Ok John, so I need snow tires, Should I get studded or unstudded?
The answer to that is complicated. First, your state or province may have already forced the choice by passing a law against studded snow tires. Studded snow tires are a trade off. If you are on hard packed (frozen) mud, or ice, they will grab better then any thing except screws and (possibly) chains. On the dry, they will actually have less traction then the same snow tire without studds. This is becuase on the dry pavement, you will actually be running partly on the studs and you will not have as much rubber in contact with tthe road. Other draw backs to studds are that they are much noisier and some people claim they chew up roads faster.
