adding snowmobile studs to the tread decreases the time and distance it takes to stop a snowmobile. once you make a decision to stop a snowmobile, the distance it will take to stop will be a combination of the speed of the machine, weight of the machine and the available friction and or the mechanical damping (which will equal the effective drag factor) between the snowmobile and the surface on which it is trying to stop. if the surface is icy or hard-packed, the mechanical damping portion of the effective drag factor is decreased, leaving you with only the friction provided by the tread to stop.