Studded tires?

[gearguywb]

We are leaving our 100 in Colorado for the winter as we try to get out several times a year to do a bit of skiing (and goofing off).

Anyone run studded tires? Thoughts? This past week the 100 was great heading over the pass on Tuesday while it was snowing like h***, but I would think that studded tires may help with stopping traction.

Thanks!

 

[Mike6158]

I lived north of Denver for a little over 3 years and never had studded tires. I think the last time I used studded tires was in 1975, when I was in high school (yes they had schools back then). I bought them one summer because they were cheap In Colorado. I kept snow chains in the truck. I don't recall needing them. Sometimes chain laws were put into effect and I didn't want to get stuck on the western slope waiting for a pass to clear. But like I said, I never used the chains so it was one of the many precautionary things that I had in the truck and car (sleeping bag, extra food, water, etc).

 

[Sandroad]

I've never owned studded tires but I rode in a car once that had them and the noise on dry roads was bad. I have owned modern winter tires and they were great (Michelin X-Ice). I can't afford 2 sets of tires now, but if I could, I'd get winter tires for all my vehicles. Here's a Tire Rack article on studding.
http://blog.tirerack.com/blog/docs-...-or-is-studless-the-way-to-go-we-can-tell-you

 

[Mike6158]

That's a great article. The X-Ice tires have great winter traction. I wonder how they compare to chains.

The studded tires that I bought back in the day were prone to flats. I'm sure that it had nothing to do with how I drove when I was a high school kid. I had to buy my car, tires, fuel, etc so I'm sure that I would never have done burnouts or anything like that

 

[Get outside]

I only had one winter in Denver after we bought our 100 then we moved back to CA (work). I was completely blown away on how well that thing handled on wet, slush, ice and deep snow! Still have the same tires on the truck now - Nitto Terra Grapplers ATs.
I would play around and try to make it slide around but it just wouldn't!

 

[uHu]

.... Here's a Tire Rack article on studding.
http://blog.tirerack.com/blog/docs-...-or-is-studless-the-way-to-go-we-can-tell-you

The test linked to is very inaccurate and very limited. The tire with the lowest traction rating is studdABLE, not studded. Generally, studdable tires do not have the special winter rubber compound of studless winter tires, and performs like a summer tire with M&S rating. Somewhere far down in the text, there is a reference to the Winterforce being studded, but the specs do not confirm this.
Up here in the Scandinavian snow countries, there's a big tire test every year, done in the north of Finland, and the studless tires do not normally perform better on ice than studded ones, except for, occationally, some very bad/cheap studded are worse than the good studless. Especially on wet ice, there is nothing that beats studs. On cold snow (>10 deg below freezing), the soft studless ones are normally better than studded.
There is one problem with studded tires and modern cars tho', and that is the anti spin and ABS systems. Studs do have a little slip, and that makes those systems kick in. With studded on ice or hard snow, you actually get shorter stopping distance without the ABS activated (as you do on loose gravel), and there's a similar effect on the TRAC, or whatever the anti spin is named.
All that said, I still prefer studless, because many of the main roads have no snow or ice most of the winter, and when there is ice, I just adapt the speed to the conditions (like always), and I have the benefit of great performance most of the time, and less noise. (sh!t what a long sentence...)

 

[uHu]

Here's a sample of this year's test. Acceleration on ice, one out of 16 tests.
The tires will generally not be available in the US, but this shows the tendency. Those studded ones far down the list are cheap newcomers, and the quality studless do perform better. The actual type of tire from each manufacturer is listed in another table. Some of the european tires even have a continental and a nordic version of the same model, made for different temperature ranges.

Studded tires in yellow. Time in seconds (smaller is better):
Nokian
2.4

Continental
2.7

Pirelli
2.7

Hankook
2.9

Gislaved
3.1

Goodyear
3.1

Bridgestone
3.2

Michelin
3.3

Dunlop
3.5

Vredestein
3.5

Michelin
3.7

Goodyear
3.8

Nokian
3.8

Continental
3.9

Jinyu
4.0

Maxxis
4.0

Nordman
4.0

Bridgestone
4.4

Pirelli
4.4

Sailun
4.5

Kumho
4.6

Sunny
4.6

Dunlop
4.8

Vredestein
4.9

Sunny
5.3

 

[ToHiHy]

Hankook iPike studded. What I do and where I go, studded tyres are a must. I also have front tyre chains for backup.

 

[Sandroad]

Cool, turning an Land Cruiser into a snowmobile!

Tests aside, it my be worth noting that it looks like 10 states ban studded tires, 33 states allow them with seasonal or other restrictions, and 7 allow them anytime. That may affect purchase decisions. CO allows them.

http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/studded-tires/

 

[White Stripe]

They are not a necessity, but they do help. Depends on how far you want to go in the traction department. I guess if I was worried about my wife driving the vehicle or something then I would consider it because they do increase traction a bit.

 

[TwiceWithHair]

General grabber at2 in size 275/65/18 e rated. Studded. Tahoe. Couldn't get stuck. In fact I intentionally looked for unplowed roads to travel down just to see if I could. It's a pretty awesome feeling having a sports car in a blizzard. You just have to remember that most the other drivers won't have your same awesome traction and stopping ability.
And as far as noise... My buddy had some cooper msr's (studded. AND dedicated snow tire.) riding in his jeep sounded like a tropical storm was following us on dry roads. Stopping traction decreased on dry roads. He desperately tried to avoid dry roads because he didn't want his special soft rubber compound to wear down any faster. By contrast, the studded at2's on my land cruiser were quiet. Windows down, you can hear studs. Windows up was like being in a land cruiser =) the studded at's also didn't seem to suffer on dry roads at all like the dedicated winters did.

If I still lived in Truckee and did NOT spend a lot of time commuting to dry lower areas like sac or Reno, I'd go dedicated snow with studs with a summer set waiting in the garage. I love the extra traction.

For all around snow/wet/dry performance in the winter months, I think I had the right setup with studded at tires. I know general grabber at2's work well. And I've heard studded duratracs do great too. Hope some of this helps.


...via IH8MUD app

 

[gearguywb]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone!

 

[stonepa]

I've owned both studded and winter tires. Studs are a pain and generally inferior to a dedicated winter tire like the Continental Extreme Winter Contact or the Blizzak DMV1. I had the blizzaks on my 100 and my wife's RX400H. Awesome, long wearing tire.

 

[MT Dweller]

I have studded Cooper M&S tires on my Cruiser for the winter. The Toyo AT2's are just too hard to get good traction on ice in the winter. The coopers use a harder rubber than the blizzaks (have those on my commuter Nissan, and my F150) and they wear much slower than the Blizzaks. Where I live snow tires are a must.

 

[Wasatch Jay]

My viewpoint differs from some of the others.

When it comes to traction on ice/ hardpacked snow studs are better than what I'll call "winter compound" tires. But there are some issues with studded tires. I don't know what Colorado's rules are, but most states permit the use of studded tires only during certain months as they cause considerably more wear to pavement. As has been pointed out, they are noisier on dry roads. It's been years since I had a set of tires studded, but my recollection is that can only be done when the tires are brand new. So if you want studs you'll need to ante-up for new tires and have a second set of tires for summer use. The fall-spring changeover involving demounting, mounting and balancing will be quite costly. You might consider purchasing a second set of wheels (used).

Again this opinion will differ, but I wouldn't run real linked chains on a nice vehicle. Certainly they are the gold standard in terms of traction, but they are major azz-pain to install. I'm going to say it's virtually impossible to get them tight enough so there's not slack, and at speed if there's enough slack the chain will smack your sheetmetal; and it won't be pretty. Yes, you can get rubber chain tensioners that will help, but to me unless it's only for a relatively short distance at a very slow speed I'm not going to use chains.

 

[TwiceWithHair]

I know in Truckee, stones tire will swap all four of your winter tires to summer (same rims) and verse visa for $50. It's pretty common to swap winter and summer tires in the mountains and local shops may have specials for just such an occasion.


...via IH8MUD app

 

[stonepa]

I know in Truckee, stones tire will swap all four of your winter tires to summer (same rims) and verse visa for $50. It's pretty common to swap winter and summer tires in the mountains and local shops may have specials for just such an occasion.


...via IH8MUD app

I do the same here in Ohio .