If you have 2 snow tires where would you mount them?

With RWD cars, my dad used to mount 2 snow tires on the rear drive wheels. Of course, his steering and primary braking wheels had no benefit from the added traction.

I'd think with FWD cars, it would make the most sense to mount two snow tires on the front wheels to benefit take-off, braking, and steering.

I put winter tires on all 4 wheels for best control.

 

Why can't you buy two more? They are not that expensive.

 

Just go and buy additional two - the best of the same brand and characteristics as these which you already have. Point. Remember - you own a state-of-the-art car, very sophisticated and equipped with track control system. Be good for your baby, otherwise it may behave in unexpected way. Matter of safety, not economy. Cheers!

 

Yes to steering and take off, no to braking. Better tires in front means instant fishtail and spectacular 180 degree rotation when braking in slippery conditions.

4 tires with the same traction is a must for safety.

 

Always mount the best tires in the rear of the car. The best traction must be in the rear. Four new tires would be best.

 

If you can't or won't put on four tires, I wouldn't bother putting any on.

 

if i only had 2, iwould leave them off.

 

Well, they would provide some benefit on the rear. On the front the car would be dangerous, as when you are sliding backwards you have no chance of avoiding anything! If the snow tyres are placed on the front the rear will try to pass the front!

Four snow tyres will cost in the area of $600 mounted on a Prius. Even a simple "fender bender" will cost upwards of $1000, and the chance you could slide into oncoming traffic could cost lives. We see it every winter here.

-FOUR- proper winter tyres are a good investment. Many tyre shops will even store them for you for the summer.

 

To answer the question as put in the first line of the post. On a Prius I would put the tyres on the front for a number of reasons.

(1) The ability to move the car in the first place. The rear wheels take no part in this.
(2) If you are going to climb a slippery hill you do not want to have no front end traction so that you start to slide back without any steering control and could actually cause a reverse fishtail.
(3) The Prius under normal breaking "before slip starts" only breaks with the front wheels so why move what grip you have to the rear where there is no braking effort until the front has already started to slide?
(4)The Prius steers from the front. What is the point of coming to a bend turning the steering and going strait on because you have grip on the rear but not the front.
(5) The act of taking your foot off the accelerator in the Prius slows the front wheels down "the equivalent of engine braking". Again no affect on the back wheels but if the fronts start to lock up under these conditions you now have no steering.

I would totally agree that that all four tyres should be the same but that was not the question asked. I would also give different answers if the car was rear wheel drive but it is not.

 

Descending a slippery hill is just a frequent as climbing it. Descending with no rear end traction means the ABS and VSC will be unable to prevent a forward spin, the 180 degree rotation that friendly_jacek mentions above. And having the good traction in front will mean that the driver will have received less feedback warning to the treacherous conditions, thus will be moving faster, and downhill to boot. This is a nastier pickle than the situation you describe.

 

The driver should already know conditions are bad and be driving accordingly and not relying on ABS and VSC as these are aids to assist not cover up bad driving or the lack of observation of a driver.

Remember the rear brakes do not slow the car at all, they do not exist until the front have started to slide so the longer the fronts grip the more braking you have and while this condition exists you still have steering. Further when travelling downhill more weight will be on the front wheels than the rears.

Back in the 60/70s I used to rally front wheel drive Saabs and Mini Cooper S's competing in the British RAC rallies and the Monte Carlo as a private entrant finishing in both so I do know what I am talking about with front wheel drive cars.

I also point you to the last line of my post.

 

A loud second to that!

 

Yup, 2 snow tires on the front is a good bet you're going down the hill sideways!


That said, there are a ton of benefits to having snow tires on the front, but the negative side-effects of having mis-matched traction are much, much worse.

 

<delete me>

 

last time I checked, every car had 4 brakes that work at the same time.

 

Delete

 

Unfortunately just about every tire manufacturer and major retailer disagrees with you.

1) It's safer to not move than to move and not have control of the rear end. If conditions are so bad that you don't have e ough traction to move then you can take that as assign to stay home or get 4 snow tires.

2) Again, this is a sign you shouldn't go without 4 snow tires. You provide an example of a semi-rare situation then cite and example of a dangerous situation (fishtailing) which is the reason everyone is recommending you put the good tires on the rear. You spend much more time navigating turns than you do going up steep hills so your odds of fish tailing are much greater with the good tires up front.

3) under braking conditions weight is shifted to the front of the vehicle which increases force of the front tires on the road and enhancing traction. At the same time, weight is shifted off the rear off the vehicle and decreases traction. Having better traction up front is just setting yourself up for an accident when the rear loses traction and tries to catch up to the front end.

4) In this scenario you under steer into a snow bank or off the road but you go straight if the snow tires are in the rear. It is more of a controlled situation than if the good tires were in the front and the car fishtails and comes around to the front leaving you who knows where.

5) Regen braking does not slow the car down enough to cause a skid. If it every did then you are not driving on legally threaded tires or you are driving on ice. In either case nothing short of 4 real snow/ice tires can help you. See #4 for the alternative. No steering is better than swapping ends.

 

While a good winter driver shouldn't be relying on ABS and VSC, poor rear traction will activate these very quickly, and at some point overwhelm them.

In previous threads on this very subject, some proponents of mounting the best tires on front have pointed to ABS and VSC as devices that will prevent the front and rear ends from swapping around. I'm not so trusting when tire conditions are intentionally seriously asymetric.

That applies only to regen mode, which has limited braking power. The Prius goes into friction mode -- all four wheels -- at lower braking force than many PC participants seem to realize. And anything that triggers ABS or VSC should also put it into friction braking mode.

If OP had similar experience, or sufficient experience to handle the issues involved, I highly doubt he would have posted this question.

I agree on your four tire answer, but not two tire answer.

 

True, but brakes aren't the only thing providing braking force on a Prius. Regenerative braking is the preferential mode, and it only works through the front two tires. In layman's terms: most braking in a Prius is with only the front two wheels.

I'd mount them in the garage until I could buy two more tires.

Tom