The best Velcro winter tires - Hankook, Dunlop or Nokian?

An important issue for Velcro, since non-studded friction clutches with numerous sipes are distinguished by a soft rubber compound.The task of such tires is to provide the highest possible density of contact with any road. At the same time, Velcro is often distinguished by rapid abrasion.

In this regard, the best wear resistance, judging by the reviews of the owners, was shown by winter tires from Nokian. Its tread pattern is less susceptible to wear, which significantly increases the mileage of the tire. Bridgestone Blizzak Ice also has improved wear resistance, and Yokohama Ice Guard IG60 is formulated with orange peel oil. This solution significantly increases the resistance to abrasion. Hankook retains its traction characteristics until almost complete wear of the tread. According to reviews, tires serve faithfully for 3-5 seasons, are not prone to punctures and practically do not bother their owners, subject to the rules of behavior on the road.

Dunlop tires, on the other hand, have sacrificed their wear resistance in order to improve traction on ice and wet roads. Its durability leaves much to be desired. However, like Kumho Winter Portran. These two tires turned out to be the most subject to wear in winter conditions, and in the latter case, users indicate the wear limit already at runs of 25-30 thousand km.

The most comfortable were the Hankook Winter I*Pike LV RW15 Velcro - their tread is designed in such a way that even when accelerating, the noise level remains in the comfort zone. Exactly the same impression was made on the pilots by the winter tire Bridgestone Blizzak Ice. The two models shared the first place in this comparison.Nokian Tires Hakkapeliitta CR3 were recognized as the next most comfortable. Yokohama Ice Guard IG60 tires behaved somewhat worse in terms of acoustics. This is not to say that the noise level is disturbing, but with a set speed, sound vibrations also increase decently. The noisiest tires in the run were unanimously recognized as Kumho Winter Portran and Dunlop Winter Maxx tires. 

Of all the participants, the best handling performance was found in the Nokian tires. Following her was the most affordable option from the Dunlop brand. And the Yokohama Ice Guard tires showed themselves almost on a par. Hankuk, despite a fairly practical tread with powerful drainage, lagged behind the top three by only a tenth of a second. And then Kumho followed - very dense results! The tread of the Bridges is built using Active Multicell Compound II technology, but this did not allow the tire to be among the first - the gap from the fifth participant was 1.5 s.

We can safely say that all Velcro behaved very worthy on a wet road. For each model, the protector actively evacuates water from the contact patch and keeps the car well in corners and during high-speed passage of puddles. The difference in results is so small that it can easily be attributed to management features. This test is the only one in our comparison where all models receive five points.

Bridgestone tires have a special shape of the tread edges. It increases the frictional force between him and the road when braking. Nokian is designed for harsh winters and does not feel the best on dry pavement. Nevertheless, she took a worthy second place. The results of the rest of the participants differ from the leaders far from the best. This is clearly demonstrated by the table of measurements of the length of braking on a dry road at an initial speed of 80 km/h.

Hankook and Dunlop succumbed to the lead, but not catastrophically. But the last participant Kumho Winter Portran CW51 showed simply disastrous results even in comparison with Yokohama Ice Guard IG60, which took 5th place.

Nokian holds a slippery road well, does not blow away at a reasonable speed in corners, but there may be surprises on a rut - her tire does not like it. Of the participants, Hankook was the closest to the leader in this nomination - no tangible difference was noticed, but in turns it was required to slow down more. At the same time, the moment of stalling into a skid on a slippery road is very well controlled.

The Dunlop and Yokohama tires also performed well, essentially sharing third place in the scoring round. Despite the fact that special polymers and sulfur in the Bridgestone Blizzak Ice compound improve friction and increase traction, on ice the rubber did not become the best in this category. The last car came with Kumho tires - in high-speed corners it easily breaks into an unpredictable skid.

In this test, we got two leaders: Nokian and Dunlop showed the best result and did not lose a centimeter to each other. Hankook tires were right next to me. The difference is clearly demonstrated in the braking distance comparison table from a speed of 80 km/h:

But the rest of the rubber models noticeably "pumped up", adding more than 15 meters to the result of the leaders. And again, the worst result was for tires Kumho Winter Portran CW51.

Despite the fact that the tires are almost of the same class and level, there are price differences by brands:

The clear leaders in this category are Dunlop Winter Maxx WM02 and Yokohama Ice Guard IG60. The difference of 110 rubles between the participants can be omitted. Kumho, Breeches and Hankuk showed the average cost in the category, but Nokian rubber turned out to be the most expensive Velcro, exceeding the price threshold of 11 thousand rubles.

All non-studded tires for winter, which took part in the comparison, showed high performance. Nokian Tires Hakkapeliitta CR3 rubber has become a recognized leader. The tire won 5 out of 7 tests. Next comes the three practically balanced participants. These are Velcro winter tires from the Hankook, Dunlop and Bridgestone brands.

Tires Yokohama Ice Guard IG60 are somewhat inferior to the rubber of these brands, while maintaining a high price attractiveness. The outsider of the comparison was the Kumho Winter Portran Velcro. In almost all tests, they performed below average.With the exception of the nomination "Management on a wet road" - here the clutches were almost on an equal footing with all participants.