Winter use of BFG T/A KO tires vs studless winter tires
- Thread starter ryanh1006
- Start date
thethePete
Explorer
^ It also compromises the way the stud grabs in the tire, but yes, rocks in the stud holes is the general reason. (Career mechanic, and 2 years building tires in a retread plant 
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Mwilliamshs
Explorer
I hear ya on white-ice, frozen snow, etc. We call it re-freeze around here and yeah it blows. I get what you were saying now about studs making a difference on that. IF we get snow and not just ice we ALWAYS get the re-freeze crap from ice on top of snow and thanks to snow's great insulative properties, it lasts and lasts on the roads. (not much plowing done around here, not many plows either)
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Most folks in our state just stay home if we get any sort of wintry precipitation so road conditions aren't a major concern of municipalities. The whole state just shuts down for a day or two, the junk melts (cuz we hit 60* the next day or so normally LOL) and life goes on. Company rigs and emergency vehicles are the only ones likely to have studs and frankly, most of them run chains for that couple of days a year so they don't need different tires and wheels and with their limited travel ranges, it works.
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I only commute about 10 miles to work and sleep in my office a lot year-round anyway so coming in before the weather and staying here till it's gone would be ideal and I'd never need studs, chains, etc. That's what most of my coworkers do. We had over 2,500 employees "hotel" at the hospital this past month. BUT I can and do drive in the ice and snow and people know this so myself and a few others got informally nominated as the grocery-getters a couple years back. Now that's escalated and I spent quite a lot of time shuttling in nurses this past bout we got (that lasted about 3 weeks off and on) to keep staffing and morale up. Sleeping on an air mattress for a week in a cramped room in a noisy hospital isn't good for nurse moods or patient satisfaction so we let them stay home and go get them for 3 day stays now. This is why I'm interested in legit winter tires now.
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I grew up driving in winter in the city (which is totally different than in the country BTW) cuz I lived in rural AR and spent a month (December) or more in St Louis every year. Graduated and went to work for an international outfit in Alaska, Siberia, Korea (they have BAD winters), etc and drove everywhere so I've seen winter's worst, believe me. Coming home to AR now is downright comical in winter but things get dangerous quickly and I'm ready to do things right.
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Most folks in our state just stay home if we get any sort of wintry precipitation so road conditions aren't a major concern of municipalities. The whole state just shuts down for a day or two, the junk melts (cuz we hit 60* the next day or so normally LOL) and life goes on. Company rigs and emergency vehicles are the only ones likely to have studs and frankly, most of them run chains for that couple of days a year so they don't need different tires and wheels and with their limited travel ranges, it works.
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I only commute about 10 miles to work and sleep in my office a lot year-round anyway so coming in before the weather and staying here till it's gone would be ideal and I'd never need studs, chains, etc. That's what most of my coworkers do. We had over 2,500 employees "hotel" at the hospital this past month. BUT I can and do drive in the ice and snow and people know this so myself and a few others got informally nominated as the grocery-getters a couple years back. Now that's escalated and I spent quite a lot of time shuttling in nurses this past bout we got (that lasted about 3 weeks off and on) to keep staffing and morale up. Sleeping on an air mattress for a week in a cramped room in a noisy hospital isn't good for nurse moods or patient satisfaction so we let them stay home and go get them for 3 day stays now. This is why I'm interested in legit winter tires now.
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I grew up driving in winter in the city (which is totally different than in the country BTW) cuz I lived in rural AR and spent a month (December) or more in St Louis every year. Graduated and went to work for an international outfit in Alaska, Siberia, Korea (they have BAD winters), etc and drove everywhere so I've seen winter's worst, believe me. Coming home to AR now is downright comical in winter but things get dangerous quickly and I'm ready to do things right.
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Mwilliamshs
Explorer
Not to mention the new, long stud sticking too far past the tread making it easy for them to break off or twist inside the tire and the delaminating that can occur under a stud hole. Lots of good reasons why studs are only installed in new tires.