ford ranger. But after the experience with the 3/4 ton work van, I would never put another set on a half ton or larger vehicle.

Nokian does have very different tread pattern for heavier vehicles. A heavier one i looked at for a friend did not look like it would be good in the snow. That was for a heavy van about 5 years ago.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I'll take a 2wd drive truck with a locking rear differential over a 4wd truck with open differentials!

I almost agree with that statement. My 93 open differential full size Bronco was terrible in the snow, especially going up our driveway. It wouldn't go up that hill with 4 or more inches of snow even with good tires on it. My old 71 bronco with posi would go through just about anything.

Kevin

 

[Dftodd]

Nokian does have very different tread pattern for heavier vehicles. A heavier one i looked at for a friend did not look like it would be good in the snow. That was for a heavy van about 5 years ago.

Did he go with them? Im curious if they changed the design..

This was about 20 years ago for me when the hakkapalitas were put on the work van. They had the same tread pattern as what they use on smaller vehicles.

Like I said before, cars and light trucks they were awesome. So when the boss had a set put on the work van, we were thinking cool!!!! We're good to go.

A few days later we had a snow storm come through over a few days. We were getting stuck on flat surfaces in 4" to 6" of snow. In places where we didn't have an issue the year before in worse conditions.

Then after starting slowly down one hill and having the van run away from us (pucker factor of 10) and barely managing to keep the bloody thing in the road, we limped it back to the tire store.

Darn thing would get a glance at some snow and start sliding.

 

[therrien]

Did he go with them? Im curious if they changed the design..

This was about 20 years ago for me when the hakkapalitas were put on the work van. They had the same tread pattern as what they use on smaller vehicles.

Like I said before, cars and light trucks they were awesome. So when the boss had a set put on the work van, we were thinking cool!!!! We're good to go.

A few days later we had a snow storm come through over a few days. We were getting stuck on flat surfaces in 4" to 6" of snow. In places where we didn't have an issue the year before in worse conditions.

Then after starting slowly down one hill and having the van run away from us (pucker factor of 10) and barely managing to keep the bloody thing in the road, we limped it back to the tire store.

Darn thing would get a glance at some snow and start sliding.

No we could not find a tread pattern that was simaler to say a Nokia Nordman 7. something close to this tread pattern is what i have always had and would swear by. But if the tread just looks like a summer tire I would decline. I went with them originaly due to there use in rally racing on rear wheel drive vehicles in winter. I have let many people drive my truck and all were very impressed but the largest car i put them on is a Toyota Sienna Wheel Chair Van with excellant results. Nothing larger though.

 

[Jstpssng]

But I detest the new electric-engaging transfer cases. I want a manual lever that I can pull and KNOW that it is now in 4wd.

Are you old enough to remember when Chevy and Dodge went to vacuum lines to engage the front end? Talk about a cluster... I once dropped a wheel into a hole on an icy woods road and there I sat. I think it was about 1/2 hour before I got out. A colleague spent the night in the woods when his front end disengaged while shifting from 4hi to 4lo. He was stuck anyways though.
I finally pulled the air line, engaged the front end with my air compressor and plugged the lines. Then it was always in.
My 2018 has a knob, and it takes about 15 seconds to engage. It’s on the left side of the steering column, next to the headlight switch. It’s not uncommon to accidentally turn it on with my knee upon getting into the truck; or turning on the headlights when I need 4WD.

 

[RjCorazza]

You're right about traction control. I have very steep hill to go up on our driveway. It was snow covered the other day and I tried to go up it in my 2018 Mazda 3 with manual transmission. The first time I tried in 2nd gear which is what I use when it's dry. That didn't work and I had to back down. I took a run at it in 1st gear and just barely made it to the top with it sounding like it was bogging down. The next time I tried it I turned the traction control off and it went right up with little trouble. Electronic traction control is helpful in certain situations but it's not always best.

Kevin

Probably a benefit at speed, not so much when in really bad conditions. I know the topic is trucks, but the traction control on my wife's Prius will leave you stuck on a dead level icy road. The computer detects poor traction on both wheels and simply stops. Never would have believed it had my wife not gotten "stuck" like that at our mailbox. The only way to disable the traction control is an incredibly complicated series of actions that place the car in a mechanic mode for troubleshooting, and the dozen or so actions must be accomplished in a very short period of time.

 

[Jstpssng]

Probably a benefit at speed, not so much when in really bad conditions. I know the topic is trucks, but the traction control on my wife's Prius will leave you stuck on a dead level icy road. The computer detects poor traction on both wheels and simply stops. Never would have believed it had my wife not gotten "stuck" like that at our mailbox. The only way to disable the traction control is an incredibly complicated series of actions that place the car in a mechanic mode for troubleshooting, and the dozen or so actions must be accomplished in a very short period of time.

That's scary. Occasionally I forget to shut it off when coming off my road onto the highway in a snowstorm, and find myself crossways in the lane when the TC kicks in. Not being able to rectify that could be bad if somebody comes when you're stopped in the road. I was halfway up an icy hill when the TC kicked in, and came back down it backward, sideways, and almost ended with the truck upside down.

 

[FERLING]

Got stuck in the yard of the 100+ year old house my youngest is redoing. Wife and I were supposed to load aluminum siding that had come off the house to take to a recycling place. Truck is a 2014 Ford F150 with the towing package. I love it for driving, towing, and hauling stuff. But it can get stuck on wet grass. Tires have street tread and 43,000 miles on them and that didn't help. My Kioti was ten miles away. Nobody nearby was at home. Finally got hold of a friend who is a retired college professor/preacher/business owner. He has some heart issues and it scared me to call him. He pulled me out with a RAM 4wd. Never spun a tire.

I will be hearing about this for years.

RSKY

Ford tractors also love to pull Deere tractors.

 

[deserteagle71]

Are you old enough to remember when Chevy and Dodge went to vacuum lines to engage the front end? Talk about a cluster...

Yup. Had an S-10 Blazer with that front axle. When I wanted 4wd it wasn't there. Someone made an aftermarket fix using a cable I could pull from inside the cab so that's what I did.

My 150 has a rotary knob to engage 4wd. No trouble with it...yet. But one of the reason I would buy a Jeep over a Bronco is that the Bronco is electric everything whereas the Jeep still gives you a lever to manually put it into 4wd. I do not need a "mode" switch to turn to whether I'm driving in snow or sand or whatever. I learned to drive 65 years ago; I did just fine without a computer deciding how I drive back then and I don't need one now.

 

[deserteagle71]

I know the topic is trucks, but the traction control on my wife's Prius will leave you stuck on a dead level icy road. The computer detects poor traction on both wheels and simply stops.

Do you ever watch "Matt's Off-Road Recovery" YouTube channel? This is brought up quite often - people get into soft sand and the traction control (or whatever computer control your particular model calls it) just shuts down the drive system - which is half the reason the vehicle got stuck in the first place, and then if Matt can't figure out how to disable the feature he has to pull out a vehicle that is a dead weight - it can't turn its own wheels because the vehicle's computer won't allow it until it is reset.

I wonder if the engineers who think up these systems ever drive them in adverse conditions??