"Put the good tyres on rear"... I don't agree...

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What to do in snow ?

Put good tyres on the front and bad on the rear and be carefull not to skid ?
17
61%
Follow advice and put good tyres on the rear and risk not stopping ?
11
39%
 
Total votes: 28

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"Put the good tyres on rear"... I don't agree...

Post by Xantia2.0 »

Well suppose it's very bad muddy/snow conditions. You have good tyres on the rear, so you won't skid out, but if you have the near-bald tyres on the front when you come to a junction you will press the brakes and the tyres will lock up and you won't be able to steer. Where as with good tyres on the front, in most cases you will be able to stop (in deep snow, no matter of treads could help you on sheet ice), and you just have to be careful not to skid out. But I think failing to stop at a busy junction and having a lorry plow into you at 60MPH is worse than skidding from the rear at 10-20MPH and denting your alloy on the curb but remaining alive!! Not that I will have to worry this year (as I have a brand new set of boots on the Xant), or the next for that matter, but in say 3 years when the tyres are starting to get a bit bald, I'll be putting the good tyres on the front! As where I live, to get out of my village, there are a lot of hills with junctions at the bottom, so I need the front tyres to grip when I brake of I'll go plowing into a lamp post that is directly at the bottom of the hill, not to mention the fact that I would need grip on the driving wheels for going up the steep hill that comes instantly after turning that downhill corner...
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Post by addo »

The weight distribution of a Xantia means that even a well-worn tyre on the front has pretty decent grip.

I've tried both arrangements and favour the trailing grip - it doesn't actually compromise what the front can do. Try and get the back out on your car - it's surprisingly hard compared to (say) a 406.
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Post by Xantia2.0 »

Well when my rear shocks were leaking the back came out with ease!! But now I agree I was driving the car this morning to get messages and on the country road, I was going... Shall we say, a shade over the allocated speed limit!! :lol: And it held on at sharp corners very well indeed! Though if it is hard to get the back out, why use the good tyres on the rear ?
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Post by addo »

They last longer (better value for money)! I run my fronts to the treadwear markers then another month or less, then move the rears forward and put new ones on the back. Xantias are VERY harsh on front tyres when driven for fun.

Due to high mileage, I use one and two thirds of my front tyre pair every year. By the time the garage send me that automated text message "Time to get your tyres rotated and balanced" - they're already scrapped...
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Post by Xantia2.0 »

Haha, well I'm doing a lot of miles on the car. Bought it with 123,000 miles (hence my signature) and it now has 130,682 miles! Over 7,000 miles in about 2 months ownership! That's a lot of motoring! :lol: I use it for business though (lots of meetings often over 400 miles from home!) I use tyres right down to completely bald (unless an MOT comes up before they go completely bald and I'm forced to change them :lol: ), but I changed the other tyres early because they were completely rubbish. Even when my Michelins go bald they will have more traction than the ArrowSpeeds with 2.0mm did!! However changing the tyres has done one bad thing. The friction of the new treads has really made the O/S front wheel bearing grind/buzz. It was starting to grumble on take off with the old tyres, but with the new ones it has really got worse. Though, my solution to that is; turn the radio up!! :lol:
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Post by addo »

It seems that some of the factory fitted bearings were a bit dry - a couple of the fellows here have noted theirs were pretty shy of grease when dismantled.
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Post by RichardW »

The reason that tyre co's advocate new rubber on the rear is that is promotes rear stability, and makes the car much more likely to understeer when pushed / in marginal road conditions, rather than oversteer. The response of the average driver to loss of control (either end!) is to lift off - if you have the car set up for understeer (ie good rubber on the back) then this tends to correct the understeer and said driver goes on his way; if you have oversteer (ie bad rubber on the back) then this exacerbates the problema and said driver goes backwards through the nearest hedge. Tyres last forever on the back of a Xantia, so I almost always put the new rubber on the front.
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Post by Old-Guy »

The logic of the 'official' line (new tyres always on the rear) is that as modern front-wheel drive cars understeer when pushed too far, a set-up that could potentially cause oversteer is "dangerous", because that's not something most drivers have experienced before. #-o

By the same logic, all drivers under the age of 37 in southern England should have been banned from driving during last winter's snow because they had no previous experience of the truly dangerous road conditions.

But there can be no argument that on all cars, the front wheels provide most of the braking effort under all conditions. As demonstrated by disc and pad wear, Xantias are something of an extreme case. In the 30,000 miles since I bought my car, I've replaced the front pads twice but not the rear pads.

Emergency braking will be far more common than cornering at the limit. If there has to be a compromise, I want maximum grip when I stamp on the brakes in slippery conditions. Even in the snow this last winter, I never seriously lost the Xantia's tail, but I did at times have problems getting enough grip at the front, for both stopping and starting.

That said, I always change tyres when they get down to the wear markers, putting the new ones on the front - preferably in pairs.
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Post by addo »

I rate fresh tyres - maybe it's our hot summers, but tyres don't last that well here. Leaving them on the back where "they last forever" means you end up with hardened ones with plenty of remaining tread...

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Post by Xaccers »

having had 2 cars spin off at speeds well under the limit, I put them on the rear.
costco, cheapest for michelin energy tyres will only put them on the rears and have a video showing why.
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Post by MikeT »

I always thought "fresh to the rear" was counter-intuitive as it's the fronts that allow direction changes in emergency situations but the reason given for the fresh-to-the-rear policy makes sense so I'm sitting on the fence and therefore cannot vote.

But whatever happened to tyre rotation, where corners are swapped around so they all undergo the same wear? If this policy was used, it would make much more sense to put fresh on the rear as it wouldn't make much difference in the long run.
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Post by Peter.N. »

If you are driving on fresh snow, stability is hardly an issue, unless you drive like a lunatic, what you need is grip, so you want the best tyres on the driving wheels. On hard packed snow or ice the tread doesn't do much anyway so it wouldn't think it matters.

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Post by robert_e_smart »

I rotate between back to front to get even tyre wear, and replace them in sets of 4s. However, I vote put the new ones on the front.
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Post by andmcit »

95% of the time driving in the UK should see the best new tread fitted to the
rear axle where the risk of a tail end snapping out dangerously in slimy
conditions is reduced. This thread specifically picks out snowy conditions
and one axle's tyres significantly better than the other (TBH not a good idea
to start off).

In SNOW CONDITIONS I agree with Peter's observation that the better tread
should be on the driven/steering wheels for best grip as handling niceties go
out the window in poor driving conditions and the speeds aren't (shouldn't?)
be so high.

A winter set of good snow tyres is the answer. Or skinny large diameter
wheels - 2CV and GS spring to mind! :D


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Post by Paul-R »

I voted front but that's only because there wasn't an option for "Whichever end is having them replaced because they're worn" - which is what I do!
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