Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Studded tires or not

I live in the North Carolina mountains. My driveway is 3/4 mile long and steep, a 9 percent slope.
Four wheel drive is mandatory on my mountain. And in January if you have 4 inches of snow, you ain't getting up without chains, or studded tires. And I am so sick of laying down in wet snow and putting chains on. And off.
I have a 4WD Nissan Frontier. And every year about November I put on a set of Nokian Hakkepelliitta studded tires. These are the best studded tires in the world, and yes, there is a big difference from one brand of studded tire to the next.
Around March 20 I take them off. These tires are great! Traction on snow and ice unbelievable, and, not too bad on dry asphalt. A little noisy.

The local tire guys can't get them, I buy them online https://www.tiresbyweb.com/

tires by web will do you right.

It seems impossible to find any studded tires in the sizes that will work. A stud gun is $400. I may not have any choice but to go studless.

I spent most of the day trying to fine 16", 17" or 18" wheels that would fit my truck- no go. I am back to finding tires for 15" wheels. VERY few options and non that I can find that are studded. I doubt there is a place here in Phx that will install studs for me.

I order mine from discount tires online and they send them studded. Then I take them to a local shop that charges $16 per tire to install on my rims.

What size tires do you need?

Try about any online option..
They have them in 15 inch at https://tires.tirerack.com/tires/Studded%20Snow%20Tires

I bought a set of studded tires for a mustang in the early 80s to drive to work on the coast. We had a bad ice storm and there was an inch of black ice through most of Arkansas. I had no trouble driving with them. There were a couple of thousand cars in the medians and off the road around LittleRock. I just rolled past them. Had to take them off at the Louisiana state line. Never used them again. But they do work on ice if you need them.

My tires are both siped and studded ... it's your life do as u wish.....its 40 miles one way to work for me... I Iike both going to work and coming home... and not in a box.

They have ONE tire big enough- the Firestone Winterforce UV2. ALL the reviews stated that it sucked compared to the original version.

Discount USED to have studded tires in 15"; they were Coopers. My local Discount guy called Cooper for me and they NO longer make studdable tires.

I found a place that has Hercules Avalanche in the correct size. They won't/can't stud them. I will mount up a set and the Discount tire in Flagstaff will stud them for me. Problem solved. Picked up 4 new (to me) wheels today and will get them going.

I'd look at the tires Barry recommends

Advice from a guy in Texas - I have no furking idea. Not a one.

Studded tires for me and our vehicles.

Around Anchorage we get too many days of water on ice can't even walk to the mailbox without cleats of some kind. You cant get into an auto accident for less than 1K and studs are less than that.

Try driving a plow truck in Anchorage without studs and you will realize that the winter studless tires are a joke in certain conditions and will scare years off you trying to stop.

With studs you can pull away from a icy intersection before you get rear-ended from cars that cant stop.

I came back from Girdwood today water on ice 37 F but ground and road temps are below freezing and was glad I had studs, was scary enough with them. Tried to head South from Girdwood flares were on road, an accident at Portage curve so bailed and headed home.

Tomorrow is supposed to involve rain and with the seriously cold-soaked roads and ground the demolition derby should be spectacular. The need to get through intersections before being rear-ended is very real. Insurance companies will absolutely hate tomorrow. The value of studs will really be on display.

If this is any help at all, back in '91 I drove from TX to AK in mid to late March or sometime in April in my old '77 F150, if memory serves. I believe I ran a new set of Dunlap Radial Mud Rovers. I had 2 spares and a set of tire chains. I only got stuck once and it was in sand. I encountered some snowy conditions and I used the chains a few times, but I really didn't need dedicated snow or studded tires. Winter conditions would be a different story though.

Studs are $15 extra a tire where I buy tires....I have to be out in all sorts of weather, and as soon as you hit elevation here in Oregon, you are dealing with Snow and Ice, especially the latter...

The extra $60 expense is well worth it...and I also have the cable chains with me also and a small block of wood...
put that under the tire ( ya drive up on it), it makes putting the cable chains on pretty easy...

if ya have to deal with ice at all.... the price of studs on your tires is like the old George Carlin joke about Motor cycle helmets..
" if you have a $10 head, get a $10 helmet"

What size tires do you need?

Studded tires aren't as popular here as they used to be. Mainly used for city only driving. Another reason is probably winter tires keep getting better. My tire dealer doesn't recommend them for me. I've never had studded tires . Every area is different.

When I use to travel every week from Walsenburg, CO., to Farmington, NM, I would have to crosses some pretty good mountain passes. Wolf Creek, which was maintained pretty well, but could get very icy. or I might go Cumbres and La Manga passes which were not maintained as well. I ran studded and stiped tires in the winter (only) and never had to chain up except twice. Once to rescue some people that had slid off the highway and once because a state trooper won't let me attempt Wolf Creek pass without tire chains on.. The studs do wear your tires out a lot faster. The best I could calculate, looking at my mileage reports, I only got about 29000 miles out of the set of studded Goodyear Wranglers. I never used studded tires on my other vehicles, but always carried cable chains just in case. Careful common sense driving is a lot more important than the mechanical aids though.

??

I can only get ONE tire. Not any other options in 15" wheels.

265/75R/15

or 31x10.5-15

Here are the studdable Cooper tires in your size at tiresbyweb.com

https://www.tiresbyweb.com/tbw_tire...Pageindex=1&selectedManufacturer=All

You called Cooper and they said they no longer make them in your size. Maybe tiresbyweb has some left over from last year.
As I said above, I have bought $3K worth of studded tires from tiresbyweb, over the years, and they always do me right.