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Snow tire question S70

you are of course welcome to do whatever you please with your own car.

There isn't any difference between 'standard tires on wet surface' and 'snow tires on snowy surface' or any other permutation of tires and surfaces. The factor at work here is the grip required to keep the car stable, esp in corners when the active force on the car is the centripetal force holding the car from falling off the road. Unequal grip means unequal force and either the front or rear end of your car will be more susceptible to losing it's grip and thus continuing to head in the direction it's already travelling and ignoring your steering input.

It's been shown time and time again that unless you have serious driver training (like rally driving) understeer is safer in nearly every driving situation, and esp in the situation which I personally think is most important which is highway driving (most important because the speed involved multiplies the consequences of an accident). Even with real driver training, I don't think there's anyone out there advocating for FWD cars with less grip in the rear.

As you say, uphill driving is indeed a problem if your driven wheels don't have the traction they require. If you can't get 4 winter tires you're going to need to be a bit more careful to choose to drive when it's safe to do so. This goes for whether you have 4 or 2 snow tires.

Chains might be a good option for your front tires for those times when starting or uphill grip is required on snow?
--
1998 V70 AWD->FWD->AWD Turbo 220k+






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New Snow tire question [S70]
posted by  Mr. Detail  on Mon Oct 31 13:40 CST 2011 >


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