Studded Tires: Good or Bad?
Article produced by the PMCtire.com team
Winter is coming and it’s time to buy new tires. Several manufacturers offer studded tires for better traction, but are they really a good solution? It all depends on your daily commute.
First of all, studded tires obviously cost more than equivalent conventional tires, but on dry surfaces, they will be much noisier. The additional friction will also increase the fuel consumption of our vehicle. And since metal studs damage road surfaces in warmer weather, we can only use them for a certain period of time. Studded tires are permitted in all Canadian provinces and territories, but most of them only allow them during the winter months, usually from October to the end of April. One exception is Ontario which only allows studded tires in the northern part of the province. Several U.S. states have banned the use the studded tires completely, considered responsible for damaging roadways and creating dust.
Studded tires perform better on icy roads than snow-covered ones, so if your daily commute consists of country roads or highways that are constantly covered in a sheet of ice, this type of tire could help. Otherwise, a good set of winter tires without studs will do the job just fine. Certain tire manufacturers claim that their new winter tire models perform so well on icy surfaces that they almost eliminate the need for studded tires altogether.
However, what we should never forget is that studded tires will never replace good driving skills. On slippery surfaces, we can simply slow down and be extra cautious instead of relying on studded tires. In short, the disadvantages outnumber the advantages: studded tires are good for driving on sheer ice, but aren’t better than normal winter tires on snowy or dry roads.