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Two or four?

Serhii Maslov Section: Winter tyres Updated:

Can you fit winter tyres on just one axle?

In the mind of the average layperson (sadly, that is most people), a winter tyre on a car is only needed to pull away on a slippery road, and, at a pinch, to brake in the same conditions. From that stereotype comes the following “logic”: winter tyres are only needed on the driven wheels.

More knowledgeable motorists know that any car starts braking with its front wheels (they do roughly 70% of all the work of stopping the car once the brake pedal is pressed), so they add a caveat: “you definitely need to fit winter tyres to all four wheels on a rear-wheel-drive car, and you can fit them just to the front wheels on a front-wheel-drive one.”

Is that right? Of course not! In fact winter tyres have far more vital functions than simply getting the car out of a snowdrift and stopping it at the lights. You need to understand that on a slippery road, grip on the surface deteriorates regardless of which tyres are fitted, so to counter, say, centrifugal force in a corner, even on a perfectly flat surface, the car’s weight alone is no longer enough.

So, “economical” owners of front-wheel-drive cars who think it acceptable to leave summer tyres on the back all year round are taking a serious risk of experiencing the full “delights” and consequences of an uncontrolled skid, even in the most harmless-looking corner and at the lowest speed. Especially if the road surface in that corner has a profile like a “washboard”. It should also be added that even for the most experienced driver, recovering a front-wheel-drive car from a skid is an order of magnitude harder (and not always possible at all) than, say, a rear-wheel-drive car.

So how many winter tyres do you really need? You need five winter tyres! Exactly five: the spare wheel has to be a winter one too. Do not forget that a hundred metres or so is quite enough to get yourself into trouble on the road, and, what is more, you cannot predict which axle you will have to change a wheel on during a journey, or how far you will have to drive from that spot to the nearest tyre fitter.

More on this topic

Asymmetric treadAn asymmetric winter tyre is a good alternative to a classic winter tyre, possibly even with improved figures, although a lot here depends on the specific model and maker. What is rubber hardness on the Shore scale?Hardness and stiffness are different things, and greater hardness and stiffness are not always good or even needed for every condition. High-speed winter tyre, or “European winter”Many makers now produce high-speed winter tyres. As a rule they have a high speed rating and a strongly “sporty” tread pattern. Where do people usually buy part-worn tyres?Buying tyres from someone you know is certainly safer, because you are more likely to find out the truth (or at least part of it) about the tyres’ past. How do you choose tyre width for the season?In reality, all else being equal, tyre width only affects one parameter: the size of the tyre’s contact patch with the road surface. What does that mean? Classic winter tyresA classic winter tread. Everything here is moderate. Medium lateral gaps, wide longitudinal grooves, classic tread block height: 7-8 mm. A tyre like this can be either directional or not.

In this section

Tyre testsOften the main argument for choosing a particular tyre becomes the place it won in some “independent” test - how justified is that?