Although the autumn season has but arrived, winter is coming sooner than you call up. And if you live in an expanse that constantly gets snow, then you lot might take to change your car's tires if information technology currently has summer tires on it. But what if y'all desire to save on the price of switching them? Tin can yous use summertime tires in the winter?

Different compounds react differently

There is a reason that there are 3 main categories of tires: summertime, all-flavor, and winter. Summer tires have a lower rolling resistance than wintertime tires and the rubber chemical compound that is used on them is softer and performs ameliorate in warmer temperatures as they heat up and become grippier. But when the weather gets colder and the temperatures drop, the rubber on a summer tire will harden and provide much less traction.

On other manus, wintertime tires are quite the opposite. When the weather gets colder and the temperatures drop below 45 degrees Fahrenheit, that'due south when winter tires tend to shine. Winter tires take a deep tread design with cuts going across them, which are called "sipes." This intricate tire design aids in removing excessive buildup from slushy ice as the sipes pack water ice between the tread blocks and provide more than traction on the ice. So, the brusque answer to the question is: No, you should non utilise summer tires in the winter as your car'south traction will suffer greatly and possibly cause you to get into an accident.

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A car driving in the snow during winter season.
Daily driving in snow | Evrim Aydin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

What about all-season tires?

If summertime tires use a soft compound for better traction in the summer and wintertime tires use special tread patterns that provide grip in the winter, then you can think of all-season tires as splitting the deviation betwixt the two. Although, that doesn't hateful that all-flavor tires are astonishing in both the wintertime and summertime, as CNET referred to them, "[all-season tires] are the jack of all trades, and main of none."

In reality, all-season tires perform adequately in warmer temperatures, but never truly at the level of a dedicated performance summer tire. And on the other side of the coin, all-flavor tires can perform fairly in the snow every bit well, provided the roads are only covered with a thin layer of the white stuff. But don't expect them to have the same cornering and treatment performance every bit a truthful wintertime tire.

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What is the best solution for the flavour?

If you live in an expanse that routinely gets snow in the wintertime, and then we suggest that you bite the bullet and swap out your summer tires for winter rubber when the snowfall starts to hit the ground and and so alter them back when bound hits. However, if you cringe at the thought of changing your car'south tires twice a year, then look into having ii sets of wheels, i fix with summer tires and another with a fix of winter tires in order to make swapping them a lot easier.