Just got a new set of hakkapeliittas installed for winter.

I expected some performance degradation, but not sure if it's more than that and looking for advice from people more knowledgable than me.

Before the tire switch my new MINI justa was tight as a drum on the road. Now it's a rougher ride, which I expected, but I guess I was expecting it to be less of a dramatic change.

There's also the occasional moderate vibration that can be felt in the steering - happens here and there. The car appears to be in alignment, but I am wondering if it's balanced properly.

Overall I am guessing this is just a characteristic of the winter tire (wide treads, soft rubber).

Am I right?

 

Softer tread and winter tread design can cause some of those effects. Also depends if you minus sized to a higher profile tire... If you got an aggressive snow/ice tire or more performance winter oriented and also the temperature outside. Mild weather will make the tread extra soft.

You should notice less noise and a little less squishy ride as the tread wears down a bit.

Do the vibrations occur at speed or just random?


Edit: I notice you got hakkapeliittas... I think those are quite aggressive for snow/ice and you can expect only so-so dry pavement performance IMO but excellent in snow. I avoided hakkapeliittas and blizzacks and went for a performance winter tire because I live in a city that is cold but not too snowy and it was too much of a compromise.

 

Thanks for the reply.

The vibrations are pretty random but you make a good point. These are serious winter tires and I expect that is prolly the reason for the performance hit.

I guess I was just wondering if others with snow tires noticed the same behavior. The combination of vibration and squishy ride are a bit more than I was expecting but maybe most everyone is dealing with the same thing...

 

The new rims..

Do they have the correct hub-centering (hubcentric) rings installed...
On my first try for winters, the installed negleted to use these,thinking the mini wheels were bolt centric, swearing up and down the cone lug bolts would center the rims...
It did not...got crazy vibrations kinda randomly...
Got different rims, with the proper huncentric rings, and life was great!!

 

Thanks for the suggestion - but mine are installed on the same rims, and no difference in tire size.