Question Of The Day: Do Summer Tires Work In The Winter?

Question: Do summer tires work in snow? Alternatively, do winter tires work in summer?

Answer: Would you wear a swimsuit in winter? Not very likely (unless you live near the equator, suffer from thermophobia or belong to a Polar Bear Club). The same answer applies to driving with summer tires in winter: You could do it – if, that is, you enjoy poor car-handling and lousy traction. Or want to bond more with your car-insurance agent.

To understand why it’s smarter and safer to pair the correct tires with the appropriate weather conditions requires a short lesson in Tireology 101 Let’s start with summer tires, commonly marketed as performance or high-performance tires.

Performance tires are specifically designed to provide superior traction and handling in both wet and dry conditions. According to tire experts, two key features deliver those results:

   • A rubber compound that’s optimized for maximum road-gripping capability.
     • A computer-designed tread patterns that feature larger blocks of rubber on the tires outside “corners,” which enhance handling, coupled with large grooves that run around the circumference of the tire and channel water outside the tire’s “footprint.”

Winter tires, on the other hand, are another animal altogether. First of all, they’re made with a rubber compound that’s softer and more pliable than performance tires; this enables the tires to grip the road better in cold conditions. (In the tire industry, “cold” is generally considered anything below 45 degrees).

Moreover, winter tires also feature a tread design with fewer big circumferential grooves in favor of many smaller channels known as sipes. These channels generally run in jagged, angular patterns that allow the tire to flex more than performance tires. That, in turn puts more tire surface in contact with the road. The overall result? Tires that “bite” better into snow and ice.

So can you drive with performance tires in winter conditions? You could try – but just as with juggling chainsaws or smoking in an oxygen tent, don’t expect things to end well.

“Performance tires won’t deliver very good steering ability or traction in snow and ice,” notes Jay Robinson, a general manager of brand marketing at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. “When performance tires get cold, they don’t grip well – think of a bowling ball rolling down a road. And with less grip, it takes longer to stop because there aren’t any sipes that dig in and grab on snow and ice.”

As for using winter tires in summer, it’s doable, but still not desirable, Robinson points out. “They’ll work in the sense that the tires still will hold up the vehicle,” he says. “But you’ll make some sacrifices along the way, such as faster tread wear and sub-par performance in terms of steering response and handling, thanks to the softer rubber compound and the tread pattern.”

Fortunately, a happy medium exists: the all-season tire – a vulcanized love child that inherited the best elements of performance and winter tires. If you’re smarter than a fifth-grader, you’ve already figured out where this is going; all-season tires feature a rubber compound that’s softer than summer tires and harder than winter tires and a tread pattern with more sipes than summer tires and less than winter tires. In other words, an all-season combination that works way better than swimsuits in winter.

But if you opt for all-season tires, realize that you’re giving something up. You don’t get as good performance in the summer or the winter with all-season tires. Winter tires provide a lot of safety in snowy and icy climates, but that is a topic for another QOTD.

We’re scouring the Internet to uncover interesting questions that people have posted looking for advice from the unwashed masses. We will contact experts to give you well-researched, professional advice. You can also submit questions to autos_qotd@yahoo.com.