Comments on: Maine Considers Legalizing Retractable Studs

By: rm

rm — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:22:36 +0000

I’m with rpn453 on this… A rubber compound that is good in the winter will be junk in the summer and a good summer compound is junk in the winter. Putting studs on all season tires that are compromised so thoroughly that they’re good at nothing… Well, I guess they’d be really expensive all season tires that are almost good for nothing.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but then again our winters here aren’t bad enough (SW Michigan) that we need studded tires. A good set of winters does pretty good even with the amount of snow we’ve had this year.

By: shaker

shaker — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:55:41 +0000

I had this idea 20 years ago, but figured the implementation would be expensive, and the tire’s structure would be compromised at high rotational speeds.
Methinks that “mission-critical” vehicles (buses, ambulances, maybe city police vehicles, power company trucks) would be the market for this product.

By: rpn453

rpn453 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:38:09 +0000

I use studded tires in the winter, but I don’t see this happening. “Studs on Demand” is a good concept, but I think it will be too expensive to be common as winter tires. Why not just use permanent studs on a set of dedicated snow tires?If they’re designed to be winter tires, most will want summer tires as well anyway. If they’re compromised to be good in summer, they won’t be as good in snow.

By: Glenn Swanson

Glenn Swanson — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:05:31 +0000

Perhaps they’re analogous to a cat’s claws:

Roads slippery? Deploy your claws.
When the roads clear up, retract ‘em.

‘Course if you end up flying through the air upside down,
there’s no guarantee you’ll land on all fours. ;-)

By: i6

i6 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:12:16 +0000

Puny looking studs for a car if you ask me. I could have used something like that on my bicycle yesterday though.

By: lprocter1982

lprocter1982 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:00:48 +0000

I like that idea. Saves people buying two different sets of tires. Any idea how the bladder knows it’s snowing out? Or is it controlled by the driver, sort of like the military Hummer’s tire inflation?

In any case, I’d certainly consider these tires.