The Hankook Dynapro HPX is a standout SUV touring all-season tire that combines advanced technology with versatile performance. The tire offers a balanced blend of durability, comfort, and efficiency across various driving conditions.
Main Findings
The Dynapro HPX does a good enough job when it comes to:
- Reducing noise with compact shoulders and Knurling technology.
- Providing robust dry performance with enhanced grip and stability.
- Maintaining fuel efficiency despite its heavier build.
- Offering decent hydroplaning resistance.
- Improving ride smoothness for minor road imperfections.
- Enhancing tread life with a better contact patch and advanced rubber compounds.
Though the tire could use some help in terms of:
- Improving wet performance, especially grip and handling.
- Enhancing snow and ice capabilities, lacking the 3PMSF rating.
- Managing sharper impacts more effectively for ride smoothness.
- Increasing tread depth for even longer wear life.
Tread Construction
The Hankook Dynapro HPX A/S features a classic symmetrical tread design commonly found on SUV touring tires. This design includes five distinct block columns, (also known as ribs in the realm of tire industry).
Out of these columns the outer shoulders are the broadest.
These shoulder ribs are designed with simplicity in mind, showcasing mere straight yet slightly curved lateral voids with offsets. Plus they also feature linear siping that runs parallel to these grooves.
Additionally, these ribs are equipped with wear indicators which not only tell you about tread life, but also any possible alignment issues, avoiding various kinds of wear patterns you want to avoid.
The voids in between the shoulders also have ridges/blocks, build for noise reduction. Plus to enhance tire’s stability they’re supported by a reinforced base, incorporating a secondary layer of stiffer rubber. This reinforcement is not exclusive to the shoulder ribs but extends to the central ribs as well.
The tread’s central area is comprised of three narrower ribs, forming four straight circumferential grooves.
And here the middle most rib is uniquely designed with zig-zag and slanted lateral grooves, accompanied by wave-like sipes that run parallel to them.
The ribs adjacent to the center also feature a combination of linear and wave-like siping, in both slanted lateral and thicker longitudinal orientations.
Furthermore, the lateral voids between these outer blocks vary in width as they extend towards the shoulders, providing additional biting edges and enhancing the tire’s grip (particularly on snowy terrains).
Info on Sizes
Hankook Dynapro HPX A/S comes in 39 sizes with following specs.
- Rim sizes: 16 to 22 inches.
- Speed ratings: H and V.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth: 10 or 10.5/32″.
- Weight range: 26 to 40 lbs.
- Winter ratings: Only M+S.
- UTQG: 680 A A.
- Warranty: 70k miles.
Noise Comfort
Noise in tires primarily arises from the collision of air particles with the tread walls. And to address this, the Dynapro HPX A/S features more compact shoulders, effectively blocking the primary entry point of air as the tire rotates.
In fact Hankook actually has a name for it. They call this design feature, Knurling technology, and say its the “narrowing the air path”.
Additionally, the tire incorporates a variable pitch design, largely due to its secondary tread pattern located in the grooves at the base of the tread.
This configuration causes air particles to strike different parts of the tread at various angles, producing a range of sound frequencies that tend to cancel each other out, thereby reducing overall noise.
Moreover, the tire’s rubber is infused with polymers that absorb sound waves, further reducing in-groove resonance. This is a technical way of saying that it diminishes the echoing of sound waves within its structure.
Dry Performance
Dry performance is the combination of tire’s traction and its overall handling. Let’s check them out one by one.
Longitudinal Grip
The effectiveness of a tire’s directional or braking grip is largely influenced by how the rubber interacts with the road surface, especially in the tread’s central region.
The importance of this central area stems from the fact that its the most connected part of the tread with the road, while the tire rolls in a straight line.
This principle underlines the appreciable performance of the Hankook Dynapro HPX, which distinguishes itself as an above-average contender in the top-tier SUV touring tire category.
The tire features a design with sleek, longitudinal ribs, including a central rib with a more continuous pattern and surrounding ribs adorned with multiple zigzag notches.
Such a design not only ensures extensive rubber-to-road contact but also provides effective traction, thereby significantly improving the tire’s overall longitudinal grip.
To put this into perspective, the Dynapro HPX offers marginally better braking performance when compared to the Pirelli Verde All Season Plus, with a difference of less than half a foot in average braking distances from 60 to 0 mph in my averaged tests.
Lateral Grip and Handling
The overall handling of a tire is assessed by looking at its steering responsiveness and the lateral grip it offers during cornering maneuvers.
In terms of lateral grip, the Hankook Dynapro HPX excels, as evidenced by its notable g-force metrics. This superior performance is attributed to the tire’s nearly continuous running shoulder ribs, which feature minimal tread features.
I mean the tire now comes with a lot less sipes on its shoulder blocks allowing for more of its shoulder-rubber to be in contact with the road.
But why are we discussing shoulders here? Well why do you want to move in the opposite side of the turn as the vehicle corners? It’s the same principle as the tire turns, the weight on it concentrates on the tread edges, a.k.a shoulders and sidewalls, and they compress against the road more, compared to other tread areas.
Moreover, speaking of shoulder “compressing”, as the tire features a relatively stiffer rubber now, (improving longevity aspect of its predecessor), and has solid updated reinforced foundations underneath its lugs, its tread don’t bend too much to begin with.
Basically all lugs are sitting on a yet another stiffer layer of rubber, preventing excessive flexing of them. And this is highly needed for stability as the more the lugs bend, the more time they waste to recover, and the more delay you get between steering inputs and outputs form the wheels.
So you get one of the best handling lap times with Dynapro HPX compared to other SUV all season tires in its category.
Side Note Here: There are actually 4 different types of all-season tires.
Fuel Economy
Fuel economy is another area where the Dynapro HPX is good enough.
Sure the tire weighs a little bit, going up to 42 lbs which should technically reduce economy as heavier tires require more energy to rotate and stop.
But with a well engineered reinforced foundations underneath all its lugs, Hankook still keeps its mpg average good enough (comparing other SUV touring tires, I mean).
So how this design element helping the tire? Well this aspect reduces the tendency of the lugs to bend under pressure during rotation.
And with lugs not bending as much, they conserve the energy that would have otherwise been wasted in the form of heat and reshaping of the tread blocks.
And yes, Dynapro’s stiffer rubber is also helping to that.
Wet Performance
Wet performance is divided into 3 main sections, wet grip, handling and resistance to hydroplaning. Let’s check them out individually.
Wet Grip and Handling
Wet performance in tires is largely determined by the design and functionality of their grooves and sipes, which play a pivotal role in displacing water to maintain tire-to-road contact, crucial for maintaining grip.
Grooves are the primary elements in water evacuation, playing a significant role in a tire’s resistance to hydroplaning.
Sipes, on the other hand, manage the residual water by flexing, thereby creating a suction effect (akin to the tire ‘inhaling’ and ‘exhaling’ water as it rotates).
Having said that, let me tell you the Hankook Dynapro HPX A/S isn’t doing so well. I mean although the tire offers 15% better wet braking, and 7% shorter wet handling lap times on averaged tests (considering multiple sizes), it still isn’t enough to jump out of the page.
Saying this when considering the wet performance of other tires in its category.
Hankook basically focused on longevity more with their newer HPX tire, giving it a stiffer rubber composition (so it could fight wear). But it also led to the stiffening of its sipes on the tread.
Meaning, its sipes aren’t flexible enough to create ample water suction properties, compromising on wet grip.
That’s why despite having a ton of siping slits all over its tread, and their fancy name (3D GripKontrol sipes), the tire still lacks behind among major SUV touring players.
Hydroplaning
Now hydroplaning is where most of the wet traction of Hankook Dynapro HPX comes from. It may sound weird, but let me explain.
So hydroplaning is basically the floating of the tire and it happens when water gets stuck behind between the tread and the road, and isn’t taken out by the grooves in time.
So if grooves are effective enough, they can take off a lot of “water-burden” off sipes, enhancing wet traction indirectly, you can say.
That’s why the Hankook with its improved grooves structure provides superior hydroplaning resistance which further helps out its traction too.
On average Dynapro HPX provides 2 mph greater straight float speeds compared to its predecessor, thanks to its better interconnected 4 circumferential channels.
Snow and Ice Performance
The Dynapro HPX still comes as an all-season tire and not “all-weather”, meaning its still missing with 3 peak mountain snowflake rating, even though its provides good enough directional grip and snow acceleration.
Yes there’s the link between these too. The 3PMSF symbol is significant, indicating that a tire has demonstrated at least a 10% improvement in light snow acceleration compared to standard touring all-season tires.
Though despite its limitations, the Dynapro HPX still shows enhancements in its overall performance. And according to Hankook, it performs 4% better in snow braking compared to its predecessor.
But is that really the case?
Well yes but there’s a little more to it. I mean this improvement is only seen on XL sizes which have 10.5/32″ tread depth (according to my tests and evaluations), such sizes nearly give almost 3 to 5% improvement in terms of light snow braking.
The improved braking is attributable to the tire’s design, which includes more soft snow-oriented bites which enhance the trapping of snow particles, fostering better snow-to-snow contact.
This contact is crucial because snow adheres more effectively to itself than to rubber.
Though interestingly its predecessor still does better when it comes to icy terrains, providing almost 2 feet shorter braking distances on 12 to 0 mph tests (on average, considering multiple sizes).
Wear Rate
The lifespan of a tire is largely determined by its rubber composition and overall structural weight.
And as you may have already learned, the Dynapro HPX compromised a lot of things to make its tread life performance better. So what enhances its longevity? Well a lot of things.
Firstly, it features an improved contact patch that distributes weight more evenly across all lugs, reducing friction and slowing wear.
Additionally, its rubber compound has been updated with advanced polymers and resins, providing firmness without sacrificing flexibility, leading to enhanced durability compared to its predecessor.
That’s why it makes sense why it offer 70k miles warranty while its predecessor has none.
Though the tire still could have done a little better if it had slightly more tread depth, which would have helped it reach down to 2/32″ (legal tread depth limit) later rather than sooner.
So What’s The Verdict?
The Dynapro HPX is a mixed bag of results, like any other SUV touring tire.
It provides nice overall road comfort, both in terms of noise and dampening of the bumps. And also does a great job in terms of overall on-road dry performance providing above average braking, handling and steering.
Though the tire could use some help in wet conditions, in particular, even though its comes with some improvements over its predecessor.
Same goes for its winter performance too, where the tire does okay in light snow (but needs more traction on ice).
Other than this, the Hankook HPX is great in terms of longevity and also provides good enough fuel economy too.
