What Happens if You Mount A Snow Tire BACKWARDS?

Ever wonder what would happen if you mount a directional tire backwards in the snow, dry, and wet?

I find out by putting the same tire through a full, data driven tire test. We test a set of the amazing Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3s in 235/35 R19 mounted forward, and a set of exactly the same tires mounted backwards. We test them in the dry, wet and snow, looking at traction and braking, handling, aquaplaning resistance, noise, basically everything you could ever test.

The results might surprise you! They did me.

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= Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:46 Snow
5:10 Wet
7:42 Dry / Noise
8:26 Conclusion

[EngineeringExplained]

"I just don't think anyone else in the world cares" We care Jonathan, we care!
Super interesting - I kinda like the idea for snow track driving (an everyday encounter, right?!) with a RWD vehicle, the rears are mounted properly and the fronts are mounted backwards, and you have a better snow rally goer! Of course, worse in aquaplaning, so dumb to do, but it'd be fun to see them raced this way vs the opposite.

[ardoin_]

I laugh every time someone posts online if "inside" is a good tire brand. Or if they can use them while outside.

[dbeckMSP]

This is so pertinent to me. My roommates just got their cross climates rotated at a dealership and they put them ALL on backwards

[elektro]

So what you're telling me is...if I'm doing a snowy track day in a RWD vehicle, mount the front directional tires backwards, and the rears correctly. That way I get the best braking on the front tires which do most of the braking, and the best acceleration from the rear tires which do all the accelerating. 😂

[axelfiraxa]

Fun fact about motorcycle tyres. The forward tyres have the tread pattern mounted "backwards" on the front tyre.
This is due to it being optimized for breaking in the wet

[MichaelWeilmeier]

On a motorcycle where the front tire handles critical straight-line braking, the front tire is backwards due to its superior wet-braking performance, so "backwards" has a real-world application depending on the characteristics of the vehicle. It would be interesting for a future test to switch the front tires only for both front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive vehicle tests.

[miguelbaeza]

Great information. I couldn't sleep all this time thinking about this problem. I can finally go to sleep peacefully

[ThePortadump]

From what I was always explained is the directional tread expels snow and water outwards, when mounted backwards it directs everything underneath the tire and diminishes traction. And now this data backs it up! Hurrah!

[ppp]

A few years ago, I have written comment under one of your vids, asking if you have ever, or would test it, because I see so many examples of this mistake on the streets. A lot of time passed, but here it is. So credits to me 😂 Thank you for the vid.

[clfield]

How about trying them mounted differently on opposite axles, front facing forward and back facing backwards and vice versa. You may get the perfect snow handling balance 😂

[stasisthebest]

Your site is responsible for me now being an avid track enthusiast. It all started with Yokohama AD08R advised on your site almost 10 years ago. Love you guys and the work you do, you literally changed my life, hope you enjoy your life.

[ssjgninja]

This kind of is a nice demonstration of why motorcycles use a reversed tire on the front for better braking. I wonder how a rear wheel drive car would drive with a reversed front and forward back tires.

[Smock]

Thanks for the video. Not normal but neat to see the results for many that wonder what would happen. So having someone like you and your sponsors take the time to run the experiments and take good measured data to provide to the masses is awesome.

[watchingdanny]

Recently you've answered many tire questions I didn't know I had been asking internally. Love your content. Keep up the great work.

[davehughes]

I bet it works great reversing up a hill 😂

[ZylonFPV]

5% better braking when the tyre is backwards? Nice. So what you’re saying is, if you need to stop in the snow, open the door while driving and hold onto the car, pop your skis on, remove all the wheels, flip the tires round, get back in, brake hard and enjoy the shorter stopping distance!

[carlosroland]

Thanks! I asked you about this several months ago and you did it. You're now officially my favorite YouTuber:)

[ArconadaP]

Thank you for the video! It’s reassuring to know that having a directional tire as a spare will still work if I ever need to mount it backwards temporarily.

[FinlayRC]

Thank you for all your reviews, after watching your recent all-season tyre test, I decided to fit on a full set of new SF3s for my Fiat Tipo and with the recent cold blast in the UK, it didn't even flinch, I love them, they're amazing tyres! Drive safe! 🇬🇧🎉

[gulamangulay]

I see so many people with reversed tires mounted on their cars for winter, it is ridiculous. It happened to me when winter came and I was just a teenager with his first car and I was wondering why I was slipping and sliding in the rain. I saw that the garage mounted my tires backwards at the front axle. I had to swap them myself. Seriously though, how come so many people still make this mistake in my province of Quebec, Canada where winter is half the year?!