It is a constant challenge for everyone to look for a high performing, quiet, and all season tire for highway driving which is also budget friendly. Moreover, it is quite costly to change tire every month, so you need to choose a tire unit which has a decent to strong tread life. Today, we are going to evaluate the Hankook Kinergy GT tire unit as it is believed to decently hit all the requirements mentioned a while ago.
Do you know what is the great thing about this tire? At an affordable price, it gives you a decent offer of features and performance that is comparable to expensive all touring tires. If you are still reluctant, that’s great because together we will uncover the things inside this tire and see if it meets your requirement.
About Hankook Tire
The Hankook Tire company has been in this business for almost 78 years and was founded in 1941. They are the first tire company in Korea and have made great achievements already. The company’s vision is to maintain a global competitive advantage by investing in research and development, technology, and smart human resource. Hankook has always been true to their commitment to improving the driving experience in society.
Features
This tire unit claims to have better tread life, traction, convenient and quiet driving. All these benefits can be seen on the features present in the tire. Below are the essential features of this tire.
Tire Compound
The durability status of this tire unit has been enhanced in various aspects. First, it has silica compounds which are great for winter conditions and better dry and wet traction. When driving at high speed there is still stability due to its jointless belt which has been fully reinforced. Likewise, its steel belt layer and well-balanced carcass line have increased the rigidity and durability of the tire.
Tread Design
The tread design of any tire plays a great role in its traction, handling, cornering, and steering performance. For this tire unit, it has four wide circumferential grooves with sufficient depth to maintain effective wet traction. It has lateral grooves and micro sipes which also helps in giving a more biting grip. It also has variable pitch tread block which helps provide a quiet driving performance.
Warranty and Compatibility
The after-sale service of any tire product is also an added benefit for you. For this tire, it has a mileage warranty of 40,000 miles for light trucks. For P-metrics, its mileage warranty is between 50,000 to 70,000 miles. This tire is mostly used for light trucks, SUVs, and passenger vehicles.
Performance
We are done looking at the features of this tire. Now let us look into its performance rating to let you have a better gauge of its quality. Under performance evaluation, we have included the following factors dry and wet traction, snow traction, noise level, and tread life.
Dry Traction
Under dry traction, this tire performs 80 percent effective cornering and steering performance. This rating was achieved due to the following features: silica compound, wide shoulder lugs, and sipes. A larger size of sipes and grooves will not be suitable in on-road driving for it increases tread wear.
Wet Traction
Under wet traction, this tire performs 70 percent effective hydroplaning resistance and wet traction. This performance was achieved through the following features: four wide circumferential grooves, lateral grooves, and multiple sipes.
Snow Traction
The setback for this tire unit, it is not suitable for snow conditions. It can only do 50 percent effective traction on light snow conditions. There are not enough sipes and grooves to make this tire handle medium to extreme snow conditions.
Noise Level and Comfort
In terms of smooth and convenient driving, this tire can provide approximately 70 percent of it. This performance rating is achieved because of its enhanced durability and rigidity through its balanced carcass line and rigid bead filler. The equal tread wearing of this tire enables to maintain stable driving and handling. Moreover, the variable pitch tread block of the tire helps reduce noise creation in every turn.
Tread Life
With all the enhanced features of this tire, it has a 50 percent effective treadwear performance – not bad for such an affordable priced tire. However, if you will be mostly doing city driving, this treadwear performance can increase by around 10 percent.
To prevent any biases, we are going to show both the pros and cons of this tire model. This will give you a better view of things.
Pros
- Enhanced dry and wet traction with its compound and tread design
- Effective balance at high-speed
- Comfortable and reduced noise driving
- Enhanced cornering and steering
- Treadwear performance is higher than average tire
Cons
- Ineffective traction for medium to heavy snow conditions
- Not suitable for off-road performance
Let Us Wrap Up
This tire model might not be the really expensive one for your all-time highway driving experience but surely it performs above average. For a great price, I bet you can never be disappointed but this is not a winter tire. Another setback, it is not suitable for off-road surfaces as it does not have the right tread patterns for it. The main highlights of this tire model are its dry and wet traction, improved tread wear, stable high-speed and comfortable driving performance.
When you are looking for a good tire, it does not come easy because you have several factors to consider. Some of the important features you need to look for include compound, tread design, warranty, compatibility, comfort, noise cancellation, and price. It is a common mistake that people will prioritize price over quality. Carefully examine the overall quality of the product against its upfront cost. If a slightly expensive tire will last for 6 months to 2 years, then that is already a good tradeoff. Based on its features and performance, this tire unit is a good option for your all touring, all season driving experience.