Outdoor Adventure USA

Studded Tires

Studded snow tires literally have metal studs embedded within the tread. These small, strong pieces of metal are designed to dig into ice, which provides added traction. When the driving surface isn't covered in ice, studded tires can damage the road. They're tough enough to dig into pavement, which is why many states limit their use during non-winter months and some states have outlawed them completely. Studded winter tires are also known to produce a noisy ride.

Although studded tires are capable of handling icy driving situations, improvements in the rubber compounds of modern studless winter tires have made them more capable of handling some of winter's most extreme driving situations.

Studless Tires

In recent years, studless snow tires have become the preferred snow tire for many winter drivers. Instead of relying on metal protrusions in the tread, modern non-studded winter tires lean on advances in rubber compounding, tread designs, and other unique technologies.

In winter's cold temperatures, a non-winter tire's tread rubber becomes stiffer and less able to conform to even a dry road's irregularities. Modern studless snow tires are capable of maintaining flexibility in freezing temperatures, thanks to advances in rubber compounding technologies. This increased rubber flexibility allows tires to maintain traction on snowy, icy, wet and dry driving surfaces.

Studless winter tires generally have deeper tread depths than summer or all season tires. Deep tread depths allow the tire to manage snow and slush dispersion from under the tire. It also allows the tire to provide better or snow-on-snow traction by packing it within the tread blocks.

Another feature you'll notice are thousands of tiny slits in the tread pattern, called sipes. These act as thousands of biting edges on ice that help with acceleration, deceleration, and stopping.

Z-Chain has always met S.A.E. Class “S” requirements for passenger vehicles with limited clearance around the drive tires. Now the inner cross member connectors and side cable fastening system have been redesigned to operate in even smaller spaces!