Our 2010 XLS's present Yokohama Geolandar non-studded snow tires still have over half of their tread depth. The problem with them is that they were manufactured in the 21st week of 2010, so they are almost exactly 13 years old. I've got a debate going on in my head about whether "to buy or not to buy?" new winter tires, and I believe that answering that question is not as easy as it may seem. I do not know everything about winter tires, so, to answer that question I'm here for some advice.

We have been retired for the past 13 years and have put, at most, 1,500 kms on the tires during a typical winter. If people are supposed to dispose of winter tires when they are 5 or six years old, even if they have only 7,500 kms of use and very good tread depth on them, what would be the point of us now buying expensive tires with the hope of getting many, many years of use out of them? Why not instead buy very inexpensive studded tires and replace them like clockwork at 5 or 6 year intervals? Is the performance of very expensive studded tires that much better than very inexpensive studded tires?

Is the tread rubber "softness" and the number and positioning of sipes the same on studded and non-studded tires? To complicate this question a bit more, I notice that some winter tires are sold without studs, but there are holes in them that can be studded, if so desired. If they are operated NOT studded, is their tread as soft and have as many sipes, and do they perform as well as high-end non-studded tires?

If my wife and I buy Hakk 10 studded or X-Ice North 4 studded tires today, in ten year's time, assuming that half or more of their tread depth is still present, how will these 10-year-old tires perform compared to brand new non-studded winter tires that we will hypothetically buy 10 years from today? Put more simply, does a studded tire remain effective in snow and ice for more years than a softer, non-studded tire and, if yes, how many more years?

Finally, this may sound wacky, but is it possible to install studs in our old Geolandar tires, which did/do NOT originally have holes available for studding, so that they will be more effective in snow and ice than they are now and last us a few more years without sacrificing that much performance?

Thanks.

 

Last winter my 9 years old "Cooper SUV" studded tires had a good tread depth (~7mm). Although rubber was hard. I thought, maybe another season will work with these tires? But then at the end of March I almost crashed into ditch, car skidded uncontrollably for almost 100m long... I was scared to death because beside me there was a 8 months pregnant passenger. The road had 1-2cm of a fresh snow, not even wet conditions.
The same day ordered new "Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 SUV 215/70R16 100T Studded" for about $650, put them on right after I got them despite the fact that winter was almost over here in Sweden.

All went good, no ditch, but the lesson is learned: don't f*ck with winter or slippery roads combined with old rubber! New studded rubber it shall be.

 

Thanks for the advice.

If I'm supposed dispose of tires that are only 5 or 6 years old from the date of manufacture, I don't want to buy "new" tires that are, say, ALREADY a year old on the day that I buy them. I don't know what I should expect for a realistic date of manufacture on a "new" tire -- you know, what's acceptable and what isn't. I think that I should decide this with certainty before buying or ordering tires so that I can state my requirement to the retailer -- a retailer that may want to sell old inventory before selling new inventory.

On the day that you bought you Hakks, did you check on the sidewall for their date of manufacture and, if you did, what was the time interval between the date of manufacture and the date that you purchased them?

Thanks again.

 

Yes, I usualy check manufacturing date and generally I do not accept tires more than 1 year old. Rubber drys out.

My new Hakkas were 3 or 4 months old. At the fall/end of 2022 all good tires we're out out of stock here in Sweden, that's why I took a chance to roll "the last" 9th season on my old tires. And perhaps that's why new tires were so fresh (which usually is not the case) after some strange problem with increased demand and insufficient supply.

 

I will buy new tires that were manufactured within 6 months of date of purchase.

Put yourself in this woman's shoes:

 

I took our 13-year-old Yokohama Geolandar winter tires to Kal Tire for inspection and information about having control of date of manufacture of new tires purchased. In short, the supervisor examined the tires and said that the rubber of the tread was still in good condition and that the tread depth was still more than acceptable, so they were good to go for another couple of years with our low km use. Considering his job, I was very surprised at what he said. He also said that he had no way of selecting newly-manufactured tires from the local Nokian distributor, so we would have to accept whatever he received or not buy them. He said that the Hakk 10 had only been introduced in 2021, so they would not be older than 24 months, and that the warehouse where they were stored had ideal conditions for new-tire storage.

But after we left Kal, I was still concerned about Edmonton having a warmer than normal winter, such as the one two years ago, and have lots and lots of very icy road condtions, instead of less slippery, snowy roads. My wife does almost all of our driving during the winter, so I remained concerned about her safety.

I decided to contact Nokian about the whole date-of-manufacture-of-new-tires issue. On Aug 1 I received the foloowing reply from Nokian "technical customer service":
______________

"Dear Xxxx,

Thank you for contacting us.

Our recommendation is that tire’s maximum lifetime on service is six years and maximum total age ten years. So, maximum four years of storage.

Hakkapeliitta 10 is a quite new product (launched in 2021) so there can't be very old stock.

Best regards,
Juho Kirjavainen
Technical customer service"
________________________

As a result of Nokian's message and Kal's assurance that the tires were stored in ideal conditions, last week my wife and I purchased a set of Hakk 10s in size 215 70 16 and had them installed on our set of typical winter steel rims. All four were manufactured about half way through 2021.

I will install those winter wheels at first snowfall -- here in Alberta, that might be at the end of September. I can swap summer for winter wheels in about 30 minutes, so I might swap wheels a few times during the winter, depending en-tire-ly on road condition. I'd rather not use studded snows on snowless, dry pavement, if possible.

Considering our age and our low kms of driving during the winter, these will almost certainly be the last winter wheels that we buy. The Geolandar tires were still good to go after 13 years. If they had been studded, I would not have bought the new Hakk 10s.

BTW, the "old" tires were in such good condition that I put an ad in Kijiji three days ago to sell them for $200 OBO. YESTERDAY a man purchased them for $200 without any negotiation. My wife and I were amazed.

 

Good choice!