Running winters year-round?
 

I know the wear will be increased in the summer, but the missus drives so little that the tires on her cars have expired from age when they still have tons of tread left. Because of that I'm wondering what potential risks there are to running winter tires year round. Is the grip significantly worse on hot/dry pavement? I'm talking about proper winters with the mountain and snowflake designation.

They can get pretty squirmy at highway speeds when it's hot.
When you say expired by age, that's 5+ years right?
I think the DOT said to regularly inspect if it's past 5, but they're still okayish.

My mom was swapping hers back and forth on the stock wheels.. She's drives sub 12k a year and was spending $225 a winter swapping the tires. She drove on her winters all last year and hardly killed any tread depth, and saved her self $225 and the time

^^^That's why winter steelies are worth the investment. Also, if you have a floor jack, you're not at the mercy of the tire shop's schedule. Not to mention, constantly changing wheel weights will scratch the wheels or at least leave part of the stick-on backing.

Winters during summer feel really greasy from the movement in the sipes. I assume it dries them out a fair bit too.

I think it might affect fuel mileage slightly as well. Personally, I wouldn't but you could run this set to the ground and then go all weather, that would be most sensible option.

It may surprise you but winter tires have very poor grip during the rain. It has propensity to hydroplane compare to summer tires.

contrary to what people claims, winter tires in the summer heat will not melt or wear at a faster rate if driven conservatively. ive done it 2 years in a row and the tires sitll have plenty of tread left.

i have winter tires dated to 2013 that i decided to drive all year from dec 2016 to now. I did not notice any increased tread wear in the summer whatsoever. to be fair, the compound was already quite hard to begin old which is why i didn't bother swapping them out (lol i got em for $50 from a friend)

that being said, im sure the hot summer will have an effect on how the tire compound ages and may result in reduced traction in the winter

They were closer to 10, and cracking was starting to appear.

Down in the GVRD maybe, but up here in Kelowna you really need proper winter tires for the snow and ice. Mileage I'm not too worried about since not buying a new set of summer would pay for a lot of fuel (right now the car has brand new winters but needs new summers).

Not entirely true. A few years ago my brother ran his winters on his rx7 during one of our really hot summers. They lasted about 2-4 weeks before he needed to replace them. They basically melted and left pieces of rubber on the inside of the wheel well. My own personal experience running winters during the summer was similar. There was a lot of uneven wear because it got so hot, though mine didn't deteriorate nearly as fast as his did, I had to replace them after about a year. Which sucked because my current tires are shit in the snow lol.

Imo it comes down to the temperature of the summer and what compound is used to make the tires. So saying that they won't, is not entirely true.

It depends on what kind of winter tires.. a lot of winter tires treads don't evacuate water fast enough.. so it can lead to higher tendency to hydroplane.

It comes down to her manner of driving.. if she only drives sparingly and under 100km/h it is more than likely it will be fine.

Technically, you can run winters all year round. However, there are some drawbacks:
From experience, proper winter tires are heavier, most are nosier at higher speeds, and have lower speed ratings than equivalent all seasons tires.
I do 90% highway driving where I live, and I do notice the reduce in fuel economy due to the switch between winters and all seasons.

my dad was lazy and ran one summer on uniroyal winter tires. we were hitting mid 20's weather and the tread blocks started to chunk up and fall apart. they didn't make it to december.

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...39&oe=593A44DF

still plenty of tread left with conservative driving, no signs of melting or excess wear

I heard if you get in an accident in the summer with winter tires, icbc will not cover you

As an alternative: Toyo Celsius, or some other all weather tires

My winters went from 70% tread to 20% in the months April - May. I did approx. 4,000 kms in that time. Temperature definitely plays a huge part, as I too found specs of rubber in the wheel well. In April, the pavement was really hot and I mostly did highway commuting.

I did it last year. No sign of excessive wear but it understeers in the wet. Next time I'll buy some all-weather tires.

It might depend on the type of car (weight) and power, and age and type of winter tire.

A few years ago I bough brand new winters for my truck in November. From November-March they didn't wear at all. I was waiting for tires that I ordered to come in and as soon as the temp crossed 15 degrees in late March, in 1 month the rears burned down to 60% and the fronts to about 80% and I cried.

Dried up and hardened 4 year old winters without a super soft compound on a Honda would probably last better.

i think the driver understeers in the wet, not the tires :noyoudidnt::noyoudidnt:

bc ambulance runs blizzaks on all their ambulances in the entire province, year round.. so probably can't be that bad?

someone must have done some calculations and figured it was cheaper than switching every season.

of course we're not doing any sort of hardcore performance driving though

You sure BCAS runs Blizzak? I thought they ran Michelin HD truck tires on their ambulances. And pretty sure Blizzak tires don't come in HD LT sizes that the ambulances require.

All the emergency vehicles that I've seen run very good all seasons, either Michelin or Bridgestone. I'll take some pictures next time the ambulance guys come by.

pretty sure, i'll snap a pic as well next time i work