everyone up here runs snow tires 6 months out of the year. most of them run studs. studs do not cause any vibrations alittle but of a hum at highway speeds but not even close to what good mud tire sounds like.

i run cooper discover M+S studded on my excursion and explorer (also on my dads explorer) on my expedition i have firestone winterforce studded. both are awesome times and the firestones are dirt cheap. coopers not so much lol but both are like glue on ice/snow which is all our roads are in the winter.

i have to try pretty good to get the excursion to break loose. stopping is great! which is the whole reason we do snow tires.

heres my summer tires on the left(cooper discover ATR) and my snow tires on the right (cooper discover M+S studded)





heres my studded winterforce's for my expedition



now we also have blizzaks. on a '06 Chrysler 300c AWD and a '04 f-150 4x4 super crew. we have run them on other cars/trucks in the past also. i LOVE them they are wonderful tires. i would say they are right on par with studs even in the worst conditions.