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Snow tire handling question

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Al Sherman

It's about THIS car.
Nov 29, 2012
1,687
6
Batesville, IN
I recently put the 19 inch Nokian Hakka R2's on new Cyclone wheels and mounted them on the MS. They seem to be a little "squirrely" at high speeds. Is this just a factor of coming from the 21" performance tires? Is it driving in 60 degrees on dry pavement with ANY snow tires? Or maybe something else?
The tires are the correct size and are inflated to 45 psi and torqued correctly at 129.
The handling is clearly not as good as the 21's. At high speeds I would call it a "hunting" motion from side to side. Seems as though it's mostly in the front. Almost like yaw, or an oscillation in an airplane.
Anyone?
 
Oh yeah that's the soft rubber and soft sidewalls talking. Basically these are pretty poor tires on dry pavement. The highrer the ambient temp, the softer they get. That's the trade-off you're making for staying on the road in snow storms and on ice. Plenty of reports on this in the domestic forums here in Norway and you describe my personal experience well (going from 19" Goodyear RSA to 19" Hakka R2 studless)
 
Here is the Cyclone but still with the Michelin Primacy tires.
 

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It wold not hurt to have a four wheel alignment check. Especially rear toe and thrust angles (direction of each individual rear tire).

GSP

Definitely if you have not had one done in a while. I find the snows a little jittery, especially in the wind. The MS is even a bit jittery with the 21's as well compared to the BMW I had. I fill the snows to 45lbs to keep them a bit firmer which may help.
 
I think Johan pretty much nailed it. I've since spoken with some experienced tire guys and they've all said the same thing. I'll post some pics with the cyclones. Would have done it sooner but I thought there would already be a lot of them posted. They look good but not AS good as the 21's. I'm thinking of switching to the 19's permanently since the energy usage is so much lower. I've seen 3% but in my experience it's more like 10% so far. I guess I'd buy another set of cyclones or maybe the Lugano's (which are very nice and significantly less expensive) and put all season/performance 19" tires on them for the warm months.
 
I'm thinking of switching to the 19's permanently since the energy usage is so much lower. I've seen 3% but in my experience it's more like 10% so far.

I'm seeing a 5-6% reduction (in comparable temperatures) since switching from the Goodyear 19's to the Hakka R2, so it doesn't surprise me that you are seeing a 10% reduction coming from the 21's.

Straight line stability hasn't changed for me, but cloverleafs are not as much fun anymore - I can feel the sidewalls fold in.