Those tires weigh five times with my summer tires weigh, so it's rather nice to have a motor to help push the studded tires along .

I found some good nokian tires on sale for $30 each, but then inherited a pair of hundred dollar a piece heavy-duty nokians

Where the motor really helps, is where I stopped in deep snow, or on a hill, and need really even power on the rear wheels to get started again. Sometimes that's impossible to do without a little help from the motor to keep the power Smooth