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At Master Auto Repair, we sometimes run across customers who are a little confused as to when is the best time to go from winter tires back to all-season tires again. We’d like to be able to clear that up today…but first, a word about winter tires.

Winter tires can provide a real edge in traction and overall safety in snow and slush. They’re not like the heavy, noisy, clunky “snow tires” or “mud grips” of a generation ago – today’s winter tires rival the best all-season or touring tires when it comes to noise, ride quality, road manners and handling. They outshine all-season tires in snow and slush, however, thanks to deeper and more aggressive tread that helps dig into snow and channel it back behind the tire footprint again to avoid hydroplaning.

Winter tires also are designed with a dense network of sipes, hair-thin slits that provide hundreds of extra biting edges to claw through snow and slush.

More than their tread design, however, winter tires excel due to their rubber formulation.

All-season tires tend to harden and get stiffer in sub-freezing temperatures. A hard, inflexible tire can’t conform to road surfaces as well, and can’t “give” enough to provide good traction and performance on snow or slushy surfaces.

Winter tires are designed with a softer and more flexible tread formulation that stays pliable at sub-freezing temperatures. That means greatly enhanced traction in winter conditions, but it also means a soft tread compound that will quickly wear when the weather warms up.

So, the rule of thumb is…

When daily temperatures are above about 45 degrees or so consistently, go ahead and change those winter tires back over for all-season tires again. If you don’t, you’re likely to see those winter tires wear down in about 20,000 miles or less.

Are you thinking maybe it’s time to make the switch back to all-season tires again? Make an appointment with us at Master Auto Repair – we’ve got all-season tires from top brands, and at a price point you’ll love. We hope you’ll think of us for wheel balancing, tire rotation and any other tire-related maintenance you might need as the weather warms up this spring!