To stud, or not to stud?

null

 

what kind of tires do you have now?

A good winter tire won't require changing twice a year and you wont get terrible fuel economy when everything dries up.

 

I really don't think studs are necessary in WA. Four snow tires should be all you require. Blizzaks are used by some for the early 2 G and they swear by them. I believe Michelin Ice Radials are highly recommended. Check out some of the threads on this subject and it may help you decide what is best for you. I use any snow tire on my 2006 but I understand the 04 , 05 have a more sensitive traction control? H

 

i live in WA state (not in Spokane) so the weather is relatively mild. but ya, every once in a while we get it and get it good and this year is supposed to be a bad one and it definitely started out that way.

but there are a ton of people here driving Priuses that deal with weather 10 times worse than our worst on a regular basis.

get some snow tires, good ones work well. studs?? well, up to you. i am against them simply because in most situations they are only marginally better. pavement is too bare most of the winter which will tear up the studs and the road.

its funny that in Michigan, a much worse place for winter weather, studs were outlawed because of the damage they did to the roads. granted we were in SE Michigan (the opposite side of "lake effect" snow) so we did not get it bad, but we did get it bad enough, much worse than here and we dealt with it.

snow tires is where its at. if you get a bad storm, throw some changes on until the roads clear

 

If I lived in an area where driving in the snow was a problem, I would invest in a summer and winter tyres set. Changing tyres at home is not a big deal, so long as you have a place to store the set not in use.

 

Register the VIN at Toyota Owners Online | Official Toyota Owners Website to get the dealer maintenance records. Look to see if the VSC ECU reflash was done. If not schedule a trip to the dealer. This may reduce your irritation.

Provocative titles encourage provocative answers.

 

Traction Control on the 2005 is very sensitive and tends to cut power at the first sign of wheel slip. Because of this you need to run with really good winter tires. If studs are legal in your area, get them. Otherwise go for serious snow tires. Good tires will make a world of difference.

Tom

 

I've owned my 2006 Prius since March of this year. We had our first big snow about 1-1/2 weeks ago. I came home and could not get my car up our driveway, which is about 35 feet long with an incline. I kept trying and had no idea what was going on. I now know, thanks to PriusChat, the traction control cuts off the power to the drive wheels when the tires are spinning. My Prius is now tucked away in the garage while I try to decide if I should sell it or buy studded tires/non-studded winter tires. I did put new all season Michelin tires on about 2,000 miles ago, but it's obvious they won't get me through a north Idaho winter.

The state of Washington commissioned a study of studded tires to determine how effective they were in improving traction and safety. You'll find the report on the WSDOT web site, search for studded tire report by RR Scheibe, published in 2002. It might help you decide which tire would be better for your weather and road conditions.
​

The summary is on page 9 and the conclusion starts on page 10.

I'd post the direct link but I'm new to this site and can't post a link, yet.

 

I'd heard a couple references to this study, but hadn't seen it until now:

An Overview of Studded and Studless Tire Traction and Safety

 

The best studless tires from Yokohama, Nokian, Bridgestone, Goodyear are just as good as studded tires and don't increase the rate of lung cancer like the studded tires do. However, studded tires work by cutting through the film of water that covers the ice so that the studs scratch into the ice. Drivers that spin their tires create the ideal conditions for studs.

If you are looking for a tire that doesn't impact mpg, try the Nokian WR-g2. It's a severe service rated all season tire. I've received up to 70 mpg fills (that's over about 600 miles) using them.

 

I like Nokian WRG2s. That's what I am currently running.

Tom

 

studs are legal EVERYWHERE in WA, even in western WA where they are simply not needed 95% of the winter (our wonderful legislators at work) from Nov 1 to March 31st (ya pathetic!!).

OP; you really need to post your location. WA State is the only state that has all 5 types of terrain which is an indication of how vast the differences are. talk to daniel who also lives in WA and ask him his opinion of snow right now.

i could take it or leave it, but i dont have 4 feet of it on my porch right now either

 

If studded tires are so horrible for roads, why does the Province of Ontario now allow them in winter, north of the Sault?

The Scandinavian designed studded tires ARE better than studless tires. With my '04, I tried Dunlop Graspic DS-2, Yokohama Ice Guard 10's, and on snow/slush they were light years better than the Michelin Harmony I normally ran

On ice they were marginally better

I slapped on a set of aggressive studded Goodyear Nordic winter tires and they were day and night better on ice



I run factory studded (Swedish road law approved) Nokians on my FJ in winter





I find it interesting that when American road authorities do "testing" to compare a new modern studless winter tire, they compare to a typical studded American tire design.

These tires look like the mud tires we used to buy 20-30 years ago. Then the testing authority claims the brand new design studless tire is better. No, really? I'm shocked!

Why don't they compare testing done in Sweden by the VTI?

Start : VTI

Which still concludes a MODERN design studded tire is BETTER than a modern studless winter tire

How did the Ontario MTO conclude it was ok to allow studded tires again? First, they were given access to the VTI test data. Second, their studded tire law mandates the use of Scandinavian-law studs.

Which as the Swedes proved, not only dramatically improved traction but dramatically reduced road wear and tear.

In Sweden it is the LAW to run winter tires in winter. This study examined the impact of restricting studded tire use

http://www.vti.se/EPiBrowser/Publikationer - English/R648Eng.pdf

If you go to the Acrobat document page 14 is the English summary. They conclude that attempting to restrict studded/Nordic tire use would result in increased crashes and fatalities.

They conclude that "European" winter tires - we call them studless winter tires - have longer stopping distances on ice and snow

On page 15 they also concluded they would have to dramatically increase the use of salt on main roads. The use of salt has many negative environmental effects, rusts vehicles out much faster, and also destroys road infrastructure, eg rebar in reinforced concrete

 

oh i think studs are a great option. but unlike your area, our roads are clear and bare (not dry!!) more than 95% of the time.

 

Yeah the one problem with bitter cold temps is that road salt stops working. So once you get some ice it tends to stay that way for weeks, especially at intersections. They can spread sand, but if the wind blows the sand gets blown off the ice anyway

The VTI also did road wear testing in a special indoor test lab. Unlike the Americans, they actually cooled the sample road material to normal winter temps they experience

They concluded that pavement at or above freezing can experience rapid wear - this is also true of overloaded trucks operated on warm pavement too. Frozen pavement, especially -20 C and colder, will experience negligible road wear from studs

 

One of our winter problems is finding the roads. Once they get completely covered with snow it's hard to tell what is road and what isn't. I've been surprised more than once by a mailbox suddenly in the middle of the road, or at least in the middle of what I thought was road.

Tom