These aren’t your grandfathers’ studded tires any more

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This article was published 18/10/2019 (2550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To stud or not to stud?

Last week’s blast of the white stuff was a good reminder about the need for winter tires, and as the city settles in for what might be a long winter, it might be time to look at studded tires.

The same way today’s winter tires are light-years ahead of their 1970s ancestors, so too, are studded tires.

Bill Gardiner, the resident wrench on Motoring TV and a spokesman for Kal Tire, brought a handful of studs and a large demonstration stud from Nokian Tires to town last week, just as snow was piling up outside.

“For anyone in Western Canada, studded tires are going to provide a noticeable improvement in winter traction,” he said.

Using Nokian’s studs as an example, Gardiner said current technology resolves many of the older issues with studs, including wear and tear on the road surface and increased noise inside the car.

Combining an air pocket and a pad of less-dense rubber behind each stud, the Nokian studs compress into the tire when not needed, but are still ready to bite ice.

When that bite is needed, a bevelled edge around the shoulder of the stud maximizes contact between the carbon-tungsten stud and the ice and snow.

Gardiner said the stopping power of studded tires is noticeably improved: studded tires stop in a distance five metres shorter than winter tires and 12 metres shorter than all-season tires. Those distances grow if either comparison tire isn’t a premium product.

Such added stopping and turning power means drivers with studded tires should be managing their environment, too. A driver with studded tires able to stop more quickly should anticipate drivers behind them not having the same grip and give them more time to react by starting to slow down earlier.

While the new technology reduces wear on road surfaces, Gardiner is quick to point out that doesn’t change the seasonality of studded tires. In Manitoba, studs are only legal between Oct. 1 and April 30. The new studs don’t change that. In southern Ontario, where slush is more likely than ice, studs aren’t legal at all.

Should you buy studded tires right now? Only if your current set of winter tires is past its best-before date, Gardiner said. Get the full use from them first and then think about an upgrade.

Gauging when to change winter tires is a bit different than all-season tires. Typically, winter tires use the softer rubber compound only for about half the tread depth, at which point your car is running on essentially all-season tires. Nokian tires have moulded into them a series of numbers — 1, 2, 3 — that are progressively deeper. When you can only see the No. 3, you’re close to needing new tires.

kelly.taylor@freepress.mb.ca