Studded Snow Tires - An Alternative?

[britsoft]

I am looking around for a set of 4 Snow Tires to be used on my G20 this winter. I teach evenings at the College Of Southern Idaho which is a 92 miles round trip from our house on good freeway roads which are best become pretty ice covered. They usually keep the snow plowed off but ice is hard to eliminate when you're making the trek at 10pm. Here in Idaho we can have studs from Oct to Apr so I just figured that a set of OEM steel wheels and 4 stud impregnated snow tires would be the best bet. However, after checking around I find fewer and fewer tire dealers are even offering studded tires. They all are telling me that the new micro-bubble snow tires are just as good and don't have the negative effect on politicans and roads. I find it hard to believe, even after seeing some test results by some outfit in England, that any type of fancy snow tire could be as good as or even close to a good studded snow tire. Any one have any first hand experence? Not what someone has told you, real experience. Before I lay out $500 for wheels and tires without studs, I'd like to know it will work. Thanks for your help....Bob :sun:

[Tarnsman]

I live in New England & I run 4 studded snow tires on my 1999 Maxima...After 3 seasons of use I would never consider not using studded snows....The improvement over the compromise of "All season" tires is substancial........On my car they did howl until they accumulated around 200 miles......

[Luke@tirerack]

we tested new compound winter tires against the old standard studded winter tires head to head on an ice skating rink and the new compound tires won.

Blizzak Winter Dueler DMZ2
vs.
Wintermaster Plus Studded

60ft. accel (lower is better)
DMZ 2 - 3.69 seconds
Studded - 4.16 seconds

(lower is better)
cornering
DMZ2 0.19 cones hit on average
studded 2.56 cones hit on average

braking 50mph - 0mph (lower is better)
DMZ2 - 95.1 feet
studded - 97.2



The new gen tires do offer better snow and ice grip than studded