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I bought tires for my car (96 LT4 coupe) around March or April 2017. I wanted all season tires as I don't really put away my car for the winter. No snow or ice, I often drive the Vette. But at the time I purchased, all season tires in OEM sizes were few and far between. I ended up buying the Nittos, which are called summer performance tires. Generally, I don't buy "summer" tires, cause I live in a place that has winter, and I don't like to be limited by tires - or anything else much, for that matter. (I do own snow and ice tires for some of my cars.)
My question to those of you who live in 4 season parts of the world is, how much do you concern yourselves with running on "summer" tires in cold weather? I believe the "rule of thumb" for summer tires is temperature equal or > 45 deg F.
So far, I have experienced no real problem driving with these tires at temperatures in the low to mid 30's. But I know a woman who bought a new Mustang with summer tires. She didn't pay any attention to the tires and they wore out in less than a year. Dealer wouldn't warranty as she drove summer tires in the winter. And I have heard from some people that they had traction problems with summer tires in cold weather.
I was in a similar dilemma when I bought a new C6 Grand Sport in 2013. There were no all-season options in the Grand Sport sizes, so I was stuck with summer-only tires. BTW, those tires were not to be driven in temps below 45 degrees and the car was not even to be moved if below 20 degrees! (Apparently the summer compound becomes too brittle at that temp and they can crack.) I'm up in the snow-belt, and I bought the car anyway because there were constant rumors that A/S tires in GS sizes were just around the corner. Turns out they weren't-- the first A/S tires in GS size didn't come out until fall 2017, so I had plenty of time to stew over this issue.
I was extremely frustrated as there were so many days in the spring and fall when the daytime temps would be really nice (in the 50's), but in the morning when I needed to head to work temps would be between 15 and 30 degrees. So I did a lot of study (and a fair amount of testing) on the question of the efficacy of (carefully) driving the car in the morning at those temperatures.
Over the years, I went back and forth. Sometimes my conclusion was that it was fine-- just drive like a grandpa at those temps and don't worry about it. However, it can be hard to remember that, and sometimes you have to go faster than you want just to keep up with traffic. I had someone pull out in front of me once, and braking was pretty bad at those temps. No accident, but I slid quite a ways. I also read plenty of stories on the C6 forum of people having unexpected spins (usually involving things like interstate on/off ramps). I've also heard that if you get in an accident on summer tires and it's below 45 degrees, insurance won't pay.
Not 100% sure if the insurance thing is true, but there would be plenty of times I decided that it just wasn't worth the risk and I didn't drive it below 45. In the end, A/S tires did come out and it solved my problem. I was really glad to be able to just drive at any temperature and not have to constantly worry about losing grip.
So, I'm not sure I've really given you any usable advice. But, then again, you solicited thoughts and experience, so I guess I did give you some of that!
In the past I had mistakenly run on "summer tires" on my IROC-Z and will never do that again as I too drive year-around.
I have run GY Eagle all-seasons on my '88 Vettes since 2000 and they perform just fine in summer and even on the track/strip. These tires, with mounding/balance/alignment run ~$1,000 and last for >50k miles so I feel they are damn well worth the $$ spent.
Summer tires don't have "grip" below 45 degrees. They tend slip and spin a friend with a ZL1 Camaro called them worthless, and was pissed to have to buy second set of tires to drive year round.
When I first bought my 95 it was my only vehicle. Coming from New England I've always had snows mounted on separate wheels for any car I've owned. For the 95 I run 4 Conti Extreme DWS in the fall and winter and switch to my OEM wheels with Goodyear GS D3 for the spring and summer. With a complete extra set of wheels you can easily do the switchover yourself in an hour. IMHO if you're going to keep the car and drive it year round the cost of the 2nd set of wheels pays off.
That's probably what I'll end up doing. I have that kind of setup for two of my other cars and a set of unmounted studded tires for my pickup. My garage looks a little like a tire storage barn. Right now I'm just reluctant to buy another set of tires and wheels. I guess the short term is drive something else when the thermometer approaches ***** off the brass monkey.
I put BFGoodrich G-FORCE COMP-2 A/S tires on my son’s 1992 C4. No snow where I live in California, but we do get rain. I would be concerned about driving a Corvette in the rain/snow with summer only tires.
I have the same concerns with my 13 GS. I just put the car "away" for the winter, as I think the cold weather is here to stay. I have driven the car in temps in the teens with no grip issues, but the chance of tire failure due to the soft summer only tire compounds made me stop that. I will say that I was caught in a freak snowstorm while the OE GY runflats were still on the car and it was pretty much undriveable. Even starting off in 3rd led to wheelspin, and there was absolutelu no grip at all.
I do run AS tires on my 89 Vert, I have driven that car in rain/light snow/extreme cold (single digits) with no problems.
Summer tires have a much softer rubber compound than other tires. Many of the cars I have had had summers and when that temperature drops below 30 that soft rubber gets as hard as concrete. Acceleration, braking and handling turn to ****. You can feel the difference. Worse yet are the idiots that drive in snow with them....you pretty much can’t! The brick tires get frozen with snow and it’s worse than driving on bald tires. I had a CTS-V several years back and had to move it out of my driveway after a snow storm. Street was plowed curb to curb but had hard pack snow it. I got stuck in front of my house and needed my son and his friends push me out. Pretty cool 556hp rooster tail of snow being thrown out! After those tires were done I put Michelin Pilot A/S on it. Way better than the summer Pilots as I never tracked the car.
My Audi S6 was a bit better with summers since the car had Quattro. Still didn’t trust summers in cold/bad weather. I currently have a Chevy SS ( Holden Commodore) and that has summers on it. I have a back up Infiniti I30t which I use when it’s very cold or chance of snow. When those tires are done DWS-06’s will be on the SS next.
Don't forget, some summer tires will actually CRACK below certain temp, the more aggressive the tire, the higher that temperature typically is, some as high as 40 degrees.
When I bought my 92 it had Uniroyal Tiger Paw GTZ tires. So far they haven't given me any reason to complain. They fit the 17x9.5 but I don't know if they make one for the staggered setup used from 93 on.
They are all season and bidirectional. I can only rotate back to front because of the Sawblades, but if you have a square setup and non-rotation dependent rims I guess you could fully rotate.
And pricing at around $500 a set before installation isn't bad.
Don't take me wrong but, they are called summer tires for a reason.
I can report that my Nitto 555s/555rs are like riding on wet pavement when temps are below freezing, yet above ZERO ºF. They have NOWHERE NEAR the grip as they do when driving on warm/hot pavement! Accelerating, turning, stopping...NONE of those would I consider up to par when the temps get below freezing, leave alone ZERO or lower!
My tires(continental extreme sports) acts more like hockey puck on ice when temp is below 33degrees. I’m not sure how Nitto is, but I’d imagine not that different in term of how it behave in low temp
I have slight incline on front of my garage, and I usually back in to my garage.
when I pulled the car out to clean the garage floor week or so ago - temp was just above freezing - I was spinning the tires every time I tried to give it a gas trying to back in to garage. I had to drive to bottom, and pick up a bit of sleep to basically coast all the way back.
We rarely get snow here (upstate SC). But I have the Nitto 555's on my '96 and I daily it year round.
In January of this year, we took a drive on the Tail of the Dragon and the Nittos got us there and back with no drama.
I was hoping you'd chime in on this because I followed your birthday Dragon thread, and I specifically asked you about traction. I took a m/l 400 miles drive a few weeks ago (same tires) with ambient temp around 35. Temp did warm into the low 40's but not until I'd been driving a couple hours. I experienced no problems.
So I'm properly forewarned and won't try to drive this car/tire combo when it's really winter cold. But....
I was hoping you'd chime in on this because I followed your birthday Dragon thread, and I specifically asked you about traction. I took a m/l 400 miles drive a few weeks ago (same tires) with ambient temp around 35. Temp did warm into the low 40's but not until I'd been driving a couple hours. I experienced no problems.
So I'm properly forewarned and won't try to drive this car/tire combo when it's really winter cold. But....
Here's a view from where we stayed near Robbinsville. Snow came in after my Dragon run. The last 500 feet to the cabin was gravel/mud covered with snow. The last part of the drive out was an uphill dogleg to the left. I'm pretty impressed with how well the old girl handled on her Nittos. Brrr...
Here's a view from where we stayed near Robbinsville. Snow came in after my Dragon run. The last 500 feet to the cabin was gravel/mud covered with snow. The last part of the drive out was an uphill dogleg to the left. I'm pretty impressed with how well the old girl handled on her Nittos. Brrr...
I'm guessing it wasn't real cold when you made your run. And, after a mile or so the tires were prolly warmed up pretty good - or at least way above ambient!
3 miles from my house is a nice "S" curve, marked as "50 mph". I take it at 75 in warm weather - almost habitually: never a hint of slippage.
Then one clear winter day, I took her out when it was in the teens - same drill. WOW! What a difference a "few" degrees made!
Well, I was expecting SOME loss of traction, but I didn't expect it to be THAT much! But, it occurred to me later that IF that piece of road had been salted earlier and there was some salt residue on the road (which it HAD BEEN), then that too had to be considered when comparing winter to summer traction. Salt residue and winter driving go "hand in hand". High performance (summer) tires are at a double disadvantage, methnks.
11-27-2018, 09:52 AM
summer tires in winter
