How to Choose Snow Tires — And Why You Shouldn’t
For most drivers the best snow tire to buy is an all-season tire, not a snow tire, because the right all-season tire will give you better stopping and cornering on wet pavement and dry while also giving you good enough snow traction. If you’re dead set on getting true snow tires, this article is going to challenge your beliefs.
At the current state of tire-design science, it just is not possible to make a snow tire that will grip non-snow-covered wet or dry pavement as well as the best all-season tire. Yet it is possible to design an all-season tire with very good snow traction as well as very good stopping and cornering ability on wet or dry pavement that is not covered with snow. This has been proven in scientific testing at Consumer Reports test tracks. Think about what is important to you: Having the grip on the pavement that will allow you to stop more quickly could save your life and the lives of your passengers, pedestrians and other drivers. The same is true for better cornering traction. The traction that could enable you to maintain control during an emergency lane change, to avoid crashing into something, could prevent death or injury. But snow tires all have inferior gripping ability on non-snowy pavement in comparison to the pavement grip of excellent all-weather tires.
“But I don’t want to get stuck in the snow,” you may be thinking, “I need excellent snow traction!” Well, you can get very good snow traction with a few models of all-season tires, while still getting a tire that will give you very good traction on non-snowy wet or dry pavement. You just need to find out which models of all-season tires have those qualities, and the next article will tell you how to find such tires. You need this information, because many popular all-season tires do NOT perform well in snow.
There is just no substitute for scientific test results in choosing a tire. No recommendation from a friend or user review online is going to reliably tell you which tire stops the quickest on wet pavement, or on ice, or has the best snow traction. These things can be easily measured, but it takes side-by-side testing with accurate objective measuring of results. Anything else is just vague impressions, folk wisdom, hearsay or hype.
Consider getting all-season tires and then carrying a traction-aid like tire chains or the AutoSock in your trunk for short-term use in extreme bad conditions. Take a look on Amazon to learn about this option:
When I showed the first few paragraphs of this article to my sister who lives in Canada, she immediately opposed my point of view: “If you live up here you should choose snow tires!” she exclaimed and you may have thought the same thing. But, in Canada or anywhere else there is snow, you don’t need snow tires, you need tires that are good in snow and that’s not necessarily the same thing. Consumer Reports tests of snow tires (winter tires) and all season tires found some all season tires are as good in snow traction as most snow tires (Example: Hankook Optimo H727), and one winter tire was terrible in snow (Hankook Icebear W300). More important, CR found none of the winter tires were good at dry pavement braking, while some of the all season tires were very good at this, and many of the winter tire scored poorly on wet pavement. Think about it: What happens in the winter? It snows, and during at least that first day after a snow storm you need good snow traction, but pretty soon at least the major roads are clear of snow, but wet, and then you need good wet pavement traction, and then the roads dry and you need good dry pavement traction for emergency stops and avoidance maneuvers. So, your tires for the winter need to be good at all three and “winter tires” per se are not. Another important message from these tests is this: No category like “winter” or “all season” by itself predicts performance and neither does the brand. I just cited 2 examples of Hankook tire models, one that scored very well and another that scored poorly, so if you only went shopping for “Hankook” and not a specific model of tire, you would be getting potluck.
So how are you going to know which tires to buy. I strongly recommend consulting Consumer Reports tests and looking for a tire that scores very good in snow traction but also scores at least “good” in every other category of performance and “very good” in the crucial life-safety criteria like wet braking.
How can you get the Consumer Reports ratings? Nearly all public libraries have them. Or you can sign up online for a small fee and use the CR website. Some public libraries have even made arrangements so that their card holders can consult CR online for free (that’s true in my little town).
So, don’t assume you need snow tires for snow. Don’t assume any tire recommendation that isn’t based on scientific tests is valid. Don’t buy by brand name. And be very aware that good snow traction often comes at the price of poor non-snow traction and you have to have the benefit of scientific test information to know which tires combine a balanced set of strength under varying conditions. And that information is keyed to specific tire models and does not hold true for any entire brand of tire.
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Hey Jim,
What a coincidence. We were just thinking about getting snow tires. Now we don’t have to. Thanks for the info.
Wow, wish I’d read this last year when I bought yet another set of studded snow tires. Have been pretty convinced I needed these for the frequent snow/packed icy conditions we get here in SW colorado. Also gives me a sense of confidence when these tires dig in and get me out of the driveway &/or up the hill to the main road.
Seems like the all-weathers wear out quickly and lose needed traction. I’ll have to mull this over before I buy new tires in the spring – my all weather’s are worn out! Keeping up 2 sets of tires is something and expensive – I’ve done the tire chains before, too, and that can be a real hassel! In this one place I lived for awhile, I had to put chains on and off every morning and evening to get up the hill- on SNOW TIRES! The road into town would be clear and dry, but the 2 miles uphill to the house – even 4 wheel drives were wiping out! Needless to say, I got really good at putting chains on & off — and then I moved out quickly!
Will be mulling this over a bit. I like a warm season tire with good road performance, too. I find I get better gas with the smaller warm weather tires – about 1 – 2 miles per gallon which, every penny you know and every gallon saved.
Maybe you will comment on my musings?
Thanks for the article. I’ll send it to a friend who’s considering buying snow tires.
Tread depth is extremely important for snow gripping power, whether it’s an all-season tire or a snow tire. As the tire wears it loses tread depth and therefore snow traction. The front tires wear faster, so it’s important to rotate your tires once a year. Putting my rear tires on the front vastly improved hill climbing ability in my front-wheel drive vehicle, because my fronts had worn down a bit.
Tread life is another variable that differs from one tire model to the other. I don’t think you can generalize that “all season tires wear out quickly.” Some do, some don’t. This tread life is one of the things Consumer Reports rates each model on.
Thanks for reading my article and for passing it along and for commenting!
Jim