Comparing the Benefits of All-Season and Snow Tires

Tires are your car’s only connection to the road. They are a critical safety component, no matter the conditions. But when winter weather strikes, the road surface becomes even more hazardous. Cold weather, ice, slush, and snow all combine to keep the tire from gripping the pavement as effectively as you’d like. That’s why winter tires are becoming more and more popular in wintry climates.

I live in the north, but not in an area that gets frequent heavy snowfalls. When I was younger, my only car was a small, lightweight, rear-wheel drive roadster that didn’t have any sort of traction control— and I got caught off-guard by a freak snowstorm without snow tires. I tried to make it home from work slowly and carefully, but even then, the all-season tires didn’t have enough grip to keep me safe. I spun the car out several times, thankfully without hitting anyone or anything. I eventually parked the sports car and called my wife to rescue me. That car will never see snowfall again without modern winter tires.

Why Are Winter Tires Better Than All-Season Tires?

All-season tires are just that – tires meant to work reasonably well in most conditions. They don’t have high-performance tread patterns or rubber compounds meant for ultimate dry-weather summer performance, nor do they have the soft rubber compounds, tread patterns, or tire construction meant to tackle the frozen tundra on a daily basis.

If your driving is confined to more temperate climates, all-season tires are likely just fine. But if you get that one freak southern snow or ice storm per year, just stay home that day and stay safe. Your tires aren’t likely up to the task, nor are the tires of most other people on the road.

Due to advances in tire technologies, modern winter tires perform much better in cold, icy, and snowy conditions than all-season tires and even better than the snow tires of many years ago. Most notably, modern winter tires have special rubber compounds that help to grip the cold pavement and often include silica within the rubber to help “bite” the ground through the ice. In many cases, the winter tires have hollow cells that can help to suction water away from the traction patch and specially designed tread patterns that further divert water and slush away from where the tire interacts with the road.

Winter tires often have sipes, which are cuts in the individual tread blocks that help create hundreds of edges that bite into the surface. These sipes often have ridges or a sawtooth pattern to further help cut into snow and ice, creating traction.

Can’t I Just Use Winter Tires All Year Long?

Due to their need to remain flexible and pliable in extremely cold temperatures, winter tires typically are made from softer rubber compounds than all-season tires. This means that these winter tires can wear down much more quickly when the weather is warm. The unique tread patterns and aggressive sipes that give winter tires superior winter traction also create edges that will lead to additional wear on dry and warm pavement. Unless you live well north of the Arctic Circle, it’s likely best that you keep the winter tires just for driving in the winter and all-season tires for the rest of the year.

Of course, that means switching your tires on your car at least twice a year – in late fall and in the spring. There are two typical ways to accomplish this:

• Have a tire shop dismount your all-season tires from your wheels and mount your snow tires in the fall and the reverse in the spring
• Buy a second set of wheels specific to your snow tires, and simply swap the wheels and tires when the season comes

There is an additional up-front cost to buying a second set of wheels for your snow tires, as wheels can often cost between $100 and $250 each – multiply that by four because you’ll need four snow tires. But this up-front cost will save some hassle when the first snows arrive, as many tire shops will be very busy with tire changeovers as the weather breaks. Plus, at a cost of $20 or more per tire to change a wheel from snow tires to all-season and vice versa, the cost of that second set of wheels will be made up in due time.

Don’t Snow Tires Cost More?

Good winter tires often cost roughly the same price as a set of all-season tires – figure between $600 to $1000 for a set of four tires, depending on the size. That’s not cheap, but it’s cheap insurance against losing traction and causing damage to your car or others. Plus, as modern winter tires can often last 35,000 miles or more, you can often get four or five winter seasons out of a set. That’s four or five seasons of wear you aren’t putting on the all-season tires you’ll use the rest of the year, meaning you won’t have to replace them quite as often.

Yes, you’ll have to find a place to store your second set of tires in the winter, but that’s a small price to pay for the added peace of mind and superior traction afforded by the right tires for the season.