Quote Originally Posted by vt_maverick View Post
Thanks for the legal heads up Orion, I hadn't even thought of that. Good to have someone from up that way to weigh in.
Just wanted to pass this along, I found it on one of the snow boot websites:

Wis. Stat. § 347.45 (2003) 347.45. Tire equipment. (1) All automobiles, motor trucks, motor buses, truck tractors, trailers, semitrailers and mobile homes when operated upon a highway shall be completely equipped with tires inflated with compressed air and all other motor vehicles when operated on a highway shall be equipped with tires of rubber or of some material or construction of equal resiliency. No person may operate on a highway any motor vehicle, trailer, semitrailer or mobile home having any metal tire in contact with the roadway, except that tire chains of reasonable proportions may be used when required for safety because of snow, ice or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid, and except as provided in sub. (2)(c)(2) No person shall operate on a highway any vehicle, including farm tractors, self-propelled farm implements, implements of husbandry, animal drawn vehicles and road machinery, if such vehicle has on the periphery of any of its tires any block, stud, flange, cleat, spike or other protuberance of any material other that rubber which projects beyond the tread of the traction surface of the tire, except that: (b) Tire chains of reasonable proportions may be used on any vehicle when required for safety because of snow, ice, or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid. (c) A pneumatic tire may have embedded in it wire or wire coils for improving traction on ice and snow, but such tire shall be so constructed that the per cent of wire or wire coils in contact with the roadway does not exceed, after the first 1,000 miles of use or operation, 5% of the total tire area in contact with the roadway. During the first 1,000 miles of use or operation of any such tire the wire or wire coils in contact with the roadway shall not exceed 20% of the total tire area in contact with the roadway. Tires equipped with tungsten carbide studs shall be limited in usage and design as follows: 1. The department shall, by rule, designate the times of year during which any type of tire described in this paragraph may be used. 2. Such tires may be used only on authorized emergency vehicles, school buses, vehicles used to deliver mail and automobiles with out-of-state registrations and then only if such automobile is in the course of passing through this state for a period of not more than 30 days. 3. Such studs shall not project more than one-eighth inch beyond the tread surface of the tire or recutting is an acceptable and safe practice, nor does this subsection apply to regrooving or recutting done in a tire recapping process.

So I guess it depends upon whether the cop thinks the conditions warrant your use of chains.