I do not find mine to be to be very noisy, but do not have much to compare them against.  We have either CS's or CQ's(don't remember which) under our Westy Syncro, they are fairly quiet and seem to wear well.  It is a bit of a waste on our Westy though as we do not drive it during the winter.  The real reason that it has them is that it needed new tires about the same time I purchased our parts Syncro and it had a set with only 1,000 miles on them.  Just about paid for the parts van with the value of the tires and rims.  My daily driver Syncro(beater) has Nokian Hakka 1's under it but they are studded, they are reasonably quiet too but can't be used in the summer.

Mark in AK

----- Original Message -----
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Date: Friday, February 1, 2008 3:27 am
Subject: Re: [WetWesties] running Nokian Hakkapeliitta CS Tires all year??
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> Prol'ly noisier too. One year in Alaska I decided to run my winter
> shoesin summer - definitely more noise.
>
> BTW, with 30 years of driving in Alaska, I never owned a studded
> tire -
> until I bought my first Vanagon - and 85 GL. First day of Ice and now
> and it was all over the road. Studded tires went on that day. No more
> problems. in winter after that.
>
> John Rodgers
> Chelsea, AL
>