If you think your all-season tires are all you need to get through a Chicago winter, you may want to reconsider. When we get whacked with a major snowfall, winter tires will take you where all-season tires might not.
Winter tires (they used to be called snow tires) provide an extra margin of safety.
Even a car with four-wheel-drive, traction control, stability control or anti-lock brakes, can benefit from winter tires. Traction control or 4WD won’t stop spinning wheels. Traction control only slows the wheels until they get some traction. Even with 4WD, the wheel with the least traction may spin. ABS simply keeps the wheels from locking up and skidding.
Even stability controls won’t provide more traction than the tires have. They just slow selected wheels by applying the brakes or decreasing engine power to keep the car from oversteering (fish-tailing) or understeering (plowing).
All-season tires are a compromise designed to spend most of their time on dry pavement and are made with rubber compounds that provide adequate traction, yet long life. When the temperatures drop, these rubber compounds harden and traction suffers. Because of their tread designs, however, all-season tires can still provide improved traction in snow and mud.
Snow tires of the past that had chunky tread blocks that were noisy and handled poorly on dry pavement, but today’s winter tires have clever tread designs and supple rubber compounds.
The tread blocks on modern winter tires are designed for two driving modes, one for digging into snow and slush to gain a foothold and a second for quiet, dry-surface handling because most winter driving occurs on dry pavement or roads that have been plowed and salted.
But water is their No. 1 nemesis because it lubricates the contact patch where the rubber meets the road. The weight of the vehicle can even turn a dusting of snow into water just by pressure. Though winter tires do not provide improved water channeling, their deeper tread groves do provide improved grip in snow.
If you are considering winter tires, your owner’s manual probably suggests replacing all four tires–not just the two drive wheels–with winter tires. If you install winter tires on the front wheels of a FWD car, the rear of the car can still spin out . Besides, your regular tires won’t wear equally if you leave two of them on the car during the winter. Ideally, you would install your winter tires the day before the first snowfall and remove them after the last melt, but Thanksgiving and Tax Deadline Day are good targets.
The tires are not unreasonably expensive. For instance, a major retailer’s prices range from about $60-90 for brands to fit a 2000 Chevrolet Impala.
It is a good idea to buy four rims and permanently mount your winter tires to them. Steel rims cost about $50 each, so for $200 you can save a lot of hassle and, eventually, money. And your expensive alloy wheels won’t get damaged. Stack them like pancakes when not is use.
Tires designed for winter have a mountain-with-snowflake symbol on the sidewall. It indicates that the tire has passed a performance-based standard agreed upon by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) in the United States and the Rubber Association of Canada (RAC).
Tire studs are illegal in Illinois and Wisconsin. But when the going really gets tough, especially on icy roads, you may want to consider tire chains. Consult your owner’s manual for the type of chains permitted to be used on your car. And, use them only as necessary. They beat up the tires and wear out rapidly on hard pavement.
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Bob Weber is an ASE-certified Master Automobile Technician, having recertified every five years since 1978. Contact him at motormouth-trib@verizon.net.
