Commercial trucks that are used for mixed-service applications and the occasional off-road use need a tire that’s going to be dependable, with consistent grip in challenging conditions and materials, build quality, and design that can stand up to hard use and rough treatment. That is all even more crucial in winter conditions, where the tire has to be able to deliver grip in snow, slush, and ice (with a tread compound that won’t stiffen up and lose traction in subfreezing weather) as well as holding up to rough-service applications. With the BDW72, BlackHawk Tire has introduced a tire that checks all those boxes as well as being purpose-built for winter service. Let’s go in and see what this tire is all about with this BlackHawk BDW72 tire review.

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the design features and innovations that make the BlackHawk BDW72 a consistent performer and a great value for difficult winter conditions and demanding mixed-service or rough service use:

• Aggressive tread blocks with staggered lugs
• Extensive network of sipes multiplies the tread’s surface area and traction with hundreds of extra biting edges to slice through snow and slush
• Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certified for severe winter service
• Extra-deep 27/32” tread depth for long service, dependable grip
• Tread compound is optimized for durability, damage resistance, and flexibility for traction in subfreezing weather
• Tread design encourages even wear
• Steel belted radial construction
• Stone ejectors molded into tread grooves to protect casing against stone drilling, easily ejecting mud, snow, gravel, and debris from grooves
• L speed rating (75 mph)

Pros and Cons

Now let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the BlackHawk BDW72 tire:

PROS:

• Dependable and confident winter grip with a Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service
• Tough, durable tread compound resists cuts, punctures, chunking, and scrub wear
• Long, even wear with retreadable casing to improve cost/mile ratio

CONS:

• Good for mixed service, but not exclusively off-road applications

SimpleTire’s view on BlackHawk BDW72 tires

Are you familiar with SimpleScore? SimpleScore is the ratings system that the SimpleTire team developed to give you a quick at-a-glance overview of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We look into the tire’s specs, the manufacturer info, customer reviews, and other data points, then we pull that all together to determine a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore that covers all the categories. For the BlackHawk BDW72, our SimpleScore numbers are:

BlackHawk BDW72:

• Traction: 7.1
• Durability: 7.2
• Longevity: 7.0
• Overall average SimpleScore: 7.2

The tire industry sets the bar pretty high for the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake certification for severe winter service; it’s your assurance that a tire is going to be able to handle deep snow, slush, and ice without wheelspin or skidding, but the BlackHawk delivers capable braking, acceleration, and control even when there are several inches of snow to contend with. That extra tread depth makes a big difference not only in snow but also in mud and loose dirt, as does the network of sipes across the tread face.

The BlackHawk’s tread compound is durable enough to resist cuts, punctures, scrub, and chunking, and its reinforced internal design can stand up to some of the roughest conditions. That said, while this tire is suitable for mixed service and limited off-road use, it’s not designed for extreme off-road use such as logging, quarries, mining, or rough unimproved job sites. For operators that need a drive axle tire for mixed service local and regional applications in winter conditions, though, this would be an excellent candidate.

Vehicles the BlackHawk BDW72 is a good replacement tire for

The BlackHawk BDW72 would be a great tire for applications such as:

• Water tankers
• Fuel tankers
• Dump trucks
• Sanitation and refuse trucks
• Ready mix trucks
• Regional and line haul route trucks
• Route P&D trucks
• Any medium/heavy truck that has to handle winter conditions