Snow tires - 2 front vs 4 tires

You will experience the wonders of surprise snap turns when you least expect it if you only run front snow tires on a FWD car. It might be OK under some circumstances, but more than likely the rear of the car will try to come out ahead of you in an icy turn. Guaranteed.

Many years ago I was volunteered to drive my grandmother's car for a maintenance appointment. She only had front snows, and I looped the car twice at incredibly slow speed in cold icy conditions. Perfect winter road conditions for that. On the way home I stopped at the tire store and had matching snows installed on the front and moved the front snows to the rear. It was a different car on the drive back to her house. Luckily she didn't have to drive that much in winter, but this did make her car way easier to handle in snow. Today's winter tire rubber compounds are really excellent, even in the coldest weather.

In slick conditions, with different tires front and rear you'll also confuse the heck out of ABS and any form of stability control system that normally involves ABS. That in itself could be very dangerous for you and others on the road.

4 winter tires for winter conditions and 4 summer tires for summer conditions. Don't forget to rotate the tire sets. A nice even tread depth is important to maintain balance. The next best advice in snow or ice... Leave early and take it easy.

Most of the winter accidents here where I live are single car accidents. It's usually someone cooking along at summer pace in winter conditions thinking that 4 wheel drive or AWD will trump physics in a sweeping turn. Physics eventually prove's them wrong. Even more scary, most drivers stay on all season tires, too. Not fun to be out on the road with these guys in heavy accumulating snow.

 

Well,40 yrs ago,I couldn't wait till it snowed to take my fathers old mercedes[w/o snow tires] to the beach parking lot,to "practice my drifting".Of course,we didn't call it drifting then,but it sure helped me learn how to drive.
Lots of common sense posts here,one could also add chains......or stay home,ha

 

40 or so years ago I would wait for the lake to freeze so I could take our old Willys WWII surplus yard jeep out on the ice. On a normal year the ice would be over a foot thick by January. Great way to learn how to recover from skids and more importantly, the handling limits of a vehicle on slippery surfaces. And it was a lot of fun and fairly safe, since there were no other cars out there.

Wish they would teach real driving dynamics to every youngster in driving school. Too bad that insurance/litigation restricts what can be taught.

Advanced vehicle dynamics should be included somehow. That would make younger drivers a lot more knowledgeable and better equipped to handle emergencies like unexpected skids. Accident avoidance skills are really good to have.

 

I understand what you are saying. I too learned where the limits of adhesion were by going past them. To me getting a car a bit sideways or out of shape is no big deal, you instinctively do what needs to be done to get it back.

I get a chuckle from those who think they are going to die in a horrible crash if they have a little bit more tread on one end of the car than the other, or think they are in mortal danger if the VSC is turned off (providing you have a car that will let you turn it off).

Unfortunately most "driver training courses" in this country only teach people how to get down the road and obey the rules. They don't teach how to drive in less than ideal conditions.

 

Not everyone has been blessed with the learning experience of drifting or fishtailing in a controlled situation. Everyone should be forced to autoX at some point in their lives. Especially on slick runflat tires.....

 

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Yes that would be good. I did quite a bit of autoX when I lived in Northern California many years ago. But I used bias ply tires on Austin Healeys and MGs. Lots of fun and a good learning experience.