Studded? Siping?

LandCruiser

LandCruiser

New member
Another winter is on its way.

Last year I saw several weeks when it was below 0 and ice and snow all over the roads.

I am currently running BFG Tacos--which is a fine tire for Florida. They're "okay" in the snow with the majority of the reason I didn't go off the road and die due to the KDSS, VSC, and 4wd.

I have read about studded tires on snow and ice, some people say they are awesome, others say they make no difference.

Shops around here will do a "siping" on your tires to increase snow traction. It looks like Vudu nonsense.

I live in the Colorado mountains and have spent a third of the year driving in snow and ice conditions when it was cold as hell. Any of you winter warriors have a good tire rec? These would go on my FJC rims and be swapped out in spring/summer, so I don't care about their warm and dry performance.
 
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Siping made a huge difference in the way my KM2s handle ice and packed snow, but those tires have no factory siping at all. I don't know if they'd make the same difference on a tire with factory siping.

Studs don't help really at all in loose snow and slush, but are very effective on sheet ice and hard packed snow. Anybody who says they don't make a difference probably lives in Georgia or some shit and thinks that the morning frost on the road is "ice". I don't run winter tires because I have 4WD and we generally only get a week or two of temps cold enough to really freeze the roads over, but if I lived any farther north I would absolutely run a studded winter tire. A studded Duratrac would be practically unstoppable in winter conditions.
 
If you will have a dedicated set of wheels and tires just for winter driving conditions, I would absolutely go with a winter tire. They generally have a lot of siping to provide gripping edges, and a soft rubber compound that stays pliable at bitter cold temps.

The difference between a quality winter tire, and an A/T tire, even one that has the snowflake symbol, is night and day.

My personal choice would be the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1.
 
02SE said:
If you will have a dedicated set of wheels and tires just for winter driving conditions, I would absolutely go with a winter tire. They generally have a lot of siping to provide gripping edges, and a soft rubber compound that stays pliable at bitter cold temps.

The difference between a quality winter tire, and an A/T tire, even one that has the snowflake symbol, is night and day.

My personal choice would be the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1.
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This^. I've never run a non-winter tire on any cars have own since this make a huge difference, especially when you need to stop on icy/snowy condition.

I'm living in a province where snow tire are now mandatory, so I do have a set of winter tires mounted on steel rims to save some money and wheel (since salt can affect theses). Even if it's cost you more to have 2 sets of tires, both of them have a better lifespan since you only run them part of the year.
 
LandCruiser said:
Another winter is on its way.

Last year I saw several weeks when it was below 0 and ice and snow all over the roads.

I am currently running BFG Tacos--which is a fine tire for Florida. They're "okay" in the snow with the majority of the reason I didn't go off the road and die due to the KDSS, VSC, and 4wd.

I have read about studded tires on snow and ice, some people say they are awesome, others say they make no difference.

Shops around here will do a "siping" on your tires to increase snow traction. It looks like Vudu nonsense.

I live in the Colorado mountains and have spent a third of the year driving in snow and ice conditions when it was cold as hell. Any of you winter warriors have a good tire rec? These would go on my FJC rims and be swapped out in spring/summer, so I don't care about their warm and dry performance.
Click to expand...

Three things make a great winter tire: Compound, Siping and tread pattern.

With that said a dedicated winter tire is the best choice period. They wear really fast but will amaze you with the traction both going and stopping.

If you choose not to run a pure winter tire the next thing to look for would be a snowflake tire. The more sipes the better to a point.

Studs are great in hard pack and ice. Dry roads they are a death wish. Back in the day before VSC and such I had a '84 Ford Escort. Couldn't afford a 4WD so I got studs for the front of the Escort. Went up my two mile long mountain to get home great. On dry roads the studs on front made it like I was on snow with no studs lol.

If I were considering studs on a vehicle like the 4Runner then I would just get chains for those really tough times. The Canadians are right: A 4Runner with a dedicated snow tire is close to the best possible means of transportation through the snow and ice. Put chains on top of that and that would be absolutely the best.
 
I've been using Bridgestone Blizzaks for many, many years. Excellent winter tire. Everything improves: starting, stopping, cornering. Around here, I put them on mid-December, take them off sometime in March.

The Nokian Hakkapeliitta is generally considered the absolute top dog winter tire by Canadians and Alaskans, but are quite expensive and not always easy to find in the lower 48.
 
I have run mainly studded tires here in Oregon with lots of miles on packed snow/ice. They work great - but they aren't a guarantee of safety. Still have to drive smart. As 1E noted not a good idea to only be half a stud - need to do all four. When I bought my 4runner it came with wild country XTX snowflake tires and I was pretty skeptical as I have 30 plus years of running studs. These tires are scary good on snow/ice. Why scary - I find myself forgetting I'm driving on slick roads and have to remind myself to slow down. They feel different (smoother) than studs so it's easy to forget the road is slick. If most of your winter driving is on bad roads (lots of hwy driving and lots of back roads gravel/rock) I would go with the studs - but you will only get 2-3 winters out of them. If only a little bit of bad, then these newer winter tires are pretty hard to beat.
 
Im currently running Blizzak DM-V1s in the winter and they are phenomenal. I spend a few days a week driving on the highway to and from the mountains as I work for a ski resort outside of the city and i wont spend a winter without a set of true winter tires. We get some pretty wild winters up here so they have been put through their paces and I would absolutely recommend them.

I also had a set of studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas on my Sequoia before i made the switch to my 4R. They were amazing as well and i barely even noticed the noise made by the studs. Only issue was they were very expensive and the Blizzaks are almost as good for (slightly) less.
 
I ran Nokian Rotiivas last winter and they were excellent - much better than Duratracs. They aren't true winter tires but are mountain snowflake. They handle snow and ice well as long as you're driving to the conditions instead of like the geniuses who think 4wd makes them indestructible. I think if you went to something like a Hakka you'd get better performance on ice but not as good as the Rotiivas on unplowed roads.
 
Blizzaks are Amazing

02SE said:
If you will have a dedicated set of wheels and tires just for winter driving conditions, I would absolutely go with a winter tire. They generally have a lot of siping to provide gripping edges, and a soft rubber compound that stays pliable at bitter cold temps.

The difference between a quality winter tire, and an A/T tire, even one that has the snowflake symbol, is night and day.

My personal choice would be the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1.
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Mine too. I own a full set on some steelies. Incredible tire.

Also there is a huge contingent that will push you towards studded... Ignore them unless you need to run your MTs in the winter. Studs dull after ~600 miles and do not compare to studless once they are worn.

http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp?video=7
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/551.1.pdf
 
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Another Canadian chiming in - I've had very good experiences with Michelin X-Ice winters both for myself and my wife. Also know many people who swear by Bridgestone Blizzaks.

I'm in the market for new winter tires this year and if I can find them for a comparable price to Michelins, I will try out the Nokian Hakkapeliitta. As mentioned above, around these parts many consider them the gold standard.

Winter driving here (Southern Alberta) is a combination of dry, snow-covered, and ice covered roads so no need for studs as studless handled all of these conditions well.
 
Today we just got our first snow within Calgary city limits, yeah!

I had Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1 (245/55/R20) for a couple of Winter seasons, they were good until last Winter I had some close calls and started to think they were not as good as before. It maybe because the truck got a few hundreds lbs heavier(bumper, skids, aux battery), but I definitely will switch to Nokian Hakka(285/70/R17) this Winter.

I'm also checking studded tires, as they are just $20 difference per tire(Nokians). This summer, I drove a rental car in Iceland with studded tires for about 2500kms mostly on highway. It was warm and dry. The tires are surprisingly quiet and smooth. Well, the speed limit was under 90 km/h, or maybe the car had good sound proofing, anyway, my first experince with studded tires in summer was good. I don't know about studded tire in Winter on trucks, but I think it maybe worth a try.

About Michelin X-Ice, I had no experience with them. But my coworker had them on his Mitsu Lancer Ralliart AWD, and he said they are not as good as Nokian All-Weathers on his Subaru, especially on ice/packed snow. YEMV, just FYI.
 
I had studded tires for almost 10 years on my last 2 Subarus.

After reading great reviews on the nokian hakkapeliitta, I decided to go for Nokian non studded for the 4R, that was a great decision.
Those are awesome tires......and no more noise.
 
KodeRush said:
About Michelin X-Ice, I had no experience with them. But my coworker had them on his Mitsu Lancer Ralliart AWD, and he said they are not as good as Nokian All-Weathers on his Subaru, especially on ice/packed snow. YEMV, just FYI.
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This comparison unfortunately isn't very instructive since you're comparing different tire performance on two different cars. I'm certain that if your coworker put a true winter tire (vs. all-weather) on his Subaru he'd have a different opinion. Subaru's have very solid winter weather performance regardless of tire, hence why you see so many in Calgary!

4rdan said:
I had studded tires for almost 10 years on my last 2 Subarus.

After reading great reviews on the nokian hakkapeliitta, I decided to go for Nokian non studded for the 4R, that was a great decision.
Those are awesome tires......and no more noise.
Click to expand...

Which Hakkapeliitta's are you running? All I've been able to find is the R2 and the LT.
 
Let me qualify this by saying I grew up in interior Alaska and now reside in upstate New York. I know snow driving. If you are going to have a dedicated winter rim/ tire setup (best way to go I think and I do the same thing),
then don't mess around with all seasons. Get a good dedicated snow tire. I love the Blizzak DM-v1. Absolutely fantastic winter tire for snow and ice.
 
The wife and I are both running studded Duratracs this winter. In fact we got our first snow today :canada:
 
philsey said:
I've been using Bridgestone Blizzaks for many, many years. Excellent winter tire. Everything improves: starting, stopping, cornering. Around here, I put them on mid-December, take them off sometime in March.

The Nokian Hakkapeliitta is generally considered the absolute top dog winter tire by Canadians and Alaskans, but are quite expensive and not always easy to find in the lower 48.
Click to expand...
ive installed many sets of each over the years. they are both amazing tires. a dedicated snow(non stud) tire will out perform a studded AT or AS tire on snow/ice.

as to the the question about siping. it will make worlds of difference. especially if you have a blocky treaded tired. its absolutely not voodoo nonsense.
you may have to shop around to find a tire shop that will do it to a used tire tho. it can be done, but most places aren't willing to CLEAN the tread out first, and instead just say it cant be done.
 
GeoffCalv said:
Im currently running Blizzak DM-V1s in the winter and they are phenomenal. I spend a few days a week driving on the highway to and from the mountains as I work for a ski resort outside of the city and i wont spend a winter without a set of true winter tires. We get some pretty wild winters up here so they have been put through their paces and I would absolutely recommend them.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. Run the same ones in winter. Commonly plow through three feet of snow, rescuing F-150s with "all season tires."
 
Just ordered a set of Blizzak DM-V1's from Tire Rack--since few people can get them in 285/70 R17...

Should have them in two weeks--snow probably won't be here till October/November.

I don't need to run TPMS with my winter steelies, do I?
 
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