Studded Tires or Chain

[gak_pdx]

Waiting on a OR Premium to show up... someday? Who knows with the QC hold. Previous 4th Gen and 5th Gen 4 Runner owner, as well as an FJ. Currently have a beater 2003 Tundra and selling it and a 2022 Audi Q5 for the Tacoma.

My big question is: Dedicated snow/studded tires or chains?

Our issue is that we live in the mountains, right off a major highway... but we have a very steep (15% grade) asphalt driveway. It's often super treacherous on our hill, but perfectly clear on the roads. We've been stuck at home for days at a time during big storms, and I want to get the ability to get off the mountain with the Tacoma.

Chains seem the straightforward answer, but the issue is that we can be stuck up here while the main roads are clear enough that people are going 65+. With no good place to chain up between the end of our driveway and town (about 3 miles, one in each direction), I would be having to make a pretty awful drive as a traffic impediment until I got the joy of up/down chaining in a snowy parking lot. Kind of awful - I did this once with snow socks on the Q5 and it *sucked*

I'm thinking a set of uber-snow tires with studs might be the better solution. I have a big shop so storing a set of winter tires is no big deal, and just throwing them on the truck part of snow prep is easy enough. Not that I would be driving them like a standard tire, but they have to be a lot easier in the dry than chains. Hell - would full snow tires probably be good enough without the studs?

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggested reading?

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[DSF5071]

Waiting on a OR Premium to show up... someday? Who knows with the QC hold. Previous 4th Gen and 5th Gen 4 Runner owner, as well as an FJ. Currently have a beater 2003 Tundra and selling it and a 2022 Audi Q5 for the Tacoma.

My big question is: Dedicated snow/studded tires or chains?

Our issue is that we live in the mountains, right off a major highway... but we have a very steep (15% grade) asphalt driveway. It's often super treacherous on our hill, but perfectly clear on the roads. We've been stuck at home for days at a time during big storms, and I want to get the ability to get off the mountain with the Tacoma.

Chains seem the straightforward answer, but the issue is that we can be stuck up here while the main roads are clear enough that people are going 65+. With no good place to chain up between the end of our driveway and town (about 3 miles, one in each direction), I would be having to make a pretty awful drive as a traffic impediment until I got the joy of up/down chaining in a snowy parking lot. Kind of awful - I did this once with snow socks on the Q5 and it *sucked*

I'm thinking a set of uber-snow tires with studs might be the better solution. I have a big shop so storing a set of winter tires is no big deal, and just throwing them on the truck part of snow prep is easy enough. Not that I would be driving them like a standard tire, but they have to be a lot easier in the dry than chains. Hell - would full snow tires probably be good enough without the studs?

Thoughts? Opinions? Suggested reading?

I just picked up a TRD OR Premium Wed. while signing paperwork, one of the forms was an acknowledgment that Chains could not be used on the truck and that Cables are to be used. My Q7 was the same. I would think the studded tires would be ideal.