Winter tires are mandatory by law (beginning this year) but I used them anyway (december-april).

I was wondering if some people use STUDDED winter tires regularly... in Sweden, 70% of people do.

My car is lowered and I might need them as ever. Noise and vibrations is what I fear.

Any relevant experience?

That is so awesome. Seriously.

Hoonage rules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hvq9qTewI

I thought about getting studded tires when I bought my winters too. Just ended up getting regular ones. I've seen cars sliding around on studded tires when pavement in wet and the noise drives me nuts. Maybe if I didn't live in the city I'd go for them, but for slush and the usual conditions that we have I figured normal winters would do the trick.

Goodluck to a fellow Montrealer

Save you pennies.

Listen to the article.... seems like they are using "old school" snow tires with studs (big knobby tires with studs) versus a modern winter tire without... Most modern winter tires give you the ability to install studs (at least the tires from Europe do)... if they would actually compare apples to apples (ie a Gislaved Nord-Frost 5 with or without its studs) they would have had totally different results.

No kidding. I wish they'd do that in NY.

To address the original question, unless the roads are usually covered in snow, I'd go with non-studded. Hakka Rs, perhaps? Studs are wicked unpleasant on asphalt and kill the road surface.

Quote, originally posted by Corbic »

Your an idiot.

for comparison, the studs were hakkas, and the new ones are dunlops. both good tires, so it's not like the studs were on crap tires.

In my experience, the studs generally last as long as the tire tread itself, regardless of whether the roads are dry most of the time, or not. Most studs are carbide, or are carbide tipped, and thus will actually even outlast the tire.

I cannot comment on braking distance, but I do not believe that the studs result in LESS rubber contacting the tarmac, so I don't think braking distance would be compromised. Personally, I've never felt insecure driving studded tires on dry tarmac.

Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that studs dramatically increase your road noise inside the car, and also decrease your fuel economy. I generally see a 5 mpg decrease in fuel economy when my studded tires on on.

I personally loved my Nokian tyres which I have used for several years.

Last year after extensive research I switched to the

Brigestone Blizzak WS-60

Although I will be burned at the stake for this, they are better than the Nokians.

They also wear pretty fast, but so do all tires on a FWD GTI. You will get about 2 years of winter use from a set. I do not recommend rotating the tires on a FWD car either. Use them for a year, the fronts will be 1/2 worn, and the rears like new. Simply put the "new" rear tires on the front next year. You may even get more than 2 years out of them.

Great video! But they suggest that compound of tested studded tires was not on par with the latest studless ones? Did I get that part well?

Here is another version.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/ma....html

Also:

Quote »

But what about the downside, excessive road wear? As in Ontario, Sweden briefly harboured a movement to ban studded tires for that very reason. But instead of banning studs the Swedes improved them. Nordstrom reports that new tire studs weigh half as much as the old studs, with the result that road wear is now an insignificant problem. "I would say that if you have a ban I would recommend that you no longer ban [studded tires]," Nordstrom says, "but rather regulate them so that you get the proper type of studs so they don't harm the pavement. Gerard Kennepohl, head of Pavement Research for the Ontario Government, acknowledges that the data the province used to support its ban is 30 years old.

I lowered my car 1.2".... now I fear winter. My last set of snow tires were terrible in their last / 3rd year.

Great PDF table here, too.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/...27372

Scentific tests.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/resear...1.pdf

this was the storm that did it:

although over that winter, most of the studs fell out:

next tires will probably be michelin x-ice.

Modified by SuperGroove at 2:55 PM 8-24-2008

They are illegal in ontario and you will get caught for using them... So you're all good as long as you stay in Quebec with your studded tires

Thierry Henry is a dirty cheat !

Quote, originally posted by Clint Eastwood »

I don't know if I can tell you exactly when the ***** generation started.....

They're legal year-round in Vermont.

But we have freight trucks to blame for the ruts in the road.

Vote for energy reform, not just discussions. Bill Richardson for President

Want a Google Wave invite?

nobodys gonna read 80 pages, whats the better tire?

There are:

http://pressherald.mainetoday....PHnws

http://www.qtires.com/index.php

Vote for energy reform, not just discussions. Bill Richardson for President

Want a Google Wave invite?

The big fault in that video is equating the performance of the Winterforce tires with studs with all studded tires. Granted winterforce unstudded tires are actually very good in the deep white stuff.

However, companies like Nokian, with their R&D, studded tires have evolved just like friction winter tires--- the point that the TireRack video is missing.

Granted, I have Nokian Hakka RSI friction tires because I do not want to deal with the noise & ride of studded tires.

Modified by GT17V at 8:46 PM 8-24-2008

"Now made in the USA... Green Diamond Tires are an Icelandic invention... from a region of the world where they know about safe winter driving. Each Green Diamond Tire is an ingenious and technologically sophisticated remolded tire with thousands of diamond-hard silicium carbide granules embedded evenly throughout the tire's tread. "

http://www.greendiamondtire.com/

I have been wanting to try these for a while now sense I have never used real winter tires before, only all seasons.

And Falkin azines one winter on a awd galant, pucker factor 11.

Please?

We had a very mild winter last year, with little snow and little ice and I bet that the people who bought brand new studs really had some regrets about that, the studs will wear out on dry asphalt. It's not a real biggie though, you can get them re-studded for a couple of bucks.

In terms of vibration I haven't noticed any discomfort with these tires. I used to have a car that was lowered almost 3 inches and it drove just like with normal tires.

my friend had a set on his STI during last winter. i have never seen a small car blast through 6 inches of deep snow like a snowmobile.

They are illegal if your an Ontario resident, they cant do nothing if your car is registered in Québec.

For my part, I have Studded Hakka5, and love them, but studded tires where I live is almost a must, winter is almost as long as summer

But if I would live in Montréal, I'd say studded tires would be overkill.