How to Remove Studs From Snow Tires

It's a thankless and grueling process to remove studs from snow tires. It's not as hard on the hands and arms as studding the tires, but it takes a lot longer. Studs have a flat bottom like a nail head that goes into the stud hole of the tire. The small carbide tip of the stud sticks out just slightly over the tread of the tire. There's only one way to put studs into a tire and there's only one way to remove them.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Chair
• Long-handled/narrow-headed cutting dikes

1. Break the tire down from the rim or deflate the tire by removing the valve stem core to make it more pliable.

2. Sit down in a chair, because this is going to take a while and you're going to get a backache if you're bending over or a sore knee if you're kneeling.

3. Bring the tire over to you. Stand the tire up and place it between your legs to support it.

4. Take the dikes (a nice set of long-handled/narrow-headed dikes would make this job easier then a short-handled/blunt-headed set) and grab one stud on the base of the stud below the carbide tip. Pull it out with force. Be careful not to cut into the tread of the tire.

5. Work your way all the way around the tire, removing all the studs. Many tires can take well over 100 studs in the tread and if you have multiple tires to remove studs from, you're going to be a while, but this is the easiest and only way to remove the studs.