Hankook RA10 All-Season Tyre

Disclosure: I paid for these tyres myself and have no relationship with the tyre manufacturer or the tyre supplier.

Back in September, I reported on how I’d decided to put my money where my mouth was and replace the worn-out tyres on my van with a set of all-season tyres, rather than summer tyres.

My reasoning was that for most of the year, the weather in northern England where I live is decidedly wintry, and certainly not warm or dry. In addition, I wanted to see if all-season tyres provide an advantage in snow and ice — whether they lived up to their billing as a good compromise between summer and winter tyres.

I decided to go for a set of Hankook RA10 all-season tyres, a mid-range option. You can click here to see the first part of my review, which covers summer and general impressions.

Winter wonderland

Given the weather we’ve had this winter, I’ve now had a chance to try these tyres out in a wide range of conditions, including snow, ice and very wet conditions.

Overall, the RA10s have lived up to my expectations, delivering better grip in cold and wet conditions, especially in snow and ice.

They certainly aren’t as good as a set of winter tyres, but I don’t need them to be and I’m happy to compromise in order to use them all year round. To round off my review, I’ve compared them against the same criteria I used last summer, to see how they performed against my previous Goodyear Cargo summer tyres:

How do they compare? I’ve compared the Hankook RA10 tyres to my previous Goodyear Cargo G26 tyres below, after using them in a wide range of conditions this winter.

Dry grip: In colder conditions, the advantage of the all-season compound becomes more obvious.

Wet grip: The Hankooks definitely provide a better grip on cold, wet or frosty surfaces than the Goodyears.

Snow & Ice: A clear improvement — there’s definitely more grip and a more confident feel. I haven’t got stuck and the impression I get is that they sit nicely between summer and winter tyres in terms of grip, as you’d expect.

Noise: The Hankook’s remain noiser than my Goodyear tyres were, although perhaps less so in cold weather.

Fuel consumption: No noticeable difference.

Wear: Too early to say. As always, keeping them correctly inflated and cornering sensibly will help prolong tyre life.

Conclusions

Overall, I’m happy with my switch to all-season tyres and intend to continue using them in the future. Wet weather and snow/ice performance is definitely better, and everything else is roughly the same or good enough — which seems like a fair swap to me.

I don’t expect them to last quite as long as good quality summer tyres, but this isn’t necessarily a problem unless you do high mileages.

What do you think? Am I talking rubbish or are you a fan too? Leave a comment to let me know.