| Stang70Fastback |
01-03-2017 12:10 AM |
To copy a post I wrote on Facebook:
Quote:
Winter is coming, and I'm starting to see the re-emergence of the same question we get every year, along with the same uneducated replies in the comments underneath. I am posting this to educate as many of you as I can, so that you can help spread the CORRECT information, and shut down any misinformation before it becomes "gospel."
Q: "Do I need snow tires to drive in the snow, or will I be fine on the stock tires?"
A: Our cars came equipped with two different tires. A few Toyobarus came equipped with Bridgestone Turanza All-Season Tires. The majority of our cars, however, came with Michelin Primacy HP Summer Tires (the "Prius tires," as they are affectionately called.) It is those of you riding on the Primacys to which this post is primarily directed.
First off, the Primacy is a SUMMER TIRE. It isn't a Michelin Pilot Super Sport, or a ZII Star Spec, but it is, nonetheless, a SUMMER TIRE. Summer tires are NOT INTENDED to be used in snow, ice, or even dry pavement below 40 degrees. At all. Ever. Don't believe me? Take a look at the Performance Ratings for the Primacy HP on TireRack's site. Notice that they don't even offer the OPTION of rating the performance of these tires in snow or ice. They are not meant for it, and they shouldn't be driven in it. EVER. End of story.
I'm repeating myself because this is something that not everyone seems to want to understand. One of the typical comments I see runs something along the lines of, "I drove through a snow storm on Primacys and I didn't have any problems. They're fine if you know how to drive." That's great. I will now make a comparative statement to demonstrate just how illogical that argument is: "I drove through a rain storm on racing slicks, and I didn't have any problems. They're fine if you know how to drive." Do you see how silly that statement sounds? It's bad logic at best. Just because you survived doing something incredibly careless, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Racing slicks are NOT meant for rain. Period. Likewise, summer tires are NOT meant for snow. Period. There is no debate to be had here. This isn't something you are allowed to have an opinion on. It is a FACT. The only reason it seems "okay" to have that viewpoint is because of the existence of all-season tires, which aren't great in the snow, but have conditioned people to "accept" poor traction in wintery conditions as a "fact of life."
So why do summer tires suck in the winter? "Summer tires have plenty of tread! They should be fine for light snow, right?" Wrong. Tread is important, but most people don't realize that the rubber compound is equally as important. Summer tires use a very stiff, hard rubber. This is great because it reduces flex in the tread blocks, and sidewalls, which provides good steering response, and also allows the tire to remain firm, and maintain grip in hot situations. However, when the temperature drops, that stiff rubber becomes VERY stiff... almost solid. So stiff, that the rubber becomes too hard to grip onto anything. They become, essentially, hockey pucks. This sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn't. In cold temperatures, they are only marginally better than the plastic wheels on the old Power Wheels you drove when you were 4.
Winter tires are made of a MUCH softer rubber compound. On a hot summer day, they almost feel like chewing gum; as though you could peel the tread off with your bare hands. This means that when the temperature drops, the rubber still stays compliant enough to actually do its job. Combine that with deeper tread blocks with lots of sipes, and you have a tire that can offer SIGNIFICANTLY more traction in the winter months.
Lastly, I want to reiterate that just because you can manage to to do something, doesn't mean it's an intelligent decision to do so. You certainly shouldn't recommend doing so to others. The "getting going" part of driving in the snow is all anyone ever seems to think about, but it's the stopping part that matters. "Well, I just leave an extra-long following distance between myself and the car ahead of me." Great. What do you do when the light turns yellow? The light that doesn't give you any more time to stop in the winter than it does in the summer? What if another idiot on summer tires slides out in front of you from a side street? Are you going to inconvenience everyone else on the road by driving everywhere at 5 MPH since your stopping distance at any higher speed is 3 blocks? Are you going to piss everyone else off on the road by taking 45 minutes to accelerate from every stop because you were too cheap to properly equip your car for the conditions?
If you are driving this car, you can afford a set of winter tires. You can get a brand new set delivered to your door, already mounted and balanced on steelies for $700 from TireRack. You can get a used set for many hundreds of dollars less than that. They are absolutely worth it. If you don't believe me, watch the video I've linked below (which also makes a good argument for why All-Season tires suck at everything.)
Winter tires provide so much more grip, that you can actually enjoy driving the car in the winter, and even have fun, rather than spend the entire time sweating bullets and managing the tiny amount of traction you have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s
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