Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Retracting Studs On Winter Tires
It would be great to have a set of these tires during the winter. The studs retract into the tire when they are not needed, which would be a plus because studded tires are very noisy on bare pavement. But when you need them for icy conditions the studs would extend out of the tire to give you extra traction. I remember when studded tires were allowed for everyone to use. That was one safety device that people willing bought and would seek out for their cars. But because of concern about pavement wear (one thing I heard many years ago is that pavement wear was based on a study of the pavement wear caused by horse shoes on Machinac Island) and now studded tires are limited by what type of stud and on what vehicle it can be used on like emergency vehicles or by first responders and mail carriers.
I do know that the studded tracks on snowmobiles can cause pavement wear. Where the snowmobile trails cross the highway they have put in a different type of pavement.
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Kulkuri,
ReplyDeleteYou are taking me back some in memory - I want to think that back in 76 I had to either have studded snow tires or tire chains on my car because if I got stuck in snow that I would have gotten a ticket. Now, to Michigan's credit - I have never seen better snow control except perhaps on the runway at KI.
The state highway from Marquette past Sawyer to Qwinn where we lived (554?) was usually okay as was US 41 south of Marquette to the seven mile road that went to the base - It was nasty.
I had a new 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo and it did okay in the snow.
Ron
Sarge, at that time the road to K.I. and Gwinn was county road 553, now it is state road M-553. They made the change several years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey do a pretty good job of keeping the roads clear in the winter. It varies from county to county because in some counties the state highways are done by the county road commission, I think Marquette county is one where the county road commission does the state highways in addition to the county roads. Other places there is a state highway department to maintain the state highways, where we live Baraga county there is a state highway dept.
In Maine the only limit on studded tires is they must be off the cars by early spring (not sure of the actual date) and can not be used before a specific date.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I see with the automatic studs is that it must be computer controlled - but if the computer goes none of the new cars will be on the road anyway.
the Ol'Buzzard
Ol'Buzzard, I figure the studs would be controlled like the tire pressure indicator. Some kind of radio signal.
ReplyDelete401 in Ontario showed tremendous wear after a few years of studded tires. And they were no safer than ordinary tires as people simply drove faster in unsafe conditions. In Ukraine they are a necessity as the roads are not well looked after and we do get ice storms.
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