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
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.
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