Expeditions7 crosses Greenland glacier on Nokian Hakkapeliitta tyres

Icelandic-American expedition team Expeditions7 when drove from the southern coast of Greenland to the land’s northernmost spot and back. One of the team’s special vehicles built by Arctic Trucks was equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 44 tyres, which are tailored what the Finnish tyre maker calls “real winter”. On the slowest legs of the journey, the vehicles could only manage 10 kilometres per hour and the lowest recorded temperatures were -40 degrees Celsius!

In order to achieve its goal the expedition relied on state-of-the-art equipment to survive glaciers, rocky terrain and soft snowbanks. The team chose three custom-built vehicles from Iceland-based Arctic Trucks – the same types of vehicles used for Antarctic expeditions. The newest of the vehicles was equipped with high-performance Hakkapeliitta 44 tyres from the world’s northernmost tyre manufacturer, Nokian Tyres.

“I wanted to use Nokian Hakkapeliittas based on my earlier experiences with them. These tyres master extreme conditions and work unbelievably well even in temperatures as low as -40 degrees,” Grimsson said.

One Nokian Hakkapeliitta 44 tyre weighs 70 kilograms and is over one metre in diameter. The rugged tyre came to life a couple of years ago as the result of a long cooperation between Nokian Tyres and Arctic Trucks.

“In soft snow, you need large tyres with sufficient room for air,” Grimsson said. – You can adjust the length of the tyre’s contact surface by regulating the inflation pressure. A wide tyre has better load-bearing capabilities and will not sink as deep into the snow as a narrow tyre.

The members in the expedition team were: Greg Miller (leader), Scott Brady, Clay Croft, Dr. Jon Solberg, and Kurt Williams from the United States, and Emil Grimsson (co-leader) and Torfi Johannsson from Iceland.