# When to swap summer tires for winter tires



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

I came across this great video where they compare the performance of summer/all-season/winter/nordic tires at various temperatures.
It mostly concentrates on dry & wet braking performance, but there are other details in the video.






Here are two charts from the video (wet braking distance & dry braking distance) that summarize the main findings.
Note that temp rises left-to-right in the first chart, and decreases left-to-right in the second chart.

















My main findings from this:

Swap out your summer tires once temperatures are consistently under 48° F (9° C). Wet stopping distance degrades rapidly as the temps get lower.
The Michelin Cross Climate+ (a summer-biased all-season tire) appears to be an excellent all-temperature dry-and-wet tire, at least where braking is concerned.
All-season tires appear to be just as good or better than winter tires in dry and wet conditions at low (but above-freezing) temperatures.
Don't buy nordic tires if you normally drive on roads that are not snow-covered.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

garsh said:


> I came across this great video where they compare the performance of summer/all-season/winter/nordic tires at various temperatures.
> It mostly concentrates on dry & wet braking performance, but there are other details in the video.
> 
> 
> ...


Too bad they used the Michelin as their all-season instead of the Continental DWS06 (which is rated as an all-season ultra performance tire vs the Michelin as an all-season grand touring tire), that scores 10% higher by tire rack in snow conditions and is comparable in dry/wet conditions (less than 1% difference).


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## Zek (Oct 28, 2018)

Had DWS on my old RWD ICE car. It was very drivable all year long in any condition. The tradeoff is winter traction degrades first.


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