Slinging Mud with Rockproof, Nokian?s New Extreme Off-Road Tire
Given the terrain-conquering mission of mud-terrain (MT) tires, it?s no surprise that the category is populated with some chest-thumpingly bold names. The Dick Cepek Crusher, for example, has a repeating skull-and-crossbones pattern molded into its sidewalls along with bone-shaped tread blocks. Nokian, of course no stranger to spirited names such as the one it?s best known for?its world-beating winter tire, the Hakkapeliitta, named after a Finnish battle cry?is entering the mud-terrain business with a new entry, called Rockproof.
That tough label also explains its reason for being, as Nokian says the expansion into the extreme off-road category came about in response to feedback from commercial users of the company?s mining tires. It wasn?t a grievance with those monstrously sturdy tires themselves, but instead complaints that the companies? light-duty vehicles operating in the mine?s vicinity were suffering repeated punctures. So Nokian, which appended an ?n? to its name in 1995 to avoid paying royalties to the electronics company Nokia?although the tire company is the one headquartered in Nokia, Finland?adapted the compound of its extraordinarily robust mining tires with some additional off-road grip stirred in to create the Rockproof.
The nondirectional tire is available in 13 sizes and in 16- to 20-inch diameters. Pricing has yet to be announced. The Rockproof features a tread depth of 20/32?roughly double that of a street tire?along with aggressive V-shaped sidewall...
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