[Snodog]

Just thought I'd pitch in my $0.02 on the Nokians

Disclaimer: These were all on a 2wd T100
I've used up a set of the (pre-KO)BFG A/Ts (60k miles) Revos (45k trread still there, but cupped badly), and the last ones were Nokian Vativa's (sold truck with ~10k on tires).

I was highly impressed with the Vativa's. I need year-round traction as to not spin the tires in my yard when moving a camper around. These were bought right before winter, so they had full tread depth. These worked as well as the dedicated snow tires I had run previously. Very predictable in "rally-style" driving (aka looking out the side window to see where you're going). It had not only very good foreword traction but also very good lateral traction (didn't lose all foreword push when you'd get a bit sideways). They have much more siping than the normal A/T tire (better for wet and snow grip).

Although I didn't have the Vativa's long enought to tell about treadwear, I was very impressed with all aspects - quiet, great traction on pavement grass and dirt, never squealed, never hydroplaned, good wet traction, and very good snow traction.

For referance, the old BFG A/T's did very well the first 2 winters, but around 1/2 dread depth the snow was no longer a friend. Same for hydroplane performance. The off-road charactoristics were great down to the end. They wore perfectly straight across with rotation about every 3-5k.

I was a bit disappointed with the Revo's from the start (after having the BFGs). The truck seemed to get "squirmy" immediately after installation. I know - full tread depth and all, but it wasn't a good feeling working much harder than normal to keep the truck between the lines on back roads. Wasn't as stable when towing our heavy pop-up either. I couldn't stop the outer edge cupping on these either, so they got very noisy long before I gave up on them...

The Vativa's were rock-solid for stability and no issues when towing either...

I'm not in any way associated with Nokian or any dealers, just a long-time fan and customer of many sets of their winter tires on various cars/trucks: Hakka 09, 10, Q, 1, 2, Vativa

Just got a Tundra DC - Vativa's will be on it before winter!

Cheers!
Jim
'05 DC: Leer cap, Bilsteins, Hawk LTS pads, Gibson exhaust