Thoughts on studded tires

PA12DRVR wrote:

....assuming there's anywhere left where such tires are allowed besides Los Anchorage.

I know some states you must have studded tires removed by a certain date in the spring. If you are in one of those states it may mean buying two sets of tires.

I've run studded tires in the past but about 10 years ago switched to studless winter tires. The REAL studless winter tires. The ones that you do not want to run in the summer. There are tires around now with the snowflake on the sidewall that are what I'd call a crossover tire. not near as good in snow/ice as a real studless winter tire.

My experience is that the studless are just as good as studded tires in hardpacked snow and ice, WAY better on wet surfaces, WAY better on dry roads than studded tires and much quiter and don't chew up the roads.

The tread is not as aggresive as some studded tires so they may not be as good as a studded tire in deep snow.

What I do is get a set of wheels for each vehicle and have studless tires mounted on them then mount them when the time comes.

Treadwear on the studless seems to be comparable to what I'd get out of a studded tire, nowhere near the treadlife of a summer tire.
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If studs are allowed where you live, but you intend to travel out of state, check stud restrictions. Some states have outlawed them, other states have restrictions on the dates they can be used.

I live between Syracuse (125"/yr) and the Tug Hill Plateau (300"/yr) and hardly anyone runs studded tires. You can hear them coming so you always notice when someone has them. As mentioned above, a quality aggressive snow tire is all that's needed.

While studded tires were a big help, back in the day, when most everything was rear wheel drive/2WD. Now, in needed areas, almost everything has AWD, 4WD, and many with electronic lock differentials. I almost never even see a real Winter, aggressive snow tire on anything in my area.

A huge stock pile of salt, and other similar use chemicals on the roads/streets another reason most don't use real aggressive tires, studded or not.

Jerry

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=151

Northern Ohio here and can't remember the last time I saw someone running them.

PA12, I consider the ultimate winter tire (unless the wife only drives paved roads around town and generally waits for the plow trucks to make a pass) to be a studdable mud terrain tire with little to NO factory siping.
Then take said mud tire, have all the inside tread block rows siped as deep as they'll do it (1/2" usually) and leave the outside blocks solid and stud them.
Benefits of snow tire from the siping, benefits of easy tread cleanout due to large void space, benefits of studs (obvious on ice) and benefits of the big mud terrain lugs in softer/deeper snow.

If just driving around town, I'd get the cheapest studdable snow tires you can, punch some studs in em and let er rip!
You already have AWD so you can go 90% of anywhere on normal tires, snows are just better and studs are studs, you're not ice racing.
Save the expensive studs for the snogo when them trails get icy!

My folks get studs in the winters, and they're in their 80's now so it's probably a good idea not only for the ice performance but also so people can hear them coming so they know to get out of the way. I don't bother with dedicated snow tires, just AT tires year round, and that's good enough for our rigs. I recently put Falken Wildpeak AT's on my truck and they have the mountain snowflake symbol on them. I've only had them in snow once so far but they did extremely well - I'd say better than the BFG KO2 tires I had on the truck previously.

If it is cold and you have ice nothing beats studs. Suggest Nokian hakkapeliitta 9 SUV. Non studded are ok if you only get snow. The Nokia’s are factory studded and have an air cushion under them so they last a LONG time. I have them on a civic, an f250 and an f450. Other tires I have had include blizzaks, kumho studded something’s, and good year ultra grip ice (in the last 10 years) - none were as good as the nokian - IMHO

Thanks for the input. We live in Los Anchorage and the dominant condition (for the past several years) is frequent snow followed by warm temps and melting. At best, we get polished ice at intersections; at worst, ice on all the roads.

Having done both, for the Los Anchorage climate, I'd have to give the nod to studded tires over a siped tire and certainly over an all-season...were we in Squarebanks where it stays winter once it decides to be winter, siped or perhaps even an all-season would be better, but in my experience, they just don't work as well for our predominantly ice conditions.

All that being said, my pick-em-up has Blizzaks on it and it does just fine...but the wife has a preference for studs: combining that preference with an arguably better fit for our climate, I'll look into studded options.

Grit....on the sno-go fleet, the one I ride has studs. I haven't yet convinced the GK's or the wife that there's a pretty strong need to be heavy on the throttle to power through curves when driving a studded track. Had one rollover with the oldest grandkid driving, so they're now relegated to the studless machines.

jfritz_drfritz wrote:
If it is cold and you have ice nothing beats studs. Suggest Nokian hakkapeliitta 9 SUV. Non studded are ok if you only get snow. The Nokia’s are factory studded and have an air cushion under them so they last a LONG time. I have them on a civic, an f250 and an f450. Other tires I have had include blizzaks, kumho studded something’s, and good year ultra grip ice (in the last 10 years) - none were as good as the nokian - IMHO

I run numerous sets of the Hap 9's (and previous versions) both studded and stud less versions. I agree that there likely isn't a better dedicated Winter tire. If you research it and read how they do it, it is pretty interesting if your a tire nerd like I am. I live 90 miles from Yellowstone National Park if that gives you an idea of the Winter driving conditions here. Your search for a great Winter tire should start and end with the Nokian. The studs bite better on snow packed icy roads, but the studless are really good without the stud tire issues. These aren't off road blow through snow drift tires, but on a icy snow packed roads they shine.