I bought my 87' 2wd truck a few years back up in Oregon. Last time up there, I stopped by to see the previous owner & show him what it looked like restored. He said he still had the studded snow tires for the truck w/ only 1 season one them & gave them to me. The tire are in perfect shape, so living at sea level, I was going to remove the studs and use them as regular tires after my current tires wear out. Now I'm going to need to get back up there this winter. So, should I toss them into the bed of my truck & switch them out when I hit snow, or just put on some chains? The extra weight of my stock tires would come in handy if I did switch.

 

Seems like a lot more work to me to switch out the tires, rather than just putting on some chains. Just my $.02

 

It might be unusual, but because I got frostbite in my fingers (bad enough to lose some fingernails, which grew back) when I was a kid, I always carry a floor jack in my vehicles to minimize exposure to the snow, and expedite chain application & removal. They also go on tighter. So swapping tires is probably as fast or faster. dr_bowtie carries a charged air supply tank in his truck so he can change tires w/ a pneumatic impact wrench. I have that stuff laying around so that would make it real quick. But the question is how well do stud tires work as opposed to chains? And when signs are up saying "Snow chains required", do the stud tires qualify?

 

Studs do not qualify for chains, studded tires to qualify for snow tires only. Studded tires only work on ice and will give you about 1 more foot of hill climbing before spinning out over the same tire without studs.

 

Looking at them, that sounds about right! So what do people that live in that stuff, put the stud tires on & chains on them. After the road hardens, remove the chains?

 

Yea, I had chains on one of my work vehicles this winter. One of the links broke that went across the tread of the tire. When the link broke, the chain ATE the paint off the rear quarter panel lol So I say chains, if it's on a vehicle that ISN'T yours, and studs on a personal vehicle. It never hurts to throw a little weight in the bed either. I keep 200 lbs of gravel bags in the bed of mine.