So I found these pics on this board somewhere and am wondering... does this really work? How are those tires not leaking air?
yes those do work, ice racers call those studs "picks"(sharpened bolt ends). I was going to do this with my stockers i have laying around, but im not sure if i will, I believe Rich has done this as well in the past. They use some sort of sealant in the holes, then use the bolt to secure it, then use some sort of tire sealant in afterwords to seal it even more.
it is alot of work and very expensive to do it like those tires, those studs look like snowmobile studs, lets say each stud costs .50 and atleast 200 per tire most likely more though that's 400 bucks for 4 tires and that's just the hardware you will also have sealant and the original cost of the tires so it get's very expensive studding your own tires. i was going to stud a set for the ice race but after doing research i realized for how much it would cost and the amount of work it wasn't worth doing.
Must be a huge advantage.... but yea too much money. Wonder how much of an advantage purchased studded tires would be? Found some for $100 a piece but still spendy for little use.
actually i read a write up on those last year he laid a sheet of paper with the pattern and drilled the holes. then installed bolts and washers with excessive use of slime tire sealant to keep air in them. he quickly mounted them and balanced them, then spun them on the balancer for approx a while to make sure the slime was even. once that was done, he took a snow mobile stud sharpener bit to each one and ground the bolts to a sharp point.
there was a write up on doing this which was circulation last winter. does anyone have alink to it? they showed 2 different ways to stud your own tires using normal hardware. just for a safety thing i would not balance those tires, heck i wouldnt want to stand withon 20 feet of them spinning.
