’Tis the season — for those snow tires

With the first dusting of snow on the Three Sisters after November 1 the rush is on for Sisters drivers to have snow tires installed.

“We may mount snow tires on up to 125 vehicles a day,” said Jeff Taylor of Taylor Tire Center, the local Les Schwab outlet. “It all depends on the severity of the weather, but our busy season with snow tires may stretch out to six weeks.”

Taylor sees a slight increase in the use of studless snow tires each winter, but studs remain the most popular wintertime tires.

“Customers do ask us sometimes if studded tires will remain legal in Oregon,” Taylor added. “The issue does come up with each legislative session because of the damage done to roads by studs. Unfortunately, it becomes a Western Oregon versus Eastern Oregon issue, but in the end, studs have remained legal.”

At Davis Tire and Towing, Art Davis also sees most customers staying with the studded tires.

“I ask customers if they will be doing most of their winter driving locally or if they will be making two or three trips a week over the pass,” Davis said. “If they are driving a lot out of the area and want the best traction for icy roads, then I recommend they go with the studs.”

Davis also suggests that people should schedule their trips mid-day when driving conditions are usually better.

“There is no doubt that if you have to go somewhere in the winter, studded tires offer the best traction,” Davis added. “When I may be called out at any time with my tow truck, I want all the traction I can get and that calls for studs.”

Davis also sees most road damage not being caused by big trucks, but rather by all of the passenger cars driving with studded tires.

“I wouldn’t object to the state charging a fee for studded tires if it could be guaranteed that the money would go for road repair,” he said.

In Oregon, studded tires may be used from November 1 until April 1 unless the Oregon Transportation Commission changes those dates because of weather. The tires qualify as traction devices for winter driving.