Out of Season Winter Tires? Studs or not?

[eblend]

Hi guys,

Been driving all seasons all my life, but do see that my wife's car with Winters is much more confident in the winter with Winters, so thinking of getting some winter tires for my crosstrek, for next season. Are winter tires generally sold year round? Is it cheaper to buy in the summer time?

Also, thinking of going with the studs. Any reason not to? I don't care about the noise. I heard the studs can fall out, and if they do, is the tire still as good as a normal non-studded winter tire? I have been looking around Tirerack, but they only list one tire as studded, and it seems the reviews on that tire aren't that good. They do seem to carry the type of wheels I want for my winter rims, I would look local but it seems like these basic wheels are hard to find.

Mainly interested in these:

Motegi MR139




or these

Sparco Terra

[Tik-Tok]

If you buy a quality snow tire and have it studded, even if all the studs somehow came out, you'll still have a quality snow tire.

[GQBalla]

Ill never get non studded winters again, check out PMCtire as well

[spikerS]

Give Bob at Urban X North a shout. He can find anything and super smart. best service in town and has been helping Beyonders for years.

[redline]

Studded winters are great for traction... it’d like winter and shit roads do not exist... but the noise is crazy loud... I know I could not take the noise over a winter

[lamp_shade_2000]

This is my first year having studded tires. The benefits far outway the noise. It just sounds like you're driving through a graveled parking lot on dry roads. Not a big deal especially if the windows are up. I don't think I could go back to standard winters after having studded

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Standard studs aren’t that noisy. 2mm studs I found were quite noisy.

[ExtraSlow]

Depends on the vehicle too. Studs on my fit are really noticeable but it's because that car has less sound insulation to reduce weight for dominating track lap times.

[redblack]

Tire studs are totally worth it, I can’t beleive I’ve waited this long before trying them out. I’ll probly get all my winters with studs in them from now on.

[GTR_Auto]

Tried studs several years ago. Will probably never go without them. Lets us know if you need a price on those sparcos!

[03ozwhip]

Yep, studs on the X5. Yep. Amazing. Yep. Fucking loud.

[zieg]

I'm happy with my Hakka R2s on my suv. Not studded but they have the crushed walnuts. Definitely working better than the goodyears I had before these.

[revelations]

Definitely studs here - I had studdless winters and will NEVER go back. The noise is worth the trade off for better traction when it counts - on the shittiest of packed snow/ice/freezing rain days

[tirebob]

I have been running studded for many years and no intention of going without. Just the extra sure-footedness alone makes it something I consider well worth the slight inconvenience of a bit more road noise.

[lee88]

Studded Hakka was a super win this year on the GX!

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

I guess I’m in the opposite boat as some of you, I was a studded convert but after sampling the most recent performance winters I likely will go to performance winters on at least one of my vehicles, I was really impressed with their grip on packed snow and found my cheap studded winters didn’t give me any extra confidence or feel much better grip wise in probably 80% of situations.

I’m also anti Hakka/XI3, I really don’t like those tires, how they handle and their characteristics and don’t understand why so many people love them.

[sabad66]

Have had winter tires for the past 10 years but never studded. Next set I buy will have them though... can’t put a price on safety especially the wife’s car which usually has our baby in it

[diamondedge]

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I guess I’m in the opposite boat as some of you, I was a studded convert but after sampling the most recent performance winters I likely will go to performance winters on at least one of my vehicles, I was really impressed with their grip on packed snow and found my cheap studded winters didn’t give me any extra confidence or feel much better grip wise in probably 80% of situations.

I’m also anti Hakka/XI3, I really don’t like those tires, how they handle and their characteristics and don’t understand why so many people love them.

We don't have the calibrated butt g-sensor you have, bro.

You sacrifice dry traction on a cold, bare pavement day (Ask @Twin_Cam_Turbo , he's seen me slide on studs in the dry). But for the winter we've had, the hard packed stuff, the unplowed neighbourhoods, I'm happy I had my studs. Been a convert since 2013, Federal Himalayas (from TireBob, thanks Bob!) and now to Hakkas.

[zhao]

I'm anti performance winter; it's still halfway between a real winter and an all season for ice. It's a tire for the lowermainlamd of bc or kelowna where winter = occasional snow/ice and 95% clear roads. The stability makes them nice for dry pavement but you're definitely sacrificing winter performance, especially Ice performsnce.

I hate Hakka/xice too though. Hakkas are double the price of a blizzak with similar or even worse performance depending on the type of test. Xi3 also cost more but have unimpressive performance imo; most over hyped winter out there. Mid range at best tire there.

Studs are very niche also. On the worst days they have benefits on solid snow pack/ice, and they help the guys following you too, but you're sacrificing a lot of stopping power and lateral traction on dry pavement.

I mostly stick to blizzaks or Chinese winters as those both offer the best bang for buck.

If you really want a studded tire my fav bang for buck one to date was from gislaved. Good price and came studded already for the ones I got so no extra cost. Tried them non studded too and they were easily better than an xice

[Tik-Tok]

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I was really impressed with their grip on packed snow and found my cheap studded winters didn’t give me any extra confidence or feel much better grip wise in probably 80% of situations.

That's why you buy quality studded winters instead of cheap ones. You're complaint is akin to driving on OEM "performance" tires and complaining they don't handle as well on the track as ACTUAL performance tires.