mikez

Should I drive with summer tires on snow?

Answer:

No, absolutely not.

Frankly, you can't stop.

However, if you have the 250 AWD, you can do it if you must

I was caught 45 miles away from where I wanted to be today and so instead of waiting for the street to be plowed during today's snow storm, I drove on cuz I felt like a road warrior.

So anyways, I have Summitomo HTRZ II high performance summer tires with roughly 25k miles on them. The whole trip today the VSC only kicked in once and that was when I was merging onto the freeway and I kicked the tail out a little and it beeped at me.

The whole trip took about one hour, avg speed of 45 - 50 mph. I drove on the unplowed, undriven, leftmost lane blowing past every single car including trucks, pickups, SUV, 18 wheelers, even a cop with his lights on.

The trip was a bit tense cuz there was ice and you can really feel your car snake around a bit, but it was uneventful until you tried to stop. I give myself around 300-400ft of braking distance on the freeway, but when I tried to stop to turn into my neighborhood, I over slid the intersection by 100ft... so that was scary

Overall I will probably never do it again.... but I felt like a road warrior

I also touched the tires at the gas station to feel if its hot... and it was cold as ice so I bet they weren't gripping either.

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

haha if you think it, then you can do it

quang

iTrader: (8)

That's why they are called "summer" tires Glad that you are back home safe.

fredw1

Don't try this at home.

kickin8

iTrader: (1)

you are so brave.....

iKenn

iTrader: (1)

I tried driving on ice with summer tires in my 350. I slid down the driveway and got stuck at the end of the driveway, the car wouldnt move an inch.

RYLITT

just did the same on my stock 18's and managed to handle well in the 09 IS250, not awd. I tried steering clear of the packed snow but for the most part I managed quite well. summer tires arent as bad as everyone makes it out to be...and in a rwd car. If you know how to drive in the snow/drive period you should be fine. glad your story was a success as well as mine

teracon

During the recent snow storm that hit my area, I dug out the IS and took a quick spin. It didn't handle all that bad - traction was crappy. I am lucky that I have the RX as a back-up.

I still drive on the Kumho SPTs on days where no winter precip is present. I will say that they drive "hard" since the rubber is hard.

mikez

High five for not being added to the statistics

VF84

on summer tires, u might be able to start moving better with awd, but the bigger issue is how poorly u stop with summer tires regardless of rwd/awd.

PaPaHoFF

iTrader: (19)

you leave your rims on lol? mine have been off for a while already thankfully. My car is COVERED in salt lol.

venZon

I was stuck in a snow storm in my impreza with my summer rims and tires once. Not fun. Going wasn't too bad but stopping was. Rush home and chaged to my winter set and all the snow melted the next day.

But since then I park my car well ahead of snow.