Do You Need Winter Tires If It Doesn't Snow?

Are Snow Tires Worth It? Do Winter Tires Help When It's Cold & Dry?

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It's well known that winter tires will improve acceleration, braking, and handling in snowy and icy conditions, but if temperatures drop below freezing, will winter tires stop better? Summer tires typically have a glass transition temperature around 40-45 degrees F, and below this temperature the tires become hard and somewhat brittle. Is this enough of a difference to run winter tires, even if the road is dry? In this video we test to find out!

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[ytechnology]

You had your headlights on when using the summer tires.  The projected photons made the difference and helped slow you down! :)  Very cool test -- the results were counter-intuitive and I learned something.

[JuliusPeoples]

I really do appreciate these random test videos. I never knew I wanted to know something that I always wanted to know.(Because I live in the exact climate that you are testing for. Cold weather, no snow)

[MajorMokoto]

Have had an S2000 for 13 years here in Colorado. I daily drive. I can back up everything your test showed. My cut off for summer tires is as soon as the roads get wet. Wet and near freezing, or below, and those summer tires drop off VERY fast. But if things were dry, summer tires never really seemed to perform worse than winter tires. Coldest I can remember knowingly driving on summer tires would be about 15-20f. And I could feel how rock hard they had become. Was not confidence inspiring to say the least. But I knew I wasn't in a good situation, so I drove very conservatively. But nothing beats putting on a set of winter tires, and hitting the snow in a S2000. My cut off is 8 inches, but mostly because I will high center on drainage area, and our plow trucks only plow one lane on residential roads, making it very difficult to get over any berms they may leave from plowing. But I generally would only miss 1-3 days a year of work from snow.

[justicator]

would like a comparison between all season and winter for no snow

[jimbo]

If it doesn't take too much time, something like a moose test using both sets of tyres could also be very interesting.

[Topgirl]

Great video! I didn't put my winter tires on quick enough one year, and the temperature had dropped to below freezing the night before. When I was going to leave for work, it reminded me of when I was a kid with one of those Big Wheels trikes.

[DucatiDiaries]

This is exactly the reason I bought all season tires instead of Blizzaks for my Mustang GT. Most of the time in NY/CT I'm on cold pavement, not snow (knock on virtual wood). Thanks for the great video!!!

[Suction_]

I get them even if it doesn't. Got stuck at work in a blizzard one year on crappy all seasons, couldn't do more than 20 mph and I was all over the place. Mix that in with Pennsylvania hills and it was a nightmare. For ~$100 a tire, I'll spend that easily. (I have General Altimax Artic 12's now and they were pretty awesome last week with 2-3" of snow)

[matthewspence]

Imperial

12 inched in a foot
5280 feet in a mile
Water boils at 212f
Water freezes at 32f

Metric

100cm in a meter
1000 meters in a kilometre
Water boils at 100c
Water freezes at 0c

[kedarsawant]

Temperature below which a polymer gets hard, brittle and glassy and above which it gets soft flexible and rubbery is called as glass transition temperature of a polymer
I HAVE EXAM ON POLYMERS

[tacopro]

The difference in stopping distance in an emergency could mean the difference between life and death---no joke.

[BeanyBb]

Isn't the glass transition temperature only a measure of the actual tire's temperature and not ambient temperature? I think that the friction from driving around at 65 mph for a while would be enough to warm up the summer tires to above the glass transition temp.

[MrJameslb]

It briefly snowed here in Atlanta last week and I was just think about this. Thanks for the Video!

[ZylonFPV]

I think the test is slightly unfair as you’re comparing semi-slick summer tyres to winter tyres. The summers have a larger contact patch.

In cold wet conditions, winter tyres make a difference. The deeper tread helps disperse water much better and aquaplaning is reduced, and often the braking distances in the cold/wet beat summer tyres. I’m running Dunlop winter sport 5 tyres this winter with almost 1cm tread depth and the ability to deal with slush/surface water is pretty remarkable.

Try a test in the wet 🙂

[nimmen]

just as I always thought. Ran summer tyres last winters in the Netherlands and am glad I did so. I don't need my car to drive to work, so not driving in snow. It rarely is snowing here. (And if I need to, I'm being extra careful)
Winter tyres are for snow and slush ;)

[Falk]

Everyone is going to take this entire video wrong. "Its not snowing outside, so im fine" Well.. No, your'e not fine. Tyres will behave significantly different depending on the temperature and road surface. What you do not want to encounter with summer tyres is ice, or frost. Winter tyres help with this. The road surface here seem very dry to me. You cannot and shouldn't predict its not going to snow where you are today because you won't experience a dry road surface all the time, so even if winter tyres perform worse in dry conditions, the risk is not worth it. Its better to hit something with low speed (Comparison dry condition), than to hit something, when you're out of control in high speed due to a slippery road surface. Below zero? Wear winter tyres, studded winter tyres if allowed and suiting.

[daniilm]

Props for doing this. I did something similar on my own car years back, but didn't bother recording. Been arguing this point on the forum for years. The only solid reference is the 2009 CarAndDriver test, which didn't have a clean summer tires to begin with, and is getting quite stale. I think it's a real crime that car magazines do not bother testing this fairly wide-spread myth of winter tires having more dry grip as well, and the suggested 'changeover' temperature of 48F. I hope some journo's from mainstream car mags do see this piece and decide to do a proper test at different temps, using different tire compounds, testing cornering as well. Thanks for your video again, I hope it results in further test that make us all safer. The real implication for safety is that all those driving on ice&snow winter tires should keep a longer following distance on dry winter highway, cause in the event of a panic stop they run the risk of rear-ending a minivan on bald all-season tires just ahead due to the lack of grip.

[GearsandGasoline]

Wow this is really interesting! I think the difference between the 205 and 225 might be more than you think. I'd measure the actual tread width with a tape measure because I know some tire manufactures don't have accurate 205 or 225 measurements. the 225 tires could be an inch or two wider.

[JA]

Thanks for the video! I even recommended this channel to my neighbor personally, and he said that already knows about it and likes it. Keep up the good work!
In my part of Texas, my only concern would be about all-season tires. It snows here once every 3 years, I think, but I also want to be able to travel to colder parts of the state.
My grandmother gave me very wise advice: "Tires are not a place where you want to save money." Her point was that, if you cannot control your vehicle, you could have problems. Maybe big problems.

[GueVonez]

Im sure they just heat up a solid amount during the actual braking