I'm thinking of Nokian Hakka 2 (maybe 4) series for my 850 wagon.
I understand that these are studdable tires.

I assume it's ok to use them without studs, but is there any down side to not using studs? Will they not provide better grips than other snow tires?

Or, what snow tires do you recommend? I have a very long, hilly driveway. I'm thinking of putting the Hakkas on my other front wheel drive cars as well.

Thanks.

I ran 4 - Hakka 2's, no-studds, on my 850 5sp last winter all over northern
New England and Quebec. Awesome traction and control in snow/rain, and decent
dry road performance. Studds are only needed on ice
but unstudded still performed pretty good.
Maybe the manual trans helped with the ice.
I've run Gislaved in the past. These are top 2
rated brands in the Scandinavian winter tyre tests.

Hakkas are excellent, even without studs; but run 4. Otherwise you will be guarnteed to have handling problems, especially in the white stuff.

My son runs his all year around on his 740 and I run them on steels on my 850R in the winter.

Cheers,

Definitely do not put on only two snows, you are virtually guaranteeing a spin out--put on 4. Also, bad idea to have studs on front wheel drive--they want to skate on dry pavement in a hard turn. Believe me, I speak from experience on both counts!

BTW, I have Michelin Arctic Alpins on steel wheels for winter--they are great. Got the whole setup mounted, balanced shipped to me from Tirerack.com

Use 4 Winter tires.

This happened to me: was trying to be cheap and replaced only the 2 Front Tires.
Carp spun while driving normal at 30 mp (no hard braking or sudden maneuver).
It just spun a complete 360 deg. Luckily no accident!

So as a rule in the WINTER, Use 4 winter tires, not just 2.

In the summer, not as important.


RE: Studding...Check State law (are you in the US), some states do not allow it.
Pros:
- good grip on ice

Cons:
- damages road
- very noisy.

cn

I'm aware of using 4 winter tires.

By '2' and '4' in my original post, I was referring to different Hakka models. They have Hakka 2 (used to be Hakka 1), Hakka 4 (for some reason, I don't see it anymore), Hakka Q, etc.

For whatever reason, IF you can have only 2 winter tires, they should go to the back, whether you have front or rear wheel drive. Having 2 winter in rear is more stable than having 2 in the front. But again, get 4.

...the noise was driving me crazy. So when my studded snows finally wore out, I replaced them with a set of Michelin Artic Alpins. I like them. You can find reviews and test results of most of the snow tires at Tirerack.com

-BTC

Was the noise with or without the studs?

I'm thinkng of getting studdable, but without the studs. Mainly because I heard a lot of good things about Hakkas.

I had a set of Artic Alpins and I'd use them again, unless I hear Hakkas are better, even without the studs.

Noisy WITH studs!

My wife always said she could hear me 3 blocks away with the studs. BTW, Consumer Reports tested snow tires within the last couple of years. I think I remember they liked the Nokian Hakka Q, but do go look at the magazine in the library.

The Artic Alpins produce a really weird whine in the rain, I thought I had a bad wheel bearing. Otherwise, I'm really impressed by them!

Blizzaks are frequently recommended, but the hydrophilic compound doesn't go all the way through the tread, after they're 1/2 worn they're just like regular tires.

I have Dunlop Winter Sport M2s on another car, and I'm, well, a lot less impressed by those.

-BTC

They will work fine without studs, but will obviouisly not grip as well on ice.

Hakkas are excellent tires.

HTH,

R