studded tires for winter??

[littledan]

Well, for most of this winter I'll be driving my lude. I was looking into getting winter tires for it and mentioned this to my friend. He suggested that i buy really cheap tires at walmart and get them studded for $12/tire. This seems like a good alternative that could save me ~50%. So does anybody have experience running studded tires in the winter?? Is the road noise very bad when there is little snow on the ground?? How is the traction in snow?? Any help/info is appreciated.

dan

[the-240sx-guy]

i bought my car with studded rear tires. so im not sure how much it helps with traction since i never drove it without them

but there is no noticable road noise even when there is no snow on the ground.

[davidI]

I didn't think you could drive studded tires cause they ruined the roads but I'm probably wrong!?!

[1-Bar]

Originally posted by davidI
I didn't think you could drive studded tires cause they ruined the roads but I'm probably wrong!?!

I think in Alberta they are legal only during winter months though.

[4wheeldrift]

Originally posted by davidI
I didn't think you could drive studded tires cause they ruined the roads but I'm probably wrong!?! We're not talking WRC style studs here, the road legal ones *barely* stick out from tread. They are legal from October to May I believe. If someone knows the exact cut-offs, feel free to pipe up. I've run studded tires the last three years, and they are fantastic on ice. They are fairly noisy on dry pavement, and be extra careful about driving a lot on dry pavement wtih them. You'll lose a lot of studs in a real hurry

[nickyh]

On my Lude I used Michelin Pilot Alpins - really sweet tires but you pay for them.
I got two season out of them, and could have squeezed out a third but I sold the car.

You get what you pay for and Preludes tend to be tail happy!

[littledan]

good info guys... hey 4wheel, did you drive with your studded tires all winter?? if so when did you put them on and take them off and how many studs did you lose? i have a feeling that for most of the winter i'll be driving on mostly plowed roads so that might be a problem??

[alloroc]

I suggest you compare the Walmart tire to the Canadian tire 'Winter Trac'
With studs these are an excellent winter tire.

[4wheeldrift]

I'm running studded Nokian Hakka 1's. Fantastic tires, excellent wearing and incredible grip. I usually put them on the last week of september, and leave them on until the 2nd or third week of april, depending on weather. This year I think I ended up putting them back on for a couple weeks at one point. I was probably losing somewhere around 10-15% of the studs per year, I'm down to just over half the number I started with. I personally haven't noticed a significant difference in performance being minus the studs, but then the studs are disappearing at about the same rate the tires are wearing so by the time I'm out of studs I'll need new tires anyways, and the degradation is very gradual.

[Gotrek]

I'm running nokian Hakka 2's this year with studs
I had Hakka 1's with studs last year and man there is no better winter tire.

[littledan]

awesome guys! i'm gonna go pick me up some studs!...


... oh man that sounds soooo gay!

[Weapon_R]

Where can you buy studs?

[Gotrek]

Any tire place will have them.

[silverEL]

i had a set on my old car, they worked great, and sparked when i spun my tires

[4wheeldrift]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
Where can you buy studs? Any tire shop that sells studded tires can stud them for you, but it has to be done before the tires are used. After they've been used the stud pockets pick up too much crap to be able to thread the studs in.