Studded tire debate

[ZRrrr]

Been lots of talk on this forum about studding winter tires for our trucks. I like research so spent some time looking into studding tires. What I found was quite surprising. I do not have an opinion one way or the other but thought I would share some of what I learned and open the floor to debate.

There was a study done by the TRC that used be on the Tire Rack website. Some of the information from the study still floats around. Things they found:

* Studs are only best when on glare ice. For compacted, frozen, glazed snow studs were less effective than a performance winter tire.
*Studs perform so poorly on wet road conditions that the TRC had an entire section in the report dedicated to cautions regarding studded tire use.
*Winter tires with embedded particulates such as the Blizzaks and Green diamonds, showed little advantage over performance winter tires and were poor on wet roads.
*Highest marks went to winter performance tires such as Hakka's, Micheline Alpines, Blizzaks with micro pores, Firestone Winterforce.

A Japanese study found that studs tore up roads so bad they generated significant particles in the air. Enough to cause public healthe concerns and were therefore banned.

Several other studies showed that stud use was significantly responsible for excessive wear of asphalt resulting in grooved highways. It was correlated to severe hydroplaning accident levels during rainfalls, and millions of dollars in taxpayer money spent on early road repair. Numerous places have banned the use of studs as a result.

Like I said, I do not have an opinion one way or the other. Just interesting information.

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[maxwell]

Been lots of talk on this forum about studding winter tires for our trucks. I like research so spent some time looking into studding tires. What I found was quite surprising. I do not have an opinion one way or the other but thought I would share some of what I learned and open the floor to debate.

There was a study done by the TRC that used be on the Tire Rack website. Some of the information from the study still floats around. Things they found:

* Studs are only best when on glare ice. For compacted, frozen, glazed snow studs were less effective than a performance winter tire.
*Studs perform so poorly on wet road conditions that the TRC had an entire section in the report dedicated to cautions regarding studded tire use.
*Winter tires with embedded particulates such as the Blizzaks and Green diamonds, showed little advantage over performance winter tires and were poor on wet roads.
*Highest marks went to winter performance tires such as Hakka's, Micheline Alpines, Blizzaks with micro pores, Firestone Winterforce.

A Japanese study found that studs tore up roads so bad they generated significant particles in the air. Enough to cause public healthe concerns and were therefore banned.

Several other studies showed that stud use was significantly responsible for excessive wear of asphalt resulting in grooved highways. It was correlated to severe hydroplaning accident levels during rainfalls, and millions of dollars in taxpayer money spent on early road repair. Numerous places have banned the use of studs as a result.

Like I said, I do not have an opinion one way or the other. Just interesting information.

*

they deffinetly work best on glare ice and compacted snow. but the rest i dont care because thats where its important to me hauling a fully loaded 40ft trailer through the mountains. im sure they cant be good for the roads

 

[S.W.A.T.]

who would have thought carbide steel pick wernt good in water and hard on the pavement???? Have ran various types of tires year round and even summer vs. winter, much prefer the peace of mind of studded tire when traveling through the pine pass in January with freezing rain. But the study does make complete sense when talking about performance winters vs. just a regular studded tire.

 

[Pistonbroke]

....and they sure howl!

 

[SLEDBUNNYRACING]

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought about the wet asphalt part.
Thanks for the post.

 

[ferniesnow]

*Highest marks went to winter performance tires such as Hakka's, Micheline Alpines, Blizzaks with micro pores, Firestone Winterforce.


I just put on my winter Hakka's with factory studs yesterday. Don't know if the studs put them one notch higher but I sure like them. Just awesome on the logging roads!

 

[Braddock54]

I have found studs to be better in almost all conditions than a winter tire without them. Hakkas on my own truck and Toyo observer winters on my work vehicle. The Toyos aren't even in the same universe as the Nokians. It's pretty rare to see bare asphalt any time in the winter here. My two cents.

 

[Bogger]

Wife and I ventured out in Saturdays snow storm to hit costco. First time running the studded Happs....freaking awesome. Yellowhead was a skating rink and I could comfortably do 80km/h while everyone else was spinning at 50km/h....I probably could have done the 110km/h comfortably but I forgot my white sunglasses at home and haven't installed the lift kit yet.

I was impressed, obviously in deep packed snow they are no better than a similar studless but the Happs are in my opinion the best out there, studded with 4wd practically unstoppable.

 

[DaveB]

I agree with the TRC findings...mostly. I had studded Cooper M+S on a truck and I found the wet pavement traction NOTICEABLY poor. When a 5.3 GM engages the traction control on a spirited left turn to beat traffic on plain wet pavement, it's bad. (I believe I commented on that in previous tire discussions) However the studded Winterforce I run now, under normal driving, don't exhibit any bad tendencies ever. And the snow and ice traction is unreal. I'm sure if you put the truck on a skid pad and tested g-forces under all conditions the studs would be worse...but I can live with that.

 

[woody_tobius_jr]

Wife and I ventured out in Saturdays snow storm to hit costco. First time running the studded Happs....freaking awesome. Yellowhead was a skating rink and I could comfortably do 80km/h while everyone else was spinning at 50km/h....I probably could have done the 110km/h comfortably but I forgot my white sunglasses at home and haven't installed the lift kit yet.

I was impressed, obviously in deep packed snow they are no better than a similar studless but the Happs are in my opinion the best out there, "STUDDED WITH 4WD PRACTICALLY UNSTOPPABLE ".

Hmmmm not sure if that is good or bad, does that mean you can't stop?



Sent from my iPad

 

[JMCX]

So performance winter tires with studs is the way to go. For winter driving of course.

 

[van isle]

*Studs perform so poorly on wet road conditions that the TRC had an entire section in the report dedicated to cautions regarding studded tire use.

A Japanese study found that studs tore up roads so bad they generated significant particles in the air. Enough to cause public healthe concerns and were therefore banned.

Several other studies showed that stud use was significantly responsible for excessive wear of asphalt resulting in grooved highways. It was correlated to severe hydroplaning accident levels during rainfalls, and millions of dollars in taxpayer money spent on early road repair. Numerous places have banned the use of studs as a result.

Washington state also did a huge study on this issue and found that studs do damage the roads signifintly and like in the japanses study cause air pollution from all the ground up concrete and asphalt.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/744.3.pdf

I have 2 of the same SUV they are just differnt years both with the same tires General altimax on set is studed and one is not. I spend most of the winter in Vancouver island and it can ran a lot here. I can say without a doubt studs DON't make a difference on wet ashpalt its all in the tire. We have studded tires on the older SUV because it doesnt have VSC and wanted the added traction. When we bought the newer SUV we didnt stud the winter tires for it as we make a trip down the west coast to Socal in the middle of winter and studded tires are Not allowd down there. Canadian tire did a test this year on these tires nonstudded and they where the top ratted tire on wet ashpalt and that just proved the point even more that its the tire that is the difference on its performance on wet roads rather then studs or not.


On a side note refering back to the frist point about studded tires on wet roads. I can't believe how many cars a including police cars and cabs in Seattle run studs. this further shows how little to no affect studs has on wet road performance as it also rains alot in seattle. The reason they run studs there is it is quite hilly in places and even a touch of frost with the high humidy there the roads are a skating rink.

 

[dezmitchell]

ya i run studded hakks and i have studless hakks 2 on the GF car both a WICKED winter tire i dont think i will ever run anything else but having been able to try the same tire studded and non studded i prefur studded .......my main reason for goin with a winter tire is traction on ice so i will stick with studs but the GF's hakks have that crushed walnut compound to so i guess its hard to tell

they both must work well cause neither i or her have hit the ditch or lost control while running our hakks and she drives veg to edmonton everyday in some harsh conditions

 

[Summitric]

I could tell y'all lots about tires and studs(we stud quite a few every year), but i just thought i'd tell y'all that when i was a kid, i had studded 60 series wintergrips on my '69 mustang 428 cobra jet 4 spd w/4:11 detroit locker diff...... Awesome burnouts and especially in reverse when the studs start to wear a bit..... Frickin' spark show is incredible jus' sayin'

 

[adamg]

Down boy! Down!

 

[Grinder]

Demo derby car too I still remember ric.

 

[ippielb]

I just bought my girlfriend Federal Himilaya WS2 tires for her 2008 honda accord v6, was wondering what everyone's opinions are on getting them studded or not. They have the option to be studded. They're already mounted on rims and are balanced, will they need to be removed off the rims and have to get re-balanced? This is the first set of tires i've debated on getting studded.

 

[van isle]

No you won't have to demount them. But if they have been driven on you can no longer stud them.

 

[InFeRnO]

I just bought my girlfriend Federal Himilaya WS2 tires for her 2008 honda accord v6, was wondering what everyone's opinions are on getting them studded or not. They have the option to be studded. They're already mounted on rims and are balanced, will they need to be removed off the rims and have to get re-balanced? This is the first set of tires i've debated on getting studded.

You will def have to get them rebalanced; that's a lot of weight that's not accounted for no matter if you had them balanced at the beginning or not. Studded tires work great but def get them balanced.

 

[papajake]

have my studded goodyear wranglers for two years now, wouldn't have anything but. two sleds on the deck and drive up any logging road to unload without sliding and stop on a dime