Hankook Tires

Jon Olivier

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We are in the eastern Sierra with fairly steep roads, and now that we are further into winter, I've had more time to evaluate the tires. We're at 7,500-8,000 ft. and the temps are mostly between 22-32 deg. F during storms and cycles between the low teens and low 40s when it's clear, so we sometimes get icy conditions as well. After putting some more miles in, I now agree more with Matt (@the1mrb ) that these tires are actually not too bad in moderate snow. In deeper snow and on ice, I think the KO2s we have on the old truck are a little better, but the traction control (which the old truck does not have) does help compensate to some degree.

We do enough driving on bare pavement in the winter that it's hard to justify winter-only tires here, so I'm still thinking I will change them next winter, probably to KO2s, which have been a good compromise between noise, treadwear, winter traction and fuel economy in the past in our area, but I will keep the Hankooks and swap them back in during summer to get the rest of the utility out of them. They're fine for our normal summer activities.
David
Where in the E. Sierras are you? I just moved to Bishop a couple weeks ago.

Have been into Mammoth a few times, but the roads seem to get cleared pretty quickly here. The OEM Hankooks did well through the fresh snow, however, I did find a couple trails off the 395 that were icy and noticed quite a bit of slippage. I decided not to venture too far down these trails since I was driving solo.
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DavidR

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David
Where in the E. Sierras are you? I just moved to Bishop a couple weeks ago.

Have been into Mammoth a few times, but the roads seem to get cleared pretty quickly here. The OEM Hankooks did well through the fresh snow, however, I did find a couple trails off the 395 that were icy and noticed quite a bit of slippage. I decided not to venture too far down these trails since I was driving solo.
Hi Jon,
Nice! We are in Mono County in the June Lake area, not far from Mono Lake. We've been here about 5 years or so but we still split our time between here and San Jose. We're closing in on retirement and plan to live here full time when that happens. Maybe we can do some trails in early summer or something when things dry out a bit. One of our neighbors ran jeep tours in our area for many years and just recently stopped, but he'd be a good resource to find out which roads and trails are good for trucks.

I agree, for us it's only the local roads, the last 6-7 miles or so, that consistently hold snow, and even those will sometimes clear out if it's been more than a couple weeks since the last storm. OTOH, during storms they can get really bad, and shortly after when they can get icy. Our section of 395 is a little higher than at Bishop, ~7000ft., but even so, a few days after a storm it's usually driveable in a 2wd car except maybe after the largest storms. All of that is the main reason it's not worth it for us to get winter-only tires, although a few folks do. With our old truck and our CR-V, we've found that the best compromise is to get a good AT tire and then just throw chains on when things get really bad, which they do on occasion during big storms. That's why with the Hankooks being a bit weaker on ice, we'll probably get new tires next year and keep the Hankooks on in summer until they're worn out.
 

Jon Olivier

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Jon
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2019 XLT 4x4 - Hot Pepper Red, 302A, Sport Appearance, FX4, Tow Package,
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IT Specialist - CA Dept of Transportation
Hi Jon,
Nice! We are in Mono County in the June Lake area, not far from Mono Lake. We've been here about 5 years or so but we still split our time between here and San Jose. We're closing in on retirement and plan to live here full time when that happens. Maybe we can do some trails in early summer or something when things dry out a bit. One of our neighbors ran jeep tours in our area for many years and just recently stopped, but he'd be a good resource to find out which roads and trails are good for trucks.

I agree, for us it's only the local roads, the last 6-7 miles or so, that consistently hold snow, and even those will sometimes clear out if it's been more than a couple weeks since the last storm. OTOH, during storms they can get really bad, and shortly after when they can get icy. Our section of 395 is a little higher than at Bishop, ~7000ft., but even so, a few days after a storm it's usually driveable in a 2wd car except maybe after the largest storms. All of that is the main reason it's not worth it for us to get winter-only tires, although a few folks do. With our old truck and our CR-V, we've found that the best compromise is to get a good AT tire and then just throw chains on when things get really bad, which they do on occasion during big storms. That's why with the Hankooks being a bit weaker on ice, we'll probably get new tires next year and keep the Hankooks on in summer until they're worn out.
Yes, it would be great to meet up with another Ranger owner, and do some trails. I have only seen two other Rangers since moving up here. One is just down the street from where I live, the other was on 395 yesterday.
 

DavidR

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Yes, it would be great to meet up with another Ranger owner, and do some trails. I have only seen two other Rangers since moving up here. One is just down the street from where I live, the other was on 395 yesterday.
Yeah I've only seen a few as well. This past summer, before we got ours, I saw one on driving around on some back roads, and last week I followed one with NV plates most of the way to Carson City, so they're starting to pop up more often. Ours is saber, I'll be keeping my eyes open for a red one in Bishop now ;)
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