I just ordered a set of Firestone Winterforce snow tires for my '06. I drive a lot in New England back roads, so I'm going to have them studded. Any of you with recommendations for or against studding? It's legal here in Massachusetts between November 1 and April 15.

 

the only reason for studs IMO is if you have alot of ice on the roads, i know here in NJ studs are not necessary as long as you have good tires, but idk how the roads are up by you

 

I think I'm going with Winterforces as well, but probably not studs. Studs are for ice, and that's about it. They have a negative effect on bare / wet traction, and with the compounds they build snow tires out of these days, a negligible effect in snow.

I live in the lake-effect belt of central NY...there aren't too many places in the Northeast that get as much snow as we do. Not too many people use studs. Everyone swears by their Blizzaks though.

So it's Winterforces in 245/75 R16 for me...or if they are in stock, Sears has Blizzaks for $90 in that size!

 

Studs have kinda become redundant with the new winter tires on the market. Tire rack did a comparison and discovered that studded tires actually performed WORSE on ice than the new stud less tires. IMO save the money from studding and spend it on a nicer stud less tire.

 

I remember seeing that, haven't seen much about the Winterforces but the Blizzaks did better than the studded tires. They also don't have the traction penalty you get when you're not on ice with studs.

 

studs are good if your going out on a frozen lake for some ice fishing. street driving, my stock tires with 29,000 would work better. I agree with Q-tip.. put the money you would spend on the studs and get a higher quality tire.

 

I recently put some firestone winterforce tires on for the winter, and expect them to do quite well in the utah snow. Hopefully the tread life will be somewhat decent after the winter ends. Anyone heard how long the tread life is in dry driving conditions?

 

I would say never drive snow tires in the dry...EVER. The tires will heat-cycle out and leave you with none of the benefits the next season. They are meant to be run exclusively below about 10 degrees centigrade and only occasionally above that. Consistent dry-weather driving will destroy the tires regardless of tread life.

 

Dry and warm are two different things, at least in winters around here. Often, the colder it is, the dryer the roads are. Dry is OK as long as you don't rip corners and hammer on the gas and brake. It will scrub away the soft tread more quickly. And I agree that once the temps hit 50 F you should have them off anyway.

It's common here to have to drive to work, or school, or to the store in 10+ inches of fresh snow while the plows try to catch up. It just snows too fast. Two days later, after the roads are clear, the salt has melted everything and the precipitation has stopped, the roads are white with salt and bone dry. Then it snows again. So you have to run snowtires all winter, and deal with the fact that you will be driving on clean roads fairly often. Still, most people keep decent snowtires around for 2 or 3 seasons.

 

I agree. I plan to wait until mid-December to mount the tires. By then it rarely goes above 50F, and before then it rarely snows much.