I am from a country that has little to no snow, so no need for snow tyres. The putting on of chains doesn’t really make sense to me. Also, are there such things as actual snow tyres or does the term snow tyres just refer to putting the chains on?
In: Physics
The chains literally scrape away the snow beneath to get to dense enough snow to gain traction or to the pavement and get traction. I live in CO and we have mandatory chain laws, when you drive up to the mountains there are massive shoulders with streetlights where truckers can chain up. Some trucks even have automatic deploying chains which is really cool. It is like turning your rubber tire into a tracked vehicle. Driving on chains isn’t comfortable, destroys tires and the pavement, and are noisy. They do, however, regularly save lives from preventing tractor trailers from going out of control on 7,000 foot descents.
A snow chain creates a hard metal protrusion than digs into ice or snow to provide better traction. They actually chip away at the surface to dig a little hole they can hang on to.
Snow tires are not the same thing. It is a kind of tire that has a tread design with wider grooves that channel snow and make it less likely to cake on the tire. Some snow tires have metal or ceramic studs.
* Chains concentrate the weight of the car into a smaller surface area, this allows them to “bite” into the snow and ice that might be built up on the road.
* Snow tires are specifically designed tires that are better suited for driving in winter conditions. Putting chains on regular tires does not make them snow tires.
Driving in winter there is usually two types of surfaces that causes problems. There is both snow and ice. Snow acts much like mud and you can use the same types of tires. So snow tires is usually marked as mud and snow tires and is used for off roading in summer and normal driving during the winter. Putting snow chains helps in the snow and mud as it is able to grip the material and push it back propelling the car forwards. Think of how a paddle steamer works. Ice on the other hand is another problem. If you use rubber on ice it will just slip. Snow tires helps a bit as they do usually have higher ground pressure but not that much. What you need is spikes that you can push into the ice to give you grip. Therefore winter tires can be studded meaning they have lots of spikes on them that gets pushed into the ice. Similarly the snow chains also have spikes on them that gets pushed into the ice. Even chains without studs will be easier to push into the ice then the rubber tires.
Not sure about chains – but yes there are tires specifically designed for snow. The rubber used is a softer compound, so it maintains grip/traction at very low temperatures. As it warms up, you need to put all season tires back on, or you will wear-out your snow tires much faster by using them during the summer months.
Chain’s or cables did into the ice/snow to give you better traction. And yes, snow tires are real. They are generally softer and have a bunch of siping.
The chains add more traction for when there is ice on the road. It is similar to using cleats in soccer (or football). If you have an all wheel drive car and are familiar with the terrain, you don’t really need them however.
Snow tires have coarser grooves to clear the snow and provide better traction while being softer in colder weather (it is recommended to *not* use all season tires lower than 7 degrees Celsius as they become too hard and lose their grip. To complicate things further, some winter tires allow the use of studs (and [some come with studs](https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/tires/pdp/pirelli-winter-ice-zero-studded-tire-4080629p.4080635.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAws7uBRAkEiwAMlbZjuXl__VSXE-4csChj9dP_WP9rZfHh7vVDWzwD2jqQWUTLpYibNw0GBoCRFQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#store=70) that provide better grip in winter weather.
Chains can come off and on with some effort, studs are permanent unless you want to take a lot of your time installing them and taking them out again. And thene there are [these](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPd3O5_SJEs) little beauties.
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