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Snow tires sparingly in the summer?

musicmatters

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After driving (sliding) around Park City in that huge storm last week on all weather tires, I decided I needed some snow tires. I just got a set of Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 for my 2010 Toyota Sequoia. It will live at the mountain and be a ski trip only car from when we are in Utah.

Can I use them sparingly in the Summer, for like a week? I know I’ve read that snow tires in the summer are a bad idea, but would it be OK for some basic driving around town for a week in the summer? Will that limited amount damage them?
 
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musicmatters

musicmatters

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Thanks!!

What about one trip to Bryce Canyon and back? Pushing it?
 

luliski

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I have snow tires on my old CR-V (tires bought last fall) and since the car is old, and I'll be getting a new car soon, I left the snow tires on all summer in a place that regularly sees temps in the 90s and 100s in the summer. I even took it on a 1000 mile round trip road trip to Utah, and the tires look fine.
 
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DanoT

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While I do have a summer sports car, my winter truck as well as my previous AWD car, equiped with snow tires year round meaning it gets some summer use.

AFAIK the only negative for running snow tires in summer is extra tread wear due to the soft rubber compound on warm pavement.
 

Ken_R

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After driving (sliding) around Park City in that huge storm last week on all weather tires, I decided I needed some snow tires. I just got a set of Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 for my 2010 Toyota Sequoia. It will live at the mountain and be a ski trip only car from when we are in Utah.

Can I use them sparingly in the Summer, for like a week? I know I’ve read that snow tires in the summer are a bad idea, but would it be OK for some basic driving around town for a week in the summer? Will that limited amount damage them?


Yes, one of my neighbors always keeps his Blizzaks on his SUV. He uses it 1-2 times a week only. The tires look great even after a year.
 

oldschoolskier

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Winter tires typically have significantly softer rubber compound that above 45F or 7C will greatly accelerate wear. Though there are some that are an exception to the rule as they are designed to handle the warm weather while sacrificing little in the summer. Hankook and Sailun Tires are two brands that come to mind.

Just remember at about 33% tread life remaining any benefit of winter performance remaining is useless.

Of you want to guess how fast you wear the tire in warm weather I’d guess about twice as fast just to be safe, so 1 mile summer equals 2 miles winter for the brand name.
 

François Pugh

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The only problem, other than you will not have the summer grip of your all-seasons or summer tires (so don't forget the snows are still on there and remember to slow down for corners!) is the wear rate. In my experience one summer mile wears as much rubber as three to five winter miles, depending on how soft the compound is.
 

Ogg

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It should be fine in normal driving. "Spirited" driving could actually debead a tire. My wife had it happen on her Outback when we left the Michelin snows on in warm weather. There's a sharp turn into our neighborhood and she felt something weird as she went through it. The next morning the tire was flat and wouldn't hold air for long. After remounting it was fine for another couple of years but it was a lesson.
 

Dave Marshak

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There's nothing wrong with snow tires in the summer, except for the additional wear. They don't even wear much differently in the summer than they do on dry winter pavement, which is most of your winter driving almost everywhere in the US anyway. It's more about how the tire dissipates heat than about the ambient temperature, and the OP's Blizzaks are R rated, which is good for 100+mph, so they dissipate heat more than well enough for summer driving. Maybe not the best tires for a quick trip from SLC to Wendover, but good enough for most highway driving.

FWIW I'll be using my snow tires next summer just because they are coming to the end of their useful life.

dm
 

sparty

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I put 13,000 miles on an XTerra, mostly with Cooper M+S snows on it. I never bothered buying a set of summer tires, because my primary summer transportation was a motorcycle. While I was living at 5,500 feet in Montana (and driving higher more often than lower), I didn't notice any particularly significant issues when I did need to make summer trips until Billings. The XTerra wasn't a high-performance vehicle by any stretch of the imagination, though.
 

crgildart

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Lots of people will leave a well used set of snow tires on all summer before getting new snow tires. They're still good enough for "normal" non winter driving but won't give you the high performance braking and cornering a product made for that will. Don't drive mike a maniac and they're just fine for summer. Only problem as mentioned is the softer rubber wears down faster.. and worn down tires, even well above the wear bars, aren't ideal for winter driving..
 

graham418

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I would be more concerned about the car. Cars like to be driven, not parked for extended periods
 

milkman

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Covid got my Hankook snow tire car stuck in the south with my summer tires in my Montana garage. After 10,000 miles of warm weather use I really don't see any unusual wear. They have lots more tread depth than my other vehicle's tires at approximately the same mileage.
 

Dadskier

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So I didn't take my snows off this year, mostly because I started working from home and wasn't driving. Apparently in MA you're not supposed to do that. I took it in for inspection yesterday and they told me it wouldn't pass with the snows on it. I pointed out that it was October and it would be silly for me to take them off at this point. They gave me a pass on it, but said in MA the snows need to be off May1 to Nov1. But that's Massachusetts it's probably more lax in the western states.
 

tball

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^^^ Wow, nice to out here in the wild wild west. I (legally) left my studs on my truck this summer. Between COVID and it being an extra vehicle I hardly drove it.

I only drove my truck in the mornings when it's cooler to preserve the tires. It was mostly for truck stuff so better for me too since it was such a hot summer.
 

Doug Briggs

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I ONLY use snow tires on my truck: Hankook iPikes. I live at 9700' in Summit County, CO. We can get snow any day of the year so I choose to be prepared for it every day. I only put 10K miles on my truck a year and most of that is at altitude.
 

tball

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Also, keep in mind you will void the mileage warranty on most winter tires if you run them through the summer.
 

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