John,

I lived for 30 years in Alaska. in all that time I never owned but one 4WD ... a
Jeep Grand Wagoneer LTD . .a heavy machine....and I only bought it because I was
working a job out in a bush town. Didn't need the 4WD features once I moved back
to Anchorage.

In all those years  I never put chains or studs on tires on my vehicles. I did,
however buy all weather tires, but I never even bought snow/mud tires. Just your
typical allweather radials. I even had all weather radials on my "68 VW bus. All
vehicles performed just fine for me.

This all changed, however, when I bought my "85GL. The very first winter I had
the van and I encountered an icy road, I started up a grade on the hightway out
of town, spun out a little over half way up the hill, and slid down the
sideways.

I drove straight back to the tire store and put new studded tires on it all the
way around.
After that, it gripped the road like a hound chased cat digs his claws into a
tree trunk. Never had any more problems.

In the region of the state where I lived (Kenai Peninsula and Southcentral
Alaska) the weather would change a good bit in winter, switching between snow
and ice and rain. Often, we would have deep snow, and temps at -35 degrees. Then
a warm Chinook wind would blow in off the Pacific and wam this up to +40-45
degrees in 24 hours. Snow would melt to water, and puddle on the packed ice
underneath. Water-on-ice as a road surface is not fun. But in my vanagon with
all tires studded, I  could go when others could not.

That was in Alaska.  I am not in that cold climate now and I am not sure that I
would use studded tires at all now. I would use all weather snow rated tires

Studded tires  do tear up the roads, and the studs lose their effectiveness at
50% wear, and must be replaced.

Just my experience.

John Rodgers
"88GL Driver running a 4 tire set of Michelin 205R70/14 MLT's

"John P. Flaherty" wrote:

> Per:
>
> Well, I've driven numerous rear wheel drive vehicles with studded tires on
> the rear only, never found it to be a problem. Only had one get away from
> me, that was a 79 bus, was going along at about 40 in what would have been a
> 55 zone without the snow when some fool pulled out of a driveway ahead. They
> took up both lanes as they turned, leaving me no room to swerve around them.
> I had to brake hard, knowing what would happen. Spun around about 3 times,
> watching the telephone poles go by, hoping I didn't hit one. Landed in the
> ditch between the poles, didn't hit a thing. Composed myself, started it up,
> drove it right up out of the ditch and continued my trip.
>
> Never had a rear wheel drive car with studs on all four, so I can't say if
> they handle better, and never had a front wheel drive with any studs at all.
>
> John
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Date: Monday, December 27, 1999 6:58 PM
> Subject: Re: More counter-intuition re traction (some token VW content)
>
> >"John P. Flaherty" wrote:
> >
> >> Interesting addition to this thread. Here in Maine, a new law took effect
> >> this winter. It requires that front wheel drive cars which use studded
> snow
> >> tires must use them on all four wheels. Rear wheel drive's still just
> need
> >> them on the back wheels. Any other states with similar laws?
> >
> >This sounds dangerous, to only have studs on the rear. Here in Norway, you
> can
> >have two studless and two "summer" tires on the car, but not two studed and
> two
> >others. Either four studed or none. Also, if you damage the car on slippery
> >roads, without proper tires (m+s markings) you can risk no compensation for
> >damages. (So, it is understood, but not a written law, that m+s marked
> tires are
> >required in the winter)
> >
> >PerL
> >87 Syncro 112i
> >