At what temperature Summer tires unsafe to use

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Anything under 7 degrees celsius (44-45 F) you will have better traction with winter tires. Still safe to use summer's til 32 but drive slowly as traction will be decreased.
 
I've never owned a pair of summer tires. I always thought this meant they were terrible in snow and ice, but after reading this the temperature/tread compound correlation makes sense. Your summer performance tires are expensive, and if the manufacturer says not to use them below a certain temperature, I think I'd heed that warning.
 
I once attempted to drive my Volvo 740 Turbo on about 1/2" of snow with summer tires. I couldn't get up a bridge I didn't know had a slope. There was practically zero traction. I got to the dealer somehow (without hitting anything) and bought a set of winter tires and steel wheels. Much better!

I would never attempt to drive anywhere again on summer radials in the winter. In fact I now buy all season high performance radials so as to never get caught out again by unexpected snow. I do have high performance winter radials on their own wheels.
 
I think this is highly dependent on a) the make and model of tire, and b) the local paving material.

Since the intent is to just warm the car up once in a while, I think extreme caution is advised until you get a feel for the traction levels.

Plus, some tires will crack at low temperatures, so I hope the car is stored somewhere warm.
 
Back when I had a 90 hp car, and ran Kumho ECSTA SPT.... when I was lazy to change over to winter tires (around this time of year to early December)....

after about 1 mile drive (25 mph to 35 mph) to an intersection to merge onto the highway, it was too easy to break the tire's traction, when I needed to use the 155 lb-ft @ 1900 rpms to merge onto the highway on-ramp.

looking at this week's weather, I'm thinking of putting on my snows before thanksgiving.
 
OP/raazin,

one user from snowy Canada, PATMAN, i think he drives whole winter + many years his corvette as a DD but with winter tires with no problems reported....

maybe something like that?

i will still not recommend the summer tires:
source (please don't laugh, i'm not even in the same league) hyundai elantra base, with all-season tires at 5/32: i could not move in 1-2" inches of soft snow!
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Plus, some tires will crack at low temperatures, so I hope the car is stored somewhere warm.


Can you please give some additional detail on the mechanisms that cause cracking? I'd guess that it's a result of different coefficients of thermal expansion between the various components of the tire, but I'd like to get some more experienced input.
 
Originally Posted By: leeharvey418
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Plus, some tires will crack at low temperatures, so I hope the car is stored somewhere warm.


Can you please give some additional detail on the mechanisms that cause cracking? I'd guess that it's a result of different coefficients of thermal expansion between the various components of the tire, but I'd like to get some more experienced input.


I am not a rubber chemist, but my understanding is that some types of rubber are brittle at low temperatures. There is something called the *glass transition temperature* where some materials change properties and some rubbers have this transformation at temperatures we experience in populated areas.
 
Originally Posted By: raaizin
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
I had summer only tires on a WRX I once owned and do have experience driving on summer only tires in Ohio's winter. I've never had tires crack due to cold weather use. Summer tires have less traction than all-season tires tires when it real cold. When it gets real cold, like who knows, 20 degrees and the roads are clear but there is still a salt residue on the roads, summer only tires perform bad. I mean real bad.

I also don't care about your self opinionated safe driving. If someone pulls out in front of you too fast on a cold, dry salty road, you might hit them when you may have stopped sooner if you had the right tires and could have avoided the accident to begin with.

In my experience at 32-45, I had no troubles once they warmed up.


Skyactiv,

This is what I am looking for. I never intended to drive in 20 degree weather. I was thinking if it was a 35 degree Dry day it would be ok to take it out of the garage if used with a little caution.


That you can do, but as said, a dedicated summer tire does not grip well on very cold pavement, dry or otherwise. But if you're just getting the car out to keep the juices flowing, if you're careful it should be fine.

I can say though, a summer tire on SNOW is an absolute no-no. It is downright dangerous.
 
If there's a risk of summer tires turning brittle in winter, then even being parked in one's garage could be enough stress to crack them, especially if subjected to ambient temps of -20F to +20F in unheated garages. I've never heard anyone complaining about it so it's probably not the case.

If I'm a tire mfg, of course I'm going to tell you it's "unsafe" to use summer tires below 45 deg F. I'm also going to tell you that your tire is junk after a maximum of 6 years. What could be better for my business than to require you to have multiple sets of tires for every car? Maybe there should be another set of tires are used at ambient temps above 90 deg F? I would imagine nearly every part of the US falls below 45 deg at some point....a great choice for a "winter" tire.

I take my car out for about 200 miles total during the winter months to keep everything reasonably lubricated. Never lost traction on summer tires even with moderately spirited driving...never on snow or rain. The roads have to be bone dry. The original Goodyear Eagle summer tires came off the car in 2014 (15K miles over 16 yrs) and there wasn't a single crack to be found anywhere on them, inside or out. You'd have thought they were a couple years old. They felt fine and handled great. The replacement BFG comp 2's have 2 winters on them and there's no sign of any cracking or a problem with handling. Most of my winter driving is done at 35-45 deg F. But they have seen some ambient temps just under 32 deg F. I would say that my unheated garage is normally kept around 35-40 deg in the winter as it is attached to my house. It rarely gets into the 20's in my garage though I have seen it is low as 20 deg after successive nights of 0-10 deg F. On those days when it is below freezing out, I have sometimes heated the garage the night before up to 45-55 deg F before heading out. So it's possible the tire never actually sees a temp under 35-45 deg.

The OP's tires are Max Perf summer with a 220 rating. Mine are UHP summer with a 340 rating. That could be significant.
 
here in Northern NJ, there is a chance of snow/sleet/freezing rain for my morning commute. Guess, I should swap out to my winter tonight
 
Air temp isn't the same as the temperature of the ground. If snow or ice will stick and stay, it's too cold.
I change mine out for snows when the highs for the day get to be no more than 45F. I could probably go colder, but I believe I can feel a difference in traction around that point. I have no way to measure this.
No cracking on my Sumitomo summers.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
I've never heard anyone complaining about it so it's probably not the case.

1. Dude. What?

2. People have complained about it in this thread.


Originally Posted By: 69GTX
I take my car out for about 200 miles total during the winter months to keep everything reasonably lubricated. Never lost traction on summer tires even with moderately spirited driving...[/b]never on snow or rain. The roads have to be bone dry.[/b]

OP was asking about running the car on those tires throughout the winter, so presumably there won't be room to be that selective.


Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The OP's tires are Max Perf summer with a 220 rating. Mine are UHP summer with a 340 rating. That could be significant.

Of course. Different ballgame.

Also, you haven't mentioned what kind of car you drive. That's another difference-maker.
 
Originally Posted By: Wheel
Air temp isn't the same as the temperature of the ground. If snow or ice will stick and stay, it's too cold.
I change mine out for snows when the highs for the day get to be no more than 45F. I could probably go colder, but I believe I can feel a difference in traction around that point. I have no way to measure this.
No cracking on my Sumitomo summers.

It is not, it is on average 3 degrees celsius cooler then air or around 10f. Meaning, at 40f, you could already experience ice on the road.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
I've never heard anyone complaining about it so it's probably not the case.

1. Dude. What?

2. People have complained about it in this thread.


Originally Posted By: 69GTX
I take my car out for about 200 miles total during the winter months to keep everything reasonably lubricated. Never lost traction on summer tires even with moderately spirited driving...[/b]never on snow or rain. The roads have to be bone dry.[/b]

OP was asking about running the car on those tires throughout the winter, so presumably there won't be room to be that selective.


Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The OP's tires are Max Perf summer with a 220 rating. Mine are UHP summer with a 340 rating. That could be significant.

Of course. Different ballgame.

Also, you haven't mentioned what kind of car you drive. That's another difference-maker.


1. Dude....read what I wrote. It concerned selective winter driving....not a DD in daily slush. The OP is not suggesting driving in slush either or even if ambient temps are under 32 deg F. That's no Daily Driver. They should be as selective as needed based on the weather. Some years the northeast has been snow bound for 2 months at a time.

2. No one in this thread has complained about owning a summer toy that sits for most of the winter except for brief maintenance runs....and worrying about "cracking" tires. In fact, I'm the only one that replied in that manner. I suspect the OP is considering driving their car for brief periods this winter. I read thousands of posts per year over at LS1Tech.com...many of them on tire choices. I've yet to read about anyone worried about their summer tires cracking from limited and "reasonable" winter use. I'd bet 10% of my neighbors have summer cars on summer tires. They drive them the same way I do....they get out in the winter when it's nice.

3. I own a '99 SS which you could have easily seen in my sig line. 350 hp 6 speed with a fairly stout 1st and 2nd gear. It can easily break loose under spirited driving on dry roads. It's no daily driver nor a Prius. The OP was planning to drive their Porsche during the winter until it got "messy" out. I mean, who wants to drive something that nice in NJ slush and muck? Certainly not the OP. He's right about the weather. We got no appreciable snow from Dec-January last year. I had my car out every week through January. Then it sat for much of the next 6-8 weeks. If the winter is bad this year both the OP's car and mine will be sitting for most of Dec-March. We've been lucky with 3 out of 5 recent mild winters.
 
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Originally Posted By: Wheel
Air temp isn't the same as the temperature of the ground. If snow or ice will stick and stay, it's too cold.
I change mine out for snows when the highs for the day get to be no more than 45F. I could probably go colder, but I believe I can feel a difference in traction around that point. I have no way to measure this.
No cracking on my Sumitomo summers.

It is not, it is on average 3 degrees celsius cooler then air or around 10f. Meaning, at 40f, you could already experience ice on the road.


To be accurate 3 deg C is 5.4 deg F....not around 10F. The point remains that ice can show up unexpectedly. Though in 45 years of daily driving in northeast winters, I don't ever recall sliding or losing traction under commuting conditions unless the road was already wet/snowy. Never on a dry surface.
 
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