deutchbag

Hello All - I need to get a winter setup for my B9 and I'll be going the wheel+tire route for all the reasons that have been mentioned here previously.

My question is if anyone runs studded winter tires? I live NW of Boston and while we get hammered by some serious winter storms, 1-2 days later, most of the roads are clear/scraped/salted leaving a lot of slush.

I don't care about the noise and they don't add much cost to a tire, I'm just weighing the benefits of studs (ice and hard-pack bite) vs. some of the drawbacks (skating under hard braking on dry pavement). Any experiences with them?

ShawnM789

I don't believe you can run studs on all wheel drive vehicles. That's the impression I have thought I have heard. I run 18" rims with blizzacks and car is great. I live in NH

JohnEnglish

You can run studded tires on AWD vehicles.

mplsbrian

Modern studless ice and snow category tires have been reviewed to be just as good (within a couple % points) in certain key aspects of performance including glare ice braking (testing performed on a freshly Zamboni'd hockey rink) and much better in others e.g. dry pavement handling / noise / etc as compared to studded tires. Studs are also illegal in many locales, and are highly damaging to the road surface which over time only compounds the problem they purport to solve.

TL;DR there is no need, winter rubber has come a very very long way in the last few years.

m332is

I've been running 4 Hakkapeliitta snow (non studded) for years and never have gotten stuck. For the S4, I bought a used set of 18" B8 wheels and had them refinished to a dark grey which I think works with the black ops package.

deutchbag

thanks guys, some of the more recent articles I've read echo what's been posted here so I'll go studless. Now I just need to find a set of 18" wheels that'll fit over these huge calipers.

m332is

The B8/8.5 S4 18" wheels fit. You can find them at decent prices.

NHman

OP, I also live in the New England area and have driven my S4 through all types of snow and ice conditions. My choice was Michelin's Pilot Alpin PA4's (245/40R-18) mounted to Andros R9's. Basically knock-off rims from Audi's 5-arm rim. In my opinion, this combination was perfect for winter driving. Great traction through the bad stuff and predictable handling and comfort on dry roads. For our area, there are maybe 8-10 days where road conditions are less than ideal. Most of the time the roads are clear.

For the package, I paid (roughly) $1,600 from The Tire Rack.

After some of the arctic days from the last weeks, the winter setup will be going on the car tomorrow. Toy car goes into storage as well. Oh well, spring in another 5-6 months.