Snow tires.

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I'm thinking about getting a set of General Altimax Arctic snow tires for my truck. $113 each and I can pick them up at Tireracks warehouse. Are studs worth it? $60 to stud the set.

Anyone run these on a truck? The reviews on Tirerack are quite good.


I was going to get another set of wheels but with TPMS it just drives the cost and PITA factor way up.
 
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Do you get a lot of icy conditions on your roads? That's probably the only time when you can benefit from studs. Otherwise, for dry, wet, and snow covered roads, you don't need them.

BTW, I have these tires (non-studded) for my 530i. I've been happy with them, especially considering how inexpensive they were.
 
Snow tires make such a massive difference compared to all seasons I would hold off on the studs unless you know you'll need them. Plus, in a great many places they are not legal to run.
 
Studded tires really only cause a problem if you're spinning them. I like the idea of them but after digging up a few places I probably should not have, I will either be pulling the studs out of the Winterfarce or buying studless.

With that said, I know a few people who have used the Altimax Arctic on a few vehicles - a FWD and AWD and they do well in all conditions, including ice, without the studs.
 
This was a long time ago, but we had two neighbors who ran studded snows when I was a kid and both of their driveways looked like they had been cluster bombed.
 
There are restrictions on where and when you can use studded tires.

These tires are certified to meet NHTSA standards for snow tires.

The ones I have, from Tire Rack, are manufactured in Germany by Continental.
 
Studded tire performance places them at the bottom of the pack, and not by a small margin, when it comes to cornering grip and stoppin distance. If you need studs, put them on the cheapest tire you can find since any performance attributes of the tire are gone.

There are two types of "winter" tires available today. Generally with a Passenger Car or a truck used like a Passenger Car, you want ice radials. For snow or other traction use, you want "mud and snow" tires. Neither performs particularly well in the "wrong" environment in comparison to the other although better than all-seasons in both cases.

How and where uou drive makes the choice relatively simple.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Studded tire performance places them at the bottom of the pack, and not by a small margin, when it comes to cornering grip and stoppin distance. If you need studs, put them on the cheapest tire you can find since any performance attributes of the tire are gone.

There are two types of "winter" tires available today. Generally with a Passenger Car or a truck used like a Passenger Car, you want ice radials. For snow or other traction use, you want "mud and snow" tires. Neither performs particularly well in the "wrong" environment in comparison to the other although better than all-seasons in both cases.

How and where uou drive makes the choice relatively simple.



Umm... That is simply wrong. Some winter tires do better in ice or snow vs the other but ANY are heads and tails better in winter conditions thatn the performance of an "m & s" rated tire.
 
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Studs make tires miserable in corners in the dry or rain. They aren't a panacea on ice, but break it up a little for the guy behind you. If everyone else ran them...
 
DTD is no where near me, but thank's I think I'll grab a set without studs.

A friends shop will mount them for like $20, so the mounting cost is nill.

I never ran snow tires so I suspect the additional traction of snow tires will be enough.

I think $500 +/- for a set of snow tires is money well spent.
 
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I did DTD for Hankooks, $500 plus $80 for a local shop to mount and balance on some steelies. Very happy. At least with new tires I can't hear a difference. I have to wonder if I would be able to hear studs, but I don't feel a need for them up here.
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
DTD is no where near me, but thank's I think I'll grab a set without studs.

A friends shop will mount them for like $20, so the mounting cost is nill.

I never ran snow tires so I suspect the additional traction of snow tires will be enough.

I think $500 +/- for a set of snow tires is money well spent.

DTD is online only, DT/AT are brick/mortar stores.

DTD's price includes shipping, but they do price match other online total price.

Waiting till Labor day for possible sale/rebate is a good idea, because you don't need snow tires until November.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Studded tire performance places them at the bottom of the pack, and not by a small margin, when it comes to cornering grip and stoppin distance.


I was considering Nokian Hakka 8s (studded) or R2s (not studded) last year for our new Forester, and the comparison tests I found showed the 8s beat the R2s in... actually, pretty much everything. In the big comparison tests (10+ types of tire), most of the best-rated tires were studded.

I think the only thing they were consistently worse at was stopping in the rain, where pretty much all snow tires suck. The only real downside of the studs on the Nokians is having to turn up the stereo to cover the extra road noise.

However, it's also worth considering the temperatures you drive at, since studs can't dig into ice below about -20C, and start to become a liability there.
 
Originally Posted By: emg
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Studded tire performance places them at the bottom of the pack, and not by a small margin, when it comes to cornering grip and stoppin distance.


I was considering Nokian Hakka 8s (studded) or R2s (not studded) last year for our new Forester, and the comparison tests I found showed the 8s beat the R2s in... actually, pretty much everything. In the big comparison tests (10+ types of tire), most of the best-rated tires were studded.

I think the only thing they were consistently worse at was stopping in the rain, where pretty much all snow tires suck. The only real downside of the studs on the Nokians is having to turn up the stereo to cover the extra road noise.

However, it's also worth considering the temperatures you drive at, since studs can't dig into ice below about -20C, and start to become a liability there.


Nokian! Now we're talking snow tires!

Just wish they weren't so darn hard to find.
 
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