I accept that. I was a bit snarky. But I can absolutely afford them. I paid cash for my 2024 Ram and my 2024 Jeep Wrangler.
I grew up in Idaho and learned to drive in the snow in a 60's muscle car. My level of skill in the snow is above average. And I have lived all over the country. When I first experienced freezing rain in Iowa, I immediately went into the ditch. I then bought studded snow tires and learned to appreciate the incredible increase in traction and braking. Pure ice is nothing to mess with.
But now that I am back on the Idaho/Washington border, our winters are weird. We no longer get the months of snow and ice that we did when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. We are about 50/50 to even have a white Christmas these days. Our worst months for winter driving conditions are January through February. So there is maybe a week or two, or three, in which the temps are low enough to have compacted snow and ice on the roads. So for folks in this area, the extra investment in studded snow tires is really not worth it for owners of AWD SUVs and pickups and is usually done only by folks who lack the skill to drive on packed snow and ice for a week or two.
If you've never had to use the screwdriver and hammer trick to remove an improperly installed oil filter, then you clearly haven't been wrenching on rigs for very long.
I have been an avid advocate of running the most effective AT tires for all seasons and have been testing multiple treads for the past decade or so. My current favorite for everything from Arizona sand to Idaho snow is the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT. I am running them on both my Jeep and my Ram.
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Interesting test of the most popular AT tires that confirms my experience...