Winter Tires or All Weather Tires
- Thread starter otis24
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It depends on how extreme the winter is.
Winter is better on ice and snow.
All-Weather is better in wet and dry, even in low temperatures.
The compound for winter is softer, but the tread is designed for snow. Due to this, the wet and dry grip ends up being lower than all-weather.
If you drive mainly on plowed and salted roads, all-weather is better. If you see a lot of snow and ice, winter is better.
Winter is better on ice and snow.
All-Weather is better in wet and dry, even in low temperatures.
The compound for winter is softer, but the tread is designed for snow. Due to this, the wet and dry grip ends up being lower than all-weather.
If you drive mainly on plowed and salted roads, all-weather is better. If you see a lot of snow and ice, winter is better.
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General 365AW get very favorable reviews here in Canada, check them out.
My only complaint about CC2 is poor wet traction. This led me to switch to PSAS4, because I get more rain than snow in a year here in the midwest.
It depends on the rubber compound. There are some summer tyres that become sketchy below 10°C (looking at you, Michelin Energy Saver...), others are totally fine even below freezing and will perform just fine on a dry road, sometimes even better than a winter tyre.
The more performance-oriented tyres and the rolling-resistance-optimised "eco" tyres will start to struggle at higher temperatures than others. Usually, wet traction/braking and handling are the first attributes to go.
I would not hesitate to drive a tyre from the Uniroyal* Rain Expert or Rain Sport line on a cold winter day - provided the tarmac was dry and there was no ice or snow to be expected. A Michelin Energy Saver or something from their Pilot Sport lineup at freezing temperatures? That thought alone scares me.**
So, as a rule of thumb, switching to winter tyres once temperatures consistently go below 7°C probably is not a bad idea.
*In Europe, Uniroyal is a subbrand of Continental, not Michelin. They build the brand around the claim "the rain tyre". Their designs usually use lots of deeps groves to combat aquaplaning and also very soft rubber that works well in cooler temperatures, but melts away in the summer heat. Yes, even their summer tyres don't like summer heat.
**Also keep in mind that driving a car in temperares below the rubber compound's glass transition point can damage the tyre.
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I just saw clips of vehicles going off the road yesterday, on the nightly news. I think in those cases, a person is gonna want all the tire they can get, i.e. snow tires. I often wonder, when multiple vehicles are going off the road, how many of those have snow tires? If all, then there's no point of driving when there's snow (this wasn't the case in my parents' time as all cars put snows on).
Your "excellent" may not be other person's "excellent". It depends on reference point.
I am quite sure that if CC2 is "excellent" in the wet then PS4AS will be "super excellent" in your rating.
Krzyś
Tires you quote are not on sale in the US.
The US market is vastly different than EU with variables that are not applicable to EU. Therefore, we have here different types of tires, predominantly all-season (American). The US doesn’t have anywhere 3PMSF mandatory laws, so it is hard to make people do things like in Europe where in many places two sets of tires are normal routine, or have tire “hotels “ etc.
Depends on the region? I know snows are common but not what I'd call "majority" here. Everyone's heard of them, but I'd wager (pure guess) that "most" will say "I don't need them". But in other areas of the country they may well be on the majority of vehicles.
I do think, when ice gets involved, sometimes there is no good tire. If you had studs to to punch down through, well, steel on asphalt isn't a great source of friction either. Carry too much speed into a turn with low visibility, or drive in a time with low visibility, you might be outrunning your tires pretty quickly, regardless of how good they are. Running all seasons (bald at that, on aged-out rubber) does not help, but I'm just not sure black ice can be defeated. Just my guess.
Most will say they don’t need them, even here in Colorado.
Yesterday we had absolute mess of a drive as slush froze, than we got 5” of powder on top of that.
I will screen shot one day neighborhood facebook page. I am starting to think that people really like suffering. It is some kind of sado mazohistic behavior. Same people who were telling others that it is fine to drive on all season tires (we always have newcomers asking do they need snow tires when they move here. We have A LOT of military folks moving here) are always complaining how their cars are sliding, cannot brake, ALTHOUGH they have AWD or 4WD. This requires some psychological study.
Re: glare ice.
Never used studdes tyres on a car (illegal where I live), but on the bicycle.
And there they work extremely well. Almost easier to stay rubber side down on two wheels than with a paar of shoes.
Never used studdes tyres on a car (illegal where I live), but on the bicycle.
And there they work extremely well. Almost easier to stay rubber side down on two wheels than with a paar of shoes.
That's the thing - it's all subjective. For my part, I'm putting out a data point from a location that is basically saturated all winter, where I feel CC2 has given amazing wet traction compared to any other tire I've tried. Everyone's results may vary...
PS4AS will have better wet performance, there is no doubt about that. Same as PS4S will have better in warmer wet weather than PS4AS.
I was at the bottom of Ute Pass about 3 hours into the storm. It was a mess of cars and trucks going nowhere slowly. I was in my 98 Civic with studded Arctic Claw WXI's on all corners. While traction was hard to come by from a stop, I slowly crept around them and worked my way up. I bet there were 60 or more cars either in the ditch or just not moving, AWD included all the way up to Pikes Peak Highway. Took me over an hour to get through the canyon, but tires do make the difference.
Without skill you're likely to waste the traction you have
only studded tires for me in winter time. Hate the ice, and even more if it's a soft layer of snow top on the ice. And in northern Finland they don't even use salt on the roads.
