While majority of the country is still nearly devoid of snow, that will be changing soon, along with plenty of tires.
As winter approaches, pickup owners across the United States will be installing snow tires and some of them will be breaking the law.
“When it comes to putting winter tires on trucks, the customer needs to check with their local ordinance,” Hankook Tire told Hard Working Trucks. “Drivers should only put winter tires on when it is close to winter season and freezing temperatures.”
That’s sound advice considering that there are heavy fines across the country for drivers who either put their studded snow tires on too early or keep them on too long – either way, they may be breaking the law. Damage to roads from the metal studs have led to the fines.
For instance, in Seattle, Washington, motorists may be hit with a $124 fine for keeping studded tires on past March 31. The Washington State Transportation Commission found that the studs cause roughly $16 million in damage to state highways each year, according to seattletimes.com.
The decision on using studded tires is really dependent on winter conditions. For maintaining traction on icy roads, it’s hard to beat those studs. Whether the road’s been salted or not is no matter to the studs – they just dig in and get to work.
For tackling tough winter conditions Hankook offers its studded i’Pike RW11, a premium winter tire for light trucks. Visit their website for sizes.
“It offers drivers strong braking power and excellent snow and ice traction, with optimized stud pins for more effective ice braking,” Hankook reports.
A six-rows stud pin arrangement is designed to deliver top snow and ice traction performance. Other features include a specially developed rubber tread compound for snow and ice performance as well as wet and dry conditions; a reinforced base-tread helps prevent internal damage from off-road impacts; two wide steel belts offer improved steering stability and durability; reinforced casing delivers improved hill climbing and steering stability on- and off-road; a jointless bead wire helps prevent bead separation when driving off-road on low air pressure.
Whether shopping for studded tires or not, Hankook advises exercising caution.
“When selecting a snow tire for light trucks, the winter tires need to match the vehicle load carrying capacity, and the customer needs to select the right size tire for their specific vehicle,” the company says.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tom Quimby is the associate editor of Hard Working Trucks, a sister publication. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @tom_quimby.