all you winter geeks that deal with snow .. have you ever run all four studded snow tires in 4X4?

think anything could go wrong with ttoooooo much traction?

 

I've never run studs on any of my two wheel drive or four wheel drive vehicles. They really only help when it comes to ice and they are too noisey for how little the studs would actually be used. With that being said; my uncle and aunt swear by them on thier saturn vue. If your just looking for a little extra insurence 'just in case' the roads get bad I'd say get yourself some emergency road chains. If it helps these are some other things I do to help get around in the winter. Good set of soft rubber winter tires and apply weight over the rear axle. I also carry a pressure guage so I can air down my tires when the roads get really bad and an air pump so I can air them back up if/when I run into clean roads.

 

the studs help outalot, especially it its a bigger tire with a bigger lug (ie mud or a/t tire) if you do much winter driving up here there a must because while they only help in sliprey conditions, even snow on a highway becomes icy after its been drove on for a bit, and ive never herd of anything going wrong from too much traction because of studded tires and contrarry to popular belief you cant really hear them in the cab ither because its only the point of the stud that contacts the road

 

I've run studs on another vehicle, and personally think they were a waste of money. They only time they were worth it was on ice or frozen slush. We have those conditions were I live, but they aren't around perminently during the winter, so studs are not appropriate in my opinion. Studs do not help at all in snow and actually make traction worse on dry pavement. I recommend only running them on the rear if you do get them. Having studs on the front is nice for turning on ice in the winter, but not so nice when you get back on dry pavement. So unless you live somewhere where there will be ice on the ground for the entire winter, I don't recommend them. Where I live, we can have ice on day, snow one day, frozen slush the next, then back to dry pavement. So I prefer a tire with a good amount of siping for the ice and nice lug voids for the snow, slush, and mud. Weight in the bed, and cautions driving goes a long way too.

 

I pull vehicles back on the road all winter & I hear the same thing every year "but I have studs, but I have chains on (CABLE "CHAINS" ARE NOT CHAINS!), but I have snow tires". I am in the CA mountains & it will warm up during the day & melt whatever is on the road but when the the sun starts to leave the road the water freezes & everything is black ice, nothinggrabs ice likechains made out of CHAIN links. The chains that I carry (2 sets) are about 45 pounds each + an aluminum floor jack, only take a few mins to put on & in 5 years I have NEVER slipped or lost traction even when I have someone slide into me.

Sorry if I have a strong opinion on this but I see so many injuries & damage each year that could have been avoided if they had just taken a few mins to put real chains on.

Studs are fine if they only see ice, as soon as they hit asphault they start to wear down & become rounded. within a very short time they are barely sticking past the surface of the tire & offer no traction assistance.

 

No offense, they are LOUD. My aunts saturn has 235's with studs and they make more noise than 37 inch mud terrains. It was the same way on my fathers jeep cherokee, but if you don't mind the extra road noise then it doesn't really matter.

+1

 

1 WORD :::: CHAINS .... Easy on , Easy off ..

 

id love to stay away from studs.. just wanted to know everyones opinions on them and i agree.. retarded noisy.. and i aswell have pull people out with "the most expensive snow tires" or "brand new studs installed" etc etc etc.. my 35" nitto's are A: way to wide for snow.. sux driving them,, and B: way to worn to have any traction to them.. damn near racing slicks... i have a set of blizzacks but they arnt that much better.. pretty worn (better condition then the nittos) .. they wear so much faster since they are so much softer.. but it looks like this winter will be a doozy..

as for chains id love to carry a set but A:have never built a set. B: not sure what kind of chain to use

so .. new topic

 

chains arnt hard to build if you go to most any industrial supply place (don't know what you have there) and ask for rail chain and cross link chain (there different) they should be able to get it for you just be sure to get the stuff for big trucks not the crappy light stuff....i cant count how many sets I've built and i carry a full set of 4 all year round (they can helpa great dealin mud if your careful) here from oct 1 to may 31 all commercial trucks are LEAGLEY required to carry AND USE chains

for1, 35in ture you will need (roughley)

2-110in long rail chains
17 cross links (16-18 in long depending on width of tire you want the rail to be on the widest paret of the tire)
set of boomers (the part that connects the ends together around the tire)
and a good set of chail plires and bolt cutters

the thing with studs is that they continually "pull then selves out" when you drive down the road the centrifugal force pulls them out, then they contact the road it pushes them back in (you cant actually see the difference because the amount it moves is minute) but that's how they keep working otherwisea month after putting them in they would be useless because the metalwould ware faster than the rubber