Screw in studs for traversing occasional ice

[blk99obs]

Heres the story: I took a trip over a mountain pass, got a little overconfident in my suby, hit a blind corner at 20-30 MPH, came out of it to see a line of cars at dead standstill in the middle of the highway. I only then realized how tired my tires were and how bad the ice had gotten... I slipped and slid right into the back of a Hyundai hatch. I've never had traction issues of any sort in my suby before, and I historically snow rally like crazy on snowed in trails/back roads. I've also hit my fair share of ice and never had much slippage, so imagine my surprise when braking AT ALL went straight to ABS! I then decided to try and put my car into a small ditch on the shoulder rather than rear end someone. So I steer, and NOTHING. Bam! All of this happened in a matter of seconds mind you. I check on the other driver, and apologize profusely, she's ok. I'm ok. Her front end is smashed to bits against the back of a Nissan. I cringe as I turn to look at my suby... Nothing! No broken lights, no bends, cracks, notta zip. The Nissan driver is equally surprised that their car sustained no damage, though the car hit into a steel tube bumper. The highway patrol tells everyone to get out of there before more cars come, so we meet in the next town, exchange insurance info and all that, and carry on driving. As I press on, I realize more and more how much my tires have worn out, sliding all over the road in a couple spots, and showing very little of the grip I'm accustomed to. I pull off and air down some, which tames things down to a tolerable level, but I continue on at snails pace with hazards on, letting vehicles that normally would be vastly inferior in snow pass me, and making a 3 hour drive into nearly 8 hours all told... Never do I want this experience again, so I'm going to be much more cautious, but also much better prepared.  

 

My solution: Order Grabber AT2s in 27x8.50R14, as they seem like they should be comparable or better than my Maxxis 751 Bravos, and get some form of removable studs that I can put on for going over the pass in winter, and take out the rest of the time. So far I'm between Gripstuds, cheap studs on amazon, and driving some short screws into the stud holes or tread blocks on the new tires. Anyone done these things for short snow/ice trips? Thanks for any advice you might have. I'm also going to make an ABS kill switch, as I've known ABS to be troublesome in winter conditions. Rally Safe friends!

Edited December 12, 2016 by blk99obs

[987687]

You shouldn't add studs to a tire after you've driven on it. Dirt and grit gets into the stud holes, putting studs in them cause abrasion between the mushroom end of the stud and the tire. These can wear through very quickly.

They do make a removable traction device for driving in the winter, they're commonly known as tire chains...

 

I wouldn't disable or otherwise tamper with the ABS, if you hit someone and cause injury it's possible the insurance company will do an investigation to try and deny a claim. Finding a tampered with ABS system will almost certainly land you with the entire bill.

 

ABS can't make your car magically stop faster with bald tires, put good tires on and it'll be fine.

Edited December 12, 2016 by 987687

[idosubaru]

It's 100% the tires.

 

ABS sucks terribly with bad tires, common issue and complaint.

 

Just pull the abs fuse for now or when you have issues. With proper tires you should never need to kill it. insurance implications are highly unlikely. Insurance companies could absolve themselves from many claims based on tires, lifts, tampering, modifications, improperly sized tires, prior damage and many other reasons but thats not protocol or how the industry is currently operating nominally. There's a variety of reasons but without writing a book just look at friends and boards and thousands of people and accidents and you'll see it's not normal. A story like that would be anecdotal rather than the norm.

 

Adding screws to the tires sounds like intentionally trying to cause flat tires for others or yourself.

[Numbchux]

No way would I run any sort of temporary stud. I agree that that sounds like it would be hard on your tires, and many would probably fall out on the road....no thanks. I've seen the studs fly out of dedicated ice racing "permanently" studded tires....

 

 

What kind of car is this? I'm assuming it's pretty early ABS if you're running 14" wheels. If that's the case, the system is pretty terrible. It focuses so hard on trying to keep the tires spinning, that you can't stop. I've done a few tests on mid-'90s cars, on pulling the ebrake, or disabling the ABS and locking up all 4 frequently is a faster straight line stop than with the ABS. 

 

That said, good tires help immensely. Our '04 Outback VDC has a much better ABS system (the VDC system is integrated with ABS, and has a steering angle sensor, and G-sensor so it can change programming depending on whether you're turning or not), and that combined with our new Nokian Hakka R2s, and the ABS almost never kicks in.

[Uberoo]

I would just run a dedicated set of snows for the winter rather than fusing with adding/pulling studs .I've pulled studs out of tires and it sucked to put it mildly.I used dikes and it was a long and painful process that took about an hour per tire,to say nothing of the cuts,scrapes,and pinched skin that happened along the way.

[Scott in Bellingham]

at slow speeds a screw in tire stud screw will help, you need enuf rubber so you don't drill into far and loose tire pressure

 

http://www.arcticchat.com/forum/attachments/atv-tires-wheels/166929d1233892770-tire-studs-atvstuds.jpg

[Scott in Bellingham]

they use them on atvs

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/khendriksma1/ATV/Tires/PICT00682.jpg

[Scott in Bellingham]

your best deal is a good set of snow tires with studs , Mud tires don't do well on ice

Edited December 14, 2016 by Scott in Bellingham

[ezapar]

lol.   You know those motorized cars for kids they sell at Toys r Us?  Even the ones with knobby tires are lame for traction.  So I screwed a bunch of self tappers into the rear tires.  Works AWESOME!!!   But unless I had to traverse some serious ice in an emergency, I would NEVER screw something into my tires on my cars.

[Uberoo]

Yea, but those powerwheels don't rely on air being in the tires to function.

[blk99obs]

My car is a 99 OBS, 5mt, fozzy lift and spacers, 4.11 trans/diff swap, delta cams, and had 27x8.5R14 Maxxis Bravos on it previously. Just put on General Grabbers which though the manufacturer says are the same size, are definitely bigger than Maxxis. Had to remove the front mud flaps, and do a little work with a cutoff wheel to get these to not scub. Still scrub a bit in the back on big bumps but haven't found exactly where yet. My old tires only scrubbed a bit on the front mudflaps but was easily fixed with a small cut. Anyway... I don't have clearance for chains or that would be the obvious choice and I'd run them. As far as ABS, I lived in Minnesota for a winter and had the unpleasant experience of running a stop sign in my ABS car because one tire slipped and it cut braking to all of them. I drove my other older car with much lesser tires and no ABS again to the same stop sign, just out of curiousity and it slid a bit but between all of the tires managed to bite enough ground to stop me just fine. For this reason, and a few experiences afterward, I think making an ABS kill switch is a fine idea... but thats just me. I would buy dedicated winter tires but I realistically only see snow a handful of times out of the year. Usually its just for fun, but this time I travelling over the same pass that I usually go up to for play. Anyway, I was just hoping someone knew of something I could put in for a few miles in a pinch.

[idosubaru]

are there thin "chains"?  

i feel like i've seen some thinner styles that aren't much thicker than steel wire rather than big chain link style?  those might not be much different than studs sticking up in terms of clearance? 

[ezapar]

Yea, but those powerwheels don't rely on air being in the tires to function.

Did you read the second part of what I typed?  wtf

[ferp420]

You could try airing down a lower air pressure would have better grip than a tire at full air pressure it might be enuff to get up that hill