Which type of winter tire is right for you?

The days of limited winter tire choices for our vehicles are long gone. Now, instead of one simple, heavy-lugged and wide-channeled tire made of soft rubber compounds, we’re greeted at our favourite tire store with rows upon rows of wide variety of snow and ice boots.

All-weather tires are the newest arrivals. As their name suggests, they’re meant to be used 12 months of the year, but even tire makers admit they’re a compromise: they don’t deliver the same amount of grip as purposebuilt winter tires, and they don’t last as long on summer roads as true sommer tires — but they’re still an improvement over traditional all-seasons.

And of course there’s the ice tire, which certainly isn’t a novelty, having been around for a decade or so from a growing number of manufacturers. But what’s the right tire for you? If your tire consultant isn’t asking you the right questions, you may not be getting the best product for your vehicle, no matter how good the price is.

Ice radials are easily recognized by their almost summer-tire like tread design. They run almost as quiet on the highway as the smoothest summer tire, and can provide superior traction on slick ice or snow-pack covered roads. They also have a negligible effect on fuel economy, thanks to fairly low rolling resistance values. All this makes them extremely popular with urban dwellers, especially those driving minivans, sport-utes and crossovers, hatchbacks, and sedans. One of their only drawbacks are deep snow traction; if you primarily drive on urban streets or suburban roads and don’t want to be pestered with tire noise, or you don’t drive a full-sized truck powered by a particularly high-torque engine, ice radials may be a better choice for you.

But if you drive in rural areas and have to deal with deep snow on a regular basis, you may want to consider a traditional snow-tread tire. Their oversized lugs, plus deep and wide channels, let them discharge snow as quickly as it packs into the treads, providing much more straight-up traction than an ice radial. Their slightly higher level of road noise (compared to summer or ice tires) seldom bother truck owners due to the characteristically louder nature of truck drivelines.

That being said, some truck owners might want to consider Lt-designated snows, as on average, they’ll deliver more distance thanks to stiffer rubber compounds and reinforced sidewalls. But there can be a drawback, as the harder the rubber is, the less traction it’ll deliver on slippery and cold surfaces.