Taking the Nokian Tyres One on a Road Trip to the Dayton Factory
I could probably drive from Nashville to Dayton with my eyes closed at this point, but I’d miss out on a beautiful journey. It’s also a great chance to test our most popular all-season tire, the Nokian Tyres One, which I proudly sport on my Toyota Camry.
The Nokian Tyres One all season tire on Wes Boling's Toyota Camry.
Nokian Tyres’ North American factory in Dayton, Tennessee is my second work home. I’m part of the marketing team, based in Nashville, but I’m in Southeast Tennessee at least a couple times each month to showcase the award-winning facility to journalists, lead community tours and meet with team members.
There’s no easy way to get to Dayton from Nashville, but what the three-hour journey lacks in ease, it makes up for in variety. I start on the cramped interstates of Music City. I-24 southeast of town is notorious for stop-and-go traffic, and the responsive tread of the Nokian Tyres One always comes in clutch – especially when it’s rainy. The tire’s heavily siped tread pattern is made to help avoid hydroplaning, something that comes in handy at high highway speeds.
Forty-five minutes into the journey, it’s time to leave the interstate behind. From Murfreesboro to McMinnville, four-lane Highway 70 South meanders through Middle Tennessee’s Highland Rim. On my early-morning drives, fog often shrouds the valley and hides the horizon. That makes dependable handling all the more important for minimizing variables in difficult conditions.
After McMinnville comes a sharp rise in elevation onto the Cumberland Plateau. Here the road narrows to two curvy lanes, and adept handling becomes vital as the Camry carves through the hills and hollows. More than once, I’ve come around a bend and had to swerve past an unexpected obstacle. The Nokian Tyres One tires have always kept me on time and unscathed. We make the tire for those exact moments – the flashes of fear when you don’t care how many thousands of miles the tire will last, you just want to get to the next mile.
The ascent into the eastern ridge of the Sequatchie Valley is my favorite part of the drive. The valley is wildly popular with hang gliders, since its sharp cliffs give way to gusty sky. But the stretch of highway past Dunlap, the closest town, gets a little rough at times. Fortunately, the Nokian Tyres One comes with Pothole Protection. It’s infused with blowout-resistant Aramid fibers that reinforce the sidewalls, which are the most vulnerable part of a tire when you run over a pothole or road hazard. In thousands of miles driving to and from Dayton, I’ve never had a puncture or blowout.
Blowout-resistant Aramid fibers reinforce the sidewalls of the Nokian Tyres One.
Stopping distance is vital again on the descent down the other side of the valley – a high-grade four-mile drop into the Eastern time zone. When I’ve dodged brake-burning tractor-trailers and traversed the mountain, my tires are almost back to their point of origin – our Dayton Factory, which will make as many as four million all-season and all-weather tires next year. (If you’re unclear about the difference between all-season and all-weather, here’s a helpful guide.)
When I get to the Dayton Factory, the Camry gets to rest in the shade beneath three-megawatt-hour solar panels that power a portion of our production process. In fact, the production building is the only tiremaking facility in the world to earn LEED v4 Silver certification.
My journey to my second work home is complete and on time thanks to the braking, handling and toughness of the Nokian Tyres One. Even better: Thanks to an 80,000 mile treadwear warranty, I can keep making this journey for years to come
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