Had a quick look online for some new studded tyres, and was amazed at all the new brands I've never heard of. It's pretty obvious which country some of them come from, but for the others, goodness knows. Surprisingly, they're not much cheaper than the usual brands.
Here's some strange ones: stunner, debica, sava, kingstar, trayal, nankang, achilles, rotalla, goodride, linglong, sunny, runway, dextero, mastersteel, maloya, meteor, roadstone, novex, nexen.
Interestingly, there was a recent test of winter tyres, including a couple of chinese brands. They both came bottom with appaling scores. So low, in fact, they were worse than summer tyres.
Edited by Webmaster on 11/10/2009 at 13:24
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Sava has been around for a long time - our local Hi-Q stocked them and I used them on a VW Jetta with no comebacks.
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Which country are you in. Studded tyres are not road legal in the UK
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A local garage, with about four depot's, (Kam) used to sell Stunners. They seem to talk about a different brand in their ads now,(Maxxis). I have seen Roadstone tyres on a Suzuki Vitara, and they are very good apparently.
As already said, studs are not allowed now, are you just looking for the type of winter tread that is capable of having studs fired in? The last studs I saw, were on a Marina run by the manager of Kenning tyres, it had a single row on the inner edge of both rears. He reckoned it was transformed in snow.
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"Studded tyres are not road legal in the UK"
I know, but they are here in Sweden. Ha, we can also drive on the wrong side of the road.
So that's a couple of brands heard of, but what about the rest? Where do they comefrom, and who buys them?
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So that's a couple of brands heard of but what about the rest? Where do they comefrom and who buys them?
Who buys them?, i'd say those who have to buy them to stay legal not by choice.
If someone in the UK cares enough to try out winter's they probably take their tyres quite seriously anyway, and/or goes to or leaves work at silly o'clock before the gritters are about.
There's enough information available for drivers to be able to work out which summer tyres are good (not always the most expensive), so it would follow that those drivers would naturally tend to think of the same makes when it comes to winter.
Many drivers still think any old rubbish tyre will do, and for many that's true if they poodle around town at normal times of the day and never use their car for anything else, they probably never have a harsh brake let alone a need to get anywhere.
Where these tyres come from?, probably cheap far eastern copies i'd say for most of them, whether they're of any use at all is debatable.
Have you decided on a brand yet DN, or have you a short list and waiting till the right tyre comes up at the right price.
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Are you sure that studded tyres are not legal in UK? - as I used to use studs (rarely) in extreme weather and never got a comment from police. They do need to be used with care on dry roads as they can leave grooves if you get wheelspin!
The tyres I used were remoulds, from ATS in mid 1980's as they were the only ones I could find with stud holes.
I had to throw them out at over 20 years of age as they were perished though!
Contrary to previous poster I found that the studs gave no extra grip on snow - the winter /chunky tread pattern did that - but the studs DID give grip on ice or hard packed snow when ordinary tyres would struggle. They also required a different driving technique to get the best of them - ie using a bit of power to pull the fwd car around corners.
The makes mentioned are all fairly well known tyre brands - although the winter tyres will be little tried & known in UK. I have however heard a lot about Stunner tyres (Italian I think) - their old road tyres (Scudo's) were highly recommended by many and obtainable cheaply, also used on competition cars where road tyres were demanded.
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Studded tyres are certainly not legal in the uk.
As to the OP I'd ask on some scandinavian forums (or perhaps saab/volvo forums) to pick up proper knowledge - You wont find many people in the UK able to comment on studded winter tyres.
I think Nokian and vredestein wintrac both have a good name. I would be looking at continental and michelin as defaults rather than the cheap chinese stuff.
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I bought some Savas a few years ago for the knockabout car and they were OK. They were what I presume were all-seasons ones though.
In France there is always a big push at this time of year to get people to buy 'winter' tyres. They are NOT studded tyres though. The only difference I can see is that the winter ones have more 'sipes' - I think they used to call them - in the treads, presumably to disperse water or slush.
I've never been convinced of the need for them - I have Uniroyal Rain Experts on the Prelude anyway - and you often see sets advertised secondhand as 'hardly used'. It seems to me that if conditions are very wintry, ie snow and ice, you need chains anyway - which are also very commonly sold here. In mountain areas you sometimes see lay-bys with signs saying 'fit chains here'.
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Winter tyres are also made from a different compound that remains stickier at lower temperatures.
However, the brands mentioned by the OP are mainly "Chinese ditch finders" and I wouldn't trust any of them.
My Panda Cross runs on Continental Wintercontacts which are proper winter tyres and M+S and it handles well all year round, though tyre wear may not be good.
As regards studs, they don't help in snow but bite into ice to give fantastic grip and control. Not much use in the UK as once the gritters have been out the ice turns to slush. I know, there are lots of complaints about poor gritting but usually they get out before most of the traffic appears.
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GordonBennet, the situation is, I bought a cheap winter car - a very rusty Skodsa Felicia. It was a trade in at a local dealer, and they said it didn't have winter wheels and tyres (which is unusual). Anyway, I got it back this morning and in the boot was a winter set. Funnily enough, the winter tyres are Euromaster SW100 (made in England)with studs. I seem to remember Euromaster being sold only by ATS. As it is, they're got 5mm of tread left so will see me through the winter, and maybe even next year as well.
There's a whole stack of tests done every year, and Nokian nearly always come first, but are always the most expensive. But I think most of the reputable brands are allways pretty good.
Some councils are trying to ban studs, due, they say, to health concerns, as they kick up a lot of dust as they grind away the road. Of course, in reality they're just trying to save money on replacing worn out roads. They say that studless tyres are just as good, but when you look at the test quoted you can see they've been rather selective in they're interpretation of the results.
Where I live, they don't use salt at all, and it's banned in the nearest large town as well, due to run-off into the lake. So after a bit of snow, which then gets compacted, maybe melts a little in the sunshine, then freezes again, all the steep hills leading into town are more than a little slippery.
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. Anyway I got it back this morningand in the boot was a winter set.
Result.
Some people have all the luck, whenever i've bought a cheap car the boot usually contains rubbish and the remains of some dead creature, but i much prefer your results.
With your luck i'd be inclined to spend a bit on lottery tickets..;)
Euromaster...now i may be wrong usually am but weren't ATS owned by Michelin at one time, maybe still are for all i know.
I wonder if those tyres you 'found' could be Mich's rebranded to sell through the ATS network?
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