Driving in the cold on 21" summer tires?

[Doug_G]

I think things have been blown a wee bit out of proportion here.

i have experience with both Michelin Pilot Sports and Bridgestone Potenzas. they do not "turn to wood" in the cold. even in the teen temperatures, they will work just fine. will they grip if you rip the car around a curve like they would in the summer? no. but they are not in any sense dangerous or un-usable. for normal driving the ride is virtually the same as in warm weather.

now, when it comes to any kind of frozen precipitation, i can not over-state/exaggerate this enough: SUMMER TIRES ARE ABSOLUTELY USELESS AND VERY DANGEROUS TO DRIVE ON.

I don't think it's out of proportion. Yes they're fine on dry pavement, but if you come across a patch of ice or snow you could be in serious trouble. IMHO it is irresponsible to drive on Michelin Pilot Super Sports in freezing conditions. They're fantastic summer tires. Do not use them in winter!

 

[kinddog]

I don't think it's out of proportion. Yes they're fine on dry pavement, but if you come across a patch of ice or snow you could be in serious trouble. IMHO it is irresponsible to drive on Michelin Pilot Super Sports in freezing conditions. They're fantastic summer tires. Do not use them in winter!

i don't really see where we differ?

i just said that if there is ANY ice or snow on the road, it's very dangerous. but if it's dry out, just cold temperatures, then you are fine.

but there are many posts in this thread stating that cold temperatures ALONE would be dangerous to drive on, or seriously compromise the tire's performance. and that simply isn't true.

what this amounts to is that anyone driving with summer performance tires in the winter should be on http://www.weather.com LIKE A BOSS keeping track of any chance of precipitation. i know i will. if there's even a 10% chance of snow, or rain that would freeze, I'm leaving the S in the garage and taking the wife's Toyota Highlander Hybrid. (not a bad fallback ;-)

 

[Al Sherman]

i don't really see where we differ?

i just said that if there is ANY ice or snow on the road, it's very dangerous. but if it's dry out, just cold temperatures, then you are fine.

but there are many posts in this thread stating that cold temperatures ALONE would be dangerous to drive on, or seriously compromise the tire's performance. and that simply isn't true.

what this amounts to is that anyone driving with summer performance tires in the winter should be on http://www.weather.com LIKE A BOSS keeping track of any chance of precipitation. i know i will. if there's even a 10% chance of snow, or rain that would freeze, I'm leaving the S in the garage and taking the wife's Toyota Highlander Hybrid. (not a bad fallback ;-)

Me too. I'm getting extra wheels with snows though in the bad stuff I'm using my 1996 Dodge Ram which is gone as soon as the Tesla Half Ton comes out.

 

[jhs_7645]

i don't really see where we differ?

i just said that if there is ANY ice or snow on the road, it's very dangerous. but if it's dry out, just cold temperatures, then you are fine.

but there are many posts in this thread stating that cold temperatures ALONE would be dangerous to drive on, or seriously compromise the tire's performance. and that simply isn't true.

what this amounts to is that anyone driving with summer performance tires in the winter should be on http://www.weather.com LIKE A BOSS keeping track of any chance of precipitation. i know i will. if there's even a 10% chance of snow, or rain that would freeze, I'm leaving the S in the garage and taking the wife's Toyota Highlander Hybrid. (not a bad fallback ;-)

Which is why I started this thread. Living in the NW, rare is the day during fall/winter/spring months where there is < 10% chance of rain, so this would render my car useless on too many days... I've decided to get the 19" winter tires/wheels based on the feedback from folks here, and co-workers with similar configurations on their cars. Now, if only Tesla *had* 19" wheels in stock.

 

[jerry33]

but there are many posts in this thread stating that cold temperatures ALONE would be dangerous to drive on, or seriously compromise the tire's performance. and that simply isn't true.

The flexibility of the tread compound is dependent upon it's temperature. Yes, it's possible to get away with in on a dry surface because the tread will warm up after a bit and typically you won't have an emergency situation in the first few miles (or more depending upon what the ambient temperature is). However, because you never know when there will be some precipitation (even if it's just from someone's misadjusted sprinkler) I strongly discourage using performance tires in cold weather. In my opinion, doing so is like putting on tires that have lower carrying capacity than the OE tires. You can get away with it for a while but eventually there will be problems.

 

[Doug_G]

i don't really see where we differ?

i just said that if there is ANY ice or snow on the road, it's very dangerous. but if it's dry out, just cold temperatures, then you are fine.

but there are many posts in this thread stating that cold temperatures ALONE would be dangerous to drive on, or seriously compromise the tire's performance. and that simply isn't true.

what this amounts to is that anyone driving with summer performance tires in the winter should be on http://www.weather.com LIKE A BOSS keeping track of any chance of precipitation. i know i will. if there's even a 10% chance of snow, or rain that would freeze, I'm leaving the S in the garage and taking the wife's Toyota Highlander Hybrid. (not a bad fallback ;-)

A difference of geography, perhaps. Around here if it's cold, there are patches of ice out there. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if it's snowed recently - a windy day blowing snow around will substitute nicely. And even without that there's always places that aren't dry pavement - driveways, side streets, patches that weren't salted, places where snow melted across the road, you name it. Watching the weather forecast is useless because the ice is out there and you'll find it.

 

[pete8314]

Oddly enough I've just had to order a couple of replacement tires for my current car, and it turns out they're summer tires (Hankook Ventus V12 Evo). So that gives me some reassurance at least that based on my driving style, locale, and selectivity when there's ice, that the 21" tires will be ok for me.

 

[Lyon]

^^^ Second. The first, and last, time I drove in the snow with max performance summer tires was in a 2000 Audi A4 when I was a freshman in college. The only reason I didn't end up stranded was because of the AWD.