Should studded tires be used on all wheel vehicles?

Question

Will studded tires adversely affect my 2003 Saturn Vue's handlings?

Answer 1

Regardless of how many driven wheels you have, studded tires will improve your handling on ice; unless you get into what old-timers called "Black Ice" then all bets are off.

On snow, they are about the same as snow tires without studs (unless there is ice under the snow of course).

BUT, they will not handle as well as street tires on dry or wet pavement.

AND, they must be used on ALL four wheels.

I've been driving in the Northeast for 35 years so I know what I am talking about.

TireRack.com has a whole bunch of articles on winter tires. Check out the link below.

I used to use studded tires but now I prefer hydrophilic tires like (Michelin's X-ICE - link below) as they are as effective as studs without the wet/dry road problems of studs. Yes, stud-lovers, you have to try stopping with a set of hydrophilic tires to believe it. I didn't until my first time either.

Answer 2

I would not recommend using studded tires on an AWD vehicle unless you are going to be driving in an area with a lot of ice on the roads almost every day. Under normal driving conditions you will probably not notice a loss in handling with the studded tires, but there is very little gain in traction on snow over snow tires. However, you can actually lose braking or handling traction on dry and wet pavement compared to all season tires or snow tires under some conditions. The stud keeps the rubber from contacting the pavement, thus reducing the amount of rubber on the road. I currently own an AWD vehicle, a 4WD p/u and 2 FWD vehicles and live in a snow belt area. I do run snow tires on the two FWD vehicles on the fronts only and all season tires on the 4WD and AWD vehicles.

Answer 3

The vehicle manufacturer may address the use of studded tires on an all wheel drive vehicles in a service bulletin of some kind or e-mail saturn for an official answer on the matter.

Answer 4

If you do a lot of highway driving I wouldn't go with studded tires, they actually have less traction on dry pavement. If your VUE is the AWD model I would just go with a good snow tire, however if you do go with studs make sure you have all 4 tires done.

Answer 5

If you got studded, you got to have them on all 4 tires.

Answer 6

it will not affect your car if you put studded tires on all four wheels.

Answer 7

no they will make it handle even better on ice and snow

Answer 8

if uu drive alot on ice it would help.