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Ask Uncle Spinout: Winter tires, snow tires...are they worth the cost?
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Dear Uncle Spinout,
It is the dead of winter in the Northeast. As I plow through snow or slide on black ice on my all weather tires, I wonder if snow tires are really better.
Glazed and confused
Dear Confused,
Yes.
What, you were expecting more? OK, the answer really is yes. The term you’re looking for, however, is “all-season,” and like so many things in life the name “all-season” both right and wrong. It’s right because you can use them year ’round and they’ll do a pretty good job of keeping your fancy wheels from scratching up the asphalt and they’ll do most of the other things a tire’s supposed to do.
But they’re also a compromise, and one of the things they don’t do as well as they might is handle cold, snow and ice. That’s where winter tires come in.
Note that I said “winter tires” and not “snow tires.” The new term reflects the tire’s ability to handle all of winter’s woes, not just snow and ice but also cold pavement.
There are two problems with all-season tires. One is that their tread rubber gets hard(er) in cold weather and the other has to do with their tread.
Winter tires are made out of a softer rubber compound so it stays pliable and “sticky” when the temperature drops. Imagine the difference between sliding an art gum eraser across the table and doing the same with a wooden block. The art gum eraser is winter tires. “Summer tires” usually found on high performance sports cars and sports sedans are even worse than all-seasonr tires in this regard. If the all-season tires turn into blocks of wood when it’s cold, summer tires are polished marble on lard. Accelerating, cornering and braking become a winter adventure with summer tires, even with all-wheel drive.
Winter tires also have more siping than all-season tires. Most tires have sipes, thin, almost razor cut slits in the tread. Their purpose is to draw water away from the surface, whether ice or snow, because it’s that thin layer of water molecules that act as little ball bearings between the tire and whatever it’s riding on.
What thin layer of water? The ice may look dry, but the pressure of the tire on the ice is enough to melt the surface of ice into a very thin layer of water. Ironically, this effect is enough that ice at zero degree Farhenheit actually provides more traction than ice at 32 degrees.
So here’s the dilemma: You can skate (ha ha) through winter on your all-seasons and probably survive as you probably have in the past and probably not get stuck, slide off the road or run out of sticktion on cold dry pavement and run into the back of someone else’s car.
Or you can buy a set of winter tires properly sized for your car, have them mounted on steel wheels and have the whole mess put on your car, stacking the all-season tires in your garage until spring. (With a quarter sheet of plywood they also can make a fine coffee table). The steel wheels are relatively cheap and once the tires are mounted on them, all you have to do is swap wheels when winter starts and stops in your area. Don't leave your winter tires on all year. When temperatures get above around 45 degrees the tires begin to wear significantly, plus they don't grip as well as tires made for warmer weather.
The extra cost of winter tires can be rationalized as making your all-season tires last longer and saving your fancy alloy wheels from the road salt and grit on your daily grind.
Or, like I said about winter tires to begin with, yes.
Yours in perpetual Zamboniness,
Uncle Spinout
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