I know that it is dangerous to drive the stock advans in the winter/snow.

I also understand that winter tires are made for winter using different materials, but my question is are the stock OEM tires worse in the cold/snow than other aftermarket summer tires?

 

I would probably say the closer your summer tires are to being slicks and the wider they are the worse they will do in the winter.

I have falken rt615's in 255/40/17 and they are so horrible in the winter words cannot accurately describe it. I almost slide my car into the side of the garage last year in about 1/4" of slush just trying to park it, no grip at all it's as if I had skis strapped to the tires.

If you have more lines in the tread I can see them doing a little better but still don't even try it unless you absolutely have to even then you are playing with fire.

 

So a basic summer tire has no advantage over the OEM advans?

 

wider winter tires are also not recommended?

 

The compounds in those tires (extreme summer) are just flat-out not designed to work in under 40F temps. Severe break-away, chunking, wearing.

Just do not do it. Get at the least all-seasons.

(Rule of thumb is: Thinner in winter, wider in summer).

 

thinner in the winter to reduce hydroplaning possibly? iam trying to figure out why.

 

Footprint. 255/40s become snowboards under snow. You want 225s to cut through the slush.

http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=126

 

Yeah so 225 would work awesome. I use to have nokian winter tires on my ix when I had it. They were the best tire inhave ever had for winter time period.

 

thanks!

 

 

There isn't a summer tire that performs better than another in winter conditions. Just as there isn't a work boot that would be any easier to dance the tango in compared to another. Wrong tool for the job really. A/S as a minimum for cold weather/snow conditions.

 

i believe the difference is in the compound in the tires, the winter tires preform better in anything under 45 degrees. I believe All season is made for rain and sun not snow, hence why they make a winter tire.

 

Yes, there are different compounds. And winter tires typically have a 50-55% range of the "winter compound". Past they they switch over to an "all-season" compound. So when your winters get worn to 50% tread - they will not be as good as new ones (said in my John Madden voice).

 

Just think about it. Tires are purpose built. Look at the ones on the off road trucks driving around. They look a lot different than what goes fast on the street. You just can't design a tire that is best in all conditions. It requires vastly different qualities in a tire to go fast on a hot tarmac track around corners compared to holding traction on top of pure ice, obviously.

If you build a tire to be the best for hot, hard driving, track conditions you have to remove some of the qualities that make it a good winter tire. It's a balancing act. Extreme all out performance tires like most people use on Evo's are only built for warm weather. A summer tire will generally outperform an A/S on a warm track.

An All season tire is an attempt to be a "jack-of-all trades". It's good in the summer, but not as sticky as the all out performance summer tires. However, the trade off for that small performance drop in summer is the rubber compound is built to stay flexible down to lower temperatures and the tread is engineered to better deal with all types of weather like rain and snow. There's some all seasons that lean more towards dry road performance, some that do better in more adverse weather, and some are built for high mileage.

A true winter tire is purpose built just like an all out performance tire. Dry road cornering, road noise, & hot summer track performance are all sacrificed to engineer a tire that will, above all else, keep traction on top of pure ice/snow and down to the lowest temps. Far superior to all seasons in snow and ice but for all other conditions A/S are typically better. There are reports of some winter tire models that do make decent year round tires.

 

Tires are one of the most important things on a car when it comes to handling. They literally are holding you to the road. For the best results, different situations call for different tires. Track - racing tires. Dry - summer tires. Snow - winter tires. Anything else is just a compromise.