studded tires?
 

what experience do you all have with studded snow tires? how much better, if at all, than studless snow tires on ice, on packed snow, on soft snow? how much worse, if at all, on wet roads, on dry roads? how noisy or rattly to drive on?

Studded tires are evil. They ruin the roads around here where we have a true winter. They are terrible when the roads are wet or dry. Traction is less and they are noisy. Studless snow tires have made them obsolete, but people still insist on them, and the tire stores must make good money on them. Through the course of a full winter, there are probably more worse traction days for them then better.

I thought they were no longer legal in most places because they ruin roads. If you're driving on ice or hard packed snow, they should be great. On anything else, they are probably not as good.

When we lived somewhere that got copius amounts of snow, we ran snow tires and had chains available for days when something more was needed.

I have studded tires on my mountain bike and they are quite noisy. People can hear me coming when I ride on bare roads. Studded tires really are not necessary for cars or trucks except on ice. As the above says tire chains will work.

DOT studs are almost useless, and in most places illegal. you can hear them, they sound cool IMO, but not good if that makes sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQxrXHdalE8

they just dont achieve the penetration into the ice needed to really turn the grip around like even a WRC stud, never mind a bolted stud.

i know some folks who put longer than Dot studs into them, they probably work better, but at the cost of road worthiness.

As a life long skier? Studs work when the roads are AWFUL.

But, I don’t have them. I hear new-tech snow tires are amazing.

I use 4x4, throttle steering and three mountain peak all season tires. Which is perfectly fine for 99% of the winter conditions.

Illegal

Traction is significantly improved on sheet ice compared to non-studded tires, but not much different on snow. Noisy yes. Damage roads yes. Reduced traction on wet or dry, yes.

If you have the luxury of never having to drive on bare ice, then they are near useless to you. Also, some of today's serious snow tires are fantastic.

I've got both.

Ice- studs. If Ice is a known forecast, and I've gotta be somewhere. Studs.
Studless for snow/varied conditions. Overall, I've found these much more versatile in day to day winter driving. New studless tires have magical traction qualities.


This year- neither. I haven't even come close to thinking about putting them on.

My wife and I both have crossclimates, as a light duty snowtire, and haven't even been able to try those. I think of the crossclimate as a real life "all season" tire.

Honestly, for our area, I suggest keeping chains in the trunk for when mountain passes require them. Then consider either using a good all-season tire all year long, or get some of those magical-traction new snow tires and put them on a set of cheap wheels, which will avoid annual mounting hassles. I suggest the 'good all-season tire' gambit but do your homework. There are "M&S"-rated tires that SUCK for winter traction and others that are actually pretty good. Basically, the less longitundinal tread lines and more transverse tread lines, the better. But 30-60 minutes of research is worth your time.

What do you put on the 4th wheel?

Crazy, I'm crazy for feeling so lonely
I'm crazy, crazy for feeling so blue

States where studded tires are sold usually restrict their use to the colder months. In Michigan, the deadline to have the studded tires off a car is May 1. The same is true for Alaska, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana and Massachusetts. (Nov 1 start date)


Ohio is Nov 1 - April 15

^^^ :D
What states ban studded tires?
Studded snow tires: pros and cons | Tirebuyer
Metal studs are prohibited in 11 states: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas, and Wisconsin

Lots of clowns driving around here well into spring on studded winter tires. I guess they want no traction.

A couple of other sites said close to the same states but all included Michigan.

I just picked the wrong website which must be outdated. I am sofa king sorry.

You are also not crazy like I alluded.

^^^ I was in high school (early 70's) when MI banned them. Before the ban, I remember how easy it was to tell who was using them...they make a lot of noise on bare roads.

Over the years, I've checked with the state to see if I could stud up some snows on my cars.
Same answer every time...."No...they wreck our roads."

As if they are in good shape now....lol


Edit: It was 1984...I slept thru a few years.

During summer months they would be good for doing wheel spins at night. I'm surprised eighteen year old boys hadn't thought of that. Fireshow coming off the wheels.

I remember pulling studs out of my parents snow tires when Wisconsin banned them. I had plenty of blood blisters that week.

Here in upstate ny They put so much salt on the roads that ice isnt a problem here. Maybe in the south where they only get ice. But youd be crazy to get them for the few times a year that you get it. And its gone in a few hours anyway. Some people have them here but not many. They wer emore common back when snow tires wernt so good. I disagree that they ruin the roads. When you burnout on asphalt yes it makes lines but its nothing compared to the snowplows that weigh thousands of pounds going along like a paint scraper ripping the road up.

I have this idea of mounting big Hella pizza dish lights on the E28 bumper, roof bars and ski racks, mudflaps, and making it into a ski car. Right now I drive my daughter’s Honda Element AWD with snows to the mountain, and it is pretty implacable on snow and ice. But not terribly interesting

But driving a RWD car in the snow alarms me, even though we used to do it all the time. I thought studded tires might help. So maybe Blizzaks and a couple bags of sand in the trunk?

One problem is the spare wheels are the stock 14”s, and they don’t seem to make Blizzaks (or much of anything) in 14”. I’m not gonna risk chaining up my 17” BBS. And cheap spare 16”s for BMW aren’t that cheap, unless I can find steelies with the right bolt pattern, offset, hub diameter.