Summer vs Winter vs All Season - What Tires Should You Buy?

Summary

In this insightful video, the creator from Engineering Explained dives into the differences between summer, winter, and all-season tires. The video explores tread patterns and compounds used in these tires. Summer tires excel in warm, dry, or wet conditions, while winter tires are superior in snowy and icy scenarios. All-season tires offer a balance for varying conditions. The video breaks down performance data, highlighting that summer tires provide the best dry and wet grip, while winter tires excel in snow and ice. The ultimate choice hinges on driving conditions, with a focus on safety and optimal performance.

Highlights

• Summer tires are designed for warm climates, offering top performance in both dry and wet conditions. 🌞
• Winter tires feature deep grooves and zigzag sipes, providing excellent traction on snow and ice. ❄️
• All-season tires blend features from both summer and winter tires, suitable for varied conditions but not specialized. 🌦️
• Compound differences are essential - summer compounds work best above 40°F, while winter tires remain soft below freezing. 📊
• Performance in weather: summer tires stop quicker in warm weather, while winter tires excel in icy conditions. 🔄

Key Takeaways

• Summer tires are best for warm, dry or wet conditions, providing superior grip and handling. ☀️
• Winter tires excel on snow and ice, offering great traction and stopping power in cold climates. ❄️
• All-season tires are a compromise, suitable for areas with mild winter weather and occasional snow. 🌧️
• Tire compounds are critical, affecting performance based on temperatures and conditions. 🛞
• Choosing between two tire sets (summer and winter) offers better safety and performance for environmental conditions. 🚗

Overview

In the video, Engineering Explained delves into the world of tires, highlighting the unique features and benefits of summer, winter, and all-season variants. It examines their tread patterns, compounds, and how each is engineered to perform in specific conditions. Summer tires provide the best performance in dry and wet situations, especially in higher temperatures, thanks to their sticky compounds that ensure maximum grip.

Winter tires are specifically crafted to handle snow and ice, with specialized tread patterns and compounds that remain soft and effective even in frigid weather. These tires ensure safety and performance in harsh winter conditions, making them ideal for colder climates. The complex design, including zigzag sipes, allows for efficient snow and water evacuation, minimizing slip risks.

The video concludes by discussing all-season tires, which merge characteristics of both summer and winter tires to deliver moderate performance across diverse conditions. However, they are neither exceptional at extreme ends of the spectrum. The choice of tires ultimately depends on individual driving needs and environments, and using two separate sets for different seasons can enhance both safety and longevity of the tires.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and video overview In the introductory chapter, the video sets the stage for a comprehensive discussion on different types of tires: summer, winter, and all-season. The speaker collaborates with Progressive to delve into the distinctions between these tire types, exploring the tread patterns and compounds used. The chapter aims to equip viewers with information about which tire type performs best in specific weather conditions, such as wet and dry surfaces and varying temperatures. Starting with a broad overview, the chapter highlights that summer tires excel in both dry and wet conditions when temperatures are warm.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Summer tire features and benefits The chapter explores the features and benefits of summer tires compared to other types such as winter and all-season tires. It starts by explaining the limitations of winter tires, which are optimal on snow and ice, and all-season tires, which aim to balance features but don't excel in any specific area. The focus then shifts to summer tires, highlighting their design attributes like a continuous center rib for enhanced straight-line stability and a large contact area on the outer tire surface for improved grip during cornering. These characteristics are emphasized as key benefits of summer tires, particularly in warm weather conditions.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Winter tire features and benefits This chapter discusses the differences between summer and winter tires. Summer tires have less tread depth, which improves steering feel and responsiveness, but they lack the intricate tread features present in winter tires. The stiffer sidewalls in summer tires improve steering response and feedback at the cost of some comfort. Winter tires, on the other hand, have a complex tread pattern designed to efficiently evacuate water and slush, offering better performance in winter conditions.
• 01:30 - 02:00: All-season tire features and benefits This chapter explores the distinctive features and advantages of all-season tires. Emphasizing the functionality of deep grooves in the tire design, it explains that these grooves can effectively hold compacted snow, enhancing traction. Interestingly, the snow-on-snow contact greatly improves the tire's grip. Additionally, the chapter describes the role of zigzag sipes embedded within the tread pattern, highlighting their contribution to creating a biting edge for superior grip in wet, snowy, and icy conditions. These zigzags not only augment the tread block's rigidity but also maintain excellent traction across various directions, thereby illustrating the versatility and effectiveness of all-season tires.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Temperature impact on tire compounds The chapter discusses the design and functionality of all-season tires, focusing on the impact of temperature on tire compounds. It explains the tire's features, such as sipes and grooves, and how they contribute to traction in various conditions like dry, wet, and snowy scenarios. The tire's center features sipes for snowy conditions, while the outer parts allow for good cornering grips in dry and wet conditions. The tire's grooves expand as the tread wears down to maintain performance.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Performance comparisons in various conditions The chapter explores the differences between tires in various conditions, focusing on wear patterns and temperature performance. It notes how different tire types (summer vs winter) adapt to their respective environments. The wear pattern differs significantly; as tires wear, the groove pattern expands or contracts, affecting performance in water evacuation. Additionally, the tire compound is tailored for temperature, with summer tires performing best above 40°F, while winter tires remain effective below freezing, keeping the rubber soft and ensuring good traction.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Tire selection based on preferences and conditions This chapter discusses how tire preferences and conditions affect the selection of different types of tires. It explains that summer tires become hard and lose grip in cold temperatures, whereas all-season tires offer a compromise by remaining flexible around freezing temperatures and functioning in higher temperatures. Winter tires, conversely, are too soft and wear quickly if used in warm conditions. These physical differences are crucial for drivers to understand to choose the right tires for their needs.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Conclusion and partnership acknowledgement In the concluding chapter, the focus is on the performance of different types of tires under varying conditions. It is highlighted that summer tires are optimal for dry braking in warm temperatures, outperforming all-season and winter tires by stopping from 60 miles per hour to zero in approximately 110 to 125 feet. Interestingly, despite expectations, summer tires also excel in wet conditions, providing the best performance in rain by quickly stopping from 60 miles per hour. The chapter implicitly acknowledges the importance of choosing the right tire type based on specific environmental conditions to ensure safety and performance, but does not provide a detailed analysis or acknowledgment of partnerships in tire testing.

Summer vs Winter vs All Season - What Tires Should You Buy? Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello everyone and welcome in this video I have teamed up with progressive and we're going to be talking about the differences between summer tires winter tires and all season tires so we're gonna be looking at the differences of the tread patterns we're gonna be talking about the different compounds which are used and then at the end we're going to talk about the numbers the data behind it you know which tire is going to perform best in certain scenarios now starting off pretty big picture the summer tire is going to perform best when it's either dry or wet outside and temperatures are relatively warm versus
• 00:30 - 01:00 a winter tire which is going to perform best when it's driving on snow and ice now on all season tire is a combination of these two and it's really a compromise it's not the best that any of it but it can do all of them decently well so let's start off looking at the tread features of the different tires starting with the summer tire so you'll see a continuous Center rib for good straight-line stability you've got a large contact area on the outside of the tire so that when you're cornering it's got a lot of contact area to grip the road sometimes you'll notice with summer
• 01:00 - 01:30 tires that they have less tread depth overall and this helps with steering feel and responsiveness and overall you'll just notice a lack of tread features in comparison to all season or winter tires which is really good for dry grip summer tires also tend to have stiffer side walls which can reduce the comfort provided by the tire but it can allow for better steering response and feedback now looking at the winter tire you'll notice the tread pattern looks significantly more complicated the tread is designed to evacuate water and slush
• 01:30 - 02:00 but it also has deep grooves and these deep grooves can help hold impact snow what's interesting is that by packing in snow snow on snow traction is actually pretty good and so it can improve the grip of the tire you'll also notice zigzag sipes all over the tread pattern which help create a biting edge which is great for grip in wet snowy and icy conditions the zigzags are used to improve the tread blocks rigidity while also allowing for good traction in different directions which leads us to our all season tire which as
• 02:00 - 02:30 you can see looks like a bit of a combination between the two so in the center you've got those sipes on the outside there's less features to allow for good cornering grips so when you're actually able to corner at high speed seeds in the dry and in the wet you've got that traction on the outside of the tire and then in snowy conditions you've got those sipes on the inside of the tire to help improve traction when traction isn't quite as high and you're not using the outside of the tire this all-season tire also has grooves that expand as you get deeper into the tread
• 02:30 - 03:00 pattern so as the tire wears that groove expands and you still have a lot of space for the water to evacuate versus a summer tire you can see it's actually the opposite it gets narrower as you get closer to the wear bars now as we discuss compound the biggest difference really is about what temperature's these tires perform best at and so the summer tire has a compound which is meant for temperatures generally above about 40 degrees Fahrenheit versus the winter tire which can dip well below freezing and the rubber compound can still remain soft and
• 03:00 - 03:30 flexible as you take a summer tire down to those cold temperatures it starts to get really hard and loses grip and then of course the all season tire is the compromise between both of these where it can still remain somewhat flexible around freezing temperatures but still also operate in those higher temperatures where if you were to use a winter tire in high temperatures it's far too soft for it and it would wear way too quickly so now that we actually understand the physical differences between the tires let's talk about what this actually means for the person who's driving what
• 03:30 - 04:00 sort of braking and cornering should you expect depending on the tire and depending on the conditions well when it comes to dry braking in relatively warm temperatures summer tires as expected perform the best they'll be able to stop from 60 miles per hour to zero and about 110 to 125 feet versus the longer distances you'll have with all season or winter tires what may come as a surprise however is that in the rain and wet summer tires will still perform best stopping from 60 miles per hour in about
• 04:00 - 04:30 135 to 175 versus the longer distances you can expect from all season or winter tires this really shows the importance of compounds which play the largest role in grip overall since summer tires tend to have the stickiest compounds they tend to perform best whether it's dry or dumping rain assuming the tires haven't worn down too much and can still evacuate water so what about cornering well no surprises here summer tires we'll generally have the highest lateral grip when it's dry outside in the wet
• 04:30 - 05:00 that number decreases and can be particularly challenging for winter tires high-performance winter tires can still manage all season cornering forces but as the tread changes stopped my snow and ice performance dry and wet handling tend to suffer which leads us to discussing performance in cold conditions when the ground is covered in snow and ice winter tires start to shine while all season tires can come close in a few aspects of winter driving dedicated winter tires can often stop in less than half of the distance required
• 05:00 - 05:30 for summer tire looking at the stopping distances from 30 miles per hour it's obvious white winter tires are chosen and locations with colder climates so which tire should you choose for your car well part of this is preference myself I want the best tire for the conditions that I'm driving in so in the summer I use a dedicated summer tire and in the winter I use a dedicated winter tire that makes sure that I've always got good grip if there's snow and ice outside and in the summer I've got the best possible handling vehicle so that's
• 05:30 - 06:00 not just about performance it's also about safety about accident avoidance there's a reason why you may choose to use two sets of tires and they can last a long time if you're switching between them but if you live in an area which you know doesn't see winter conditions all that often but does occasionally have some light snow then something like an all season tire could be a solid choice so hopefully this has provided some insight for your next tire purchasing decision again a huge thanks to progressive for partnering on the video and thank you all for watching