Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire studded snow tires

Studs or Studless
http://www.adn.com/article/most-effective-tire-wintertime-driving-alaska-studs-or-studless

I've switched the Tacoma to snow tires. Was bitching yesterday that I've only had any use out of them for one day this year, but then I popped over the summit today and all the semi's were hanging iron...... Zipped right over at nearly full speed in 2wd.

As good as snow tires have gotten, I won't run a studded tire anymore.

My brother went to college in Laramie, Wyoming in the early 70's.
He said one of the forms of winter-time entertainment his buddies came up with, usually after a few beers, was to get out on the deserted highway and see if they could get going fast enough to start throwing studs out of the tires.

He said about 100 mph would usually do it. He said the flying studs made quite a racket in the wheel wells.

Let's see:..., kids, beer, cars, 100 mph, winter roads...what could possibly go wrong?

I would point out that the Alaska dispatch is a left wing greenie site that flirts with the truth but has no real commitment to it. In 1984 there was a North country meet in Anchorage to exchange ideas on common problems. IIRC the Finns laughed at the idea that studs were the source or problem of ruts in the asphalt. They were adamant that proper road bed preparation and the proper mix of asphalt eliminated the road damage, the problem was that it more expensive. As a great mind stated "the truth is out there". Now if we can only find it. FWIW, my studded tires kept me out of two fender benders today. I drive while paranoid during icy conditions and it is officially...oockie today on the side roads and parking lots.

Studded tires were allowed in Ontario for one or two seasons maybe 40 years ago. It was concluded the damage being done to roads and other surfaces outweighed the benefits. Studs helped to get a car moving from a stop but, as I recall, increased brake stopping distances.

At work I parked in an underground garage. At the entrance/exit there was a concrete lip to prevent water entry. Within one season the amount of damage to the concrete was hard to believe and only a relatively few of the cars using the garage had studded tires.

As a comical side note when the studs were outlawed I removed them from my tires by hand. Try it sometime if you want to find out what sore fingers and hands are. I was still either poor or miserly in those days.

Jim

Do you have a pair of these Jim?

We use them for both, cutting wire, and pulling nails, and staples.

On ice, studs DO NOT increase stopping distance.

I've read that before, and wonder if the people saying it have ever run studs on icy roads..

It is on dry paving that the studs increase braking distance.
How much?

If ice was the only surface being driven on, there is no question.

People think studded tires are only riding on spikes..

On dry pavement, there's still a whole lot of rubber on the road. In the canyon, where it can go from dry to sheet ice in a few feet, studs are awesome.

ldholton;
Good morning to you sir, hopefully this still and final Sunday morning in February finds you well.

The subject of proper winter and/or snow tires is somewhat near and dear to my heart as we live in the mountains of BC where the roads become slicker than the proverbial snot on a door knob every winters - several times in fact.

As well, we've got 5 rigs in our yard for the 4 drivers under our roof and I'm responsible for the vehicle fleet at work too - so another dozen rigs there.

We're required by law to run either M&S or Snowflake rated tires between October 1st and March 31st as well.

Here's a link to explain the difference between them.
http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=125

For our family's SUV fleet - wife's Forester, daughter's Cherokee, other daughter's CRV and my Corolla - we've been running Firestone Winterforce tires and have been extremely pleased with them. I wouldn't say they are better than say a Blizzak - but for our road conditions they are close.

Regarding the stud question, we do see a lot of vehicles running studs here, especially the folks who are into snow sports and running up into the ski and snowmobile areas every weekend.

We don't run studs at our house but if anyone in our clan needed to run up and down 4000' of ski hill roads often then I absolutely would stud some snowflake tires and call it as good as one can get.

As a final thought on slippery roads and I'm speaking only somewhat broadly here - but anyway the vehicles we'll see in the ditches first when the roads turn ugly are the 4x4 and AWD models.

It seems that most BC drivers were sleeping in physics class and don't understand that just because their AWD/4x4 system has allowed them to accelerate to an unsafe for road conditions speed that it will enable them to decelerate in the same manner..... which of course is folly.

Oh lastly, the snowflake rated tires are very, VERY soft and do wear out noticeably faster than a M&S marked tire for sure - in our experience anyway.

Hopefully that was somewhat useful for someone out there this morning. Safe travels on the icy roads to you all for the remainder of this winter.

Dwayne

It'sals o an excellent bullet puller.....

Dwayne. Maybe it's a phenomenon just in the U.S. but people can't comprehend that snow tires have to be softer to improve traction ,hence they don't get the mileage. Even on this forum, you have many guys complaining about poor mileage on snow tires

I have two pair ,but for the price of good horse nippers, I'm not about to go pulling hardened studs with them.

New, those are not so cheap, $35, or so.
I am talking about wire cutters, not the bypass hoof trimmers.

We must have over ten pair, auction sales, and anywhere you can find them.

Those things are the chit for pulling corner beads.

saddlesore;
Good morning to you sir, hopefully this finds you doing well.

I can assure you that the complaints about both Snowflake and M&S tires are not just on your side of the medicine line.

We have no shortage of Canucks who'll wax eloquent about how they made do with all season tires all their lives so far and why on earth would they need snow tires now?

Of course they don't take into account that there are exponentially more drivers now, or that we drive faster, further and put on exponentially more miles than they ever would have conceived possible "back when".

Anyway, at our place we're happy to enjoy the new technology available in tires today. Yes it costs us more money perhaps - but then when we look at the bigger picture of how they enable our family to travel safely it makes the investment seem small.

All the best to you and yours this upcoming week sir.

Dwayne

Glad to see studs are alive and well in some areas , I know from experince they have no equal on ice , I'm talking freezeing rain glaze , chains do good to but can be a PIA and hard on thimgs on clean dry surfaces. The best biting tires wear out the fastest , have ran some that flat dig , if you didn't go you were burried!! but they lasted like 10k

Hi Dwayne

In southern Sweden, those "all season" tires are popular, but here in the north, everybody has 4 summer tires on rims, and 4 more REAL winter tires on another set of rims.

In fact, every used car usually includes both winter and summer tires, all mounted on rims ready to go -- it is expected.

I would guess that the winter tire sales are about 60% studded with the remainder being studless in the northern areas; as you go south, you see a greater percentage of studless tires.

Here in the north, we make fun of Stockholmers and the way their city is paralyzed by a minor snow storm. Come to think of it, this is fairly similar to the way most of Canada makes fun of Toronto when it gets hit by a winter storm.

John

Does anyone remember the Knobbies and Sawdust treads back in the 50's.

I had a 53 Chevy and even with them, I had chains on about three months out of the year.

Anyone who thinks studs don't work is just ignorant. They may increase stopping distance in some instances. Those are not the times that you buy studs for. Spent a whole day driving a semi, hauling gas and diesel, in a snow storm. Got in my wife's '92 Thunderbird and was terrified, I had not gotten around to putting the studded winter tires on yet. Went home changed and went for a drive, unreal the difference. Without studded snow tires that car was almost uncontrollable. Studs do not help in soft snow but, for most of us, that soon turns to ice and hardpack.