Driving in the Winter Snow.

[GEEKAFIED]

Most folks where I live change their studs out come spring and go back to their all season tires, and put the studs back on come winter. If you do allot of pavement driving, yes it wears the studs down, but not as fast as you might thing. It does however make quite a bit of noise clicking across dry pavement.
I do allot of off pavement driving in my truck in the summer, up dirt roads to go play so I leave my studs on all the time. It helps the truck to get through mud and rocky terrain and adds extra traction.
Winter driving is a bit tricky, but with experience it becomes second nature, just slow down, stay back from vehicles in front of you to give ample time to stop and don't go so slow that you cause someone to slide into your rear.
Sometimes to slow is more dangerous than to fast because the person behind you can come up on you so fast that he has no time to slow down, especially in low visability. If you come into drifts across the road or slush, let off the gas, but stay off the breaks. Good tires are the best recommendation though.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

How do snow tires perform on dry pavement? Do they wear a lot faster? Do they handle terribly? Do they hurt fuel economy?

"True" snow tires (not "all season" tires) are generally manufactured with a softer rubber compound to aid traction--so, yes, they do wear out faster, especially when driven on dry roads. "Aggressive" treads will also exact a small penalty on fuel economy because they have a bit more rolling resistance than highway or all-season tires. For most drivers, the difference in handling qualities are fairly minimal. True "sports" drivers will tell you that speed-rated highway tires perform better on dry roads (and they do), but for everyday driving the difference isn't that great.

I will repeat that one of the best things to aid winter driving is having all-speed traction control on your vehicle. Without it, in a 2WD vehicle on a slick road, you really have one-wheel-drive; in a 4WD, you basically have two. Traction-control effectively transfers power to the driven wheel(s) that have traction. A 2WD vehicle with traction control can be nearly as effective on slick roads as 4WD without traction control. I primarily drive a sedan equipped with traction-control and all-season tires. In all but the worst winter conditions, it does fine. I also have a 4WD with a limited slip real axle. In full-time 4WD, I have to absolutely drive it like an idiot to lose traction on a slick road. In either case, though, all the traction in the world will not help if you are driving too fast for conditions and the vehicle "breaks loose" and you lose steering control of the vehicle. That' when **** usually happens.