[Ron Jeffries]

I'm thinking my summer tires are getting a bit iffy in the wet, and thinking of replacing with all-season RFTs for spring-summer-fall, and real winter tires (which i have now) for winter. if runflats are feasible, i prefer them, as the car has no spare and a can of air on the side of the road isn't my idea of fun.

does this make sense? i couldn't find a way to explain to tirerack.com to select RFTs.

thanks

[sethwas]

The difference between a summer and winter tire is the rubbers ability to stay rubber in the cold. It's not about tread pattern or anything.

So as long as you are in temps that never go below 60 degrees give or take your summers will be fine even in the wet.

All seasons do work in the cold and do not need to be changed out for fear of damage from the chill, however their tread pattern does not work as well in ice and slush.

So it's a tricky question, if you get lots of ice and slush (live in an area where they don't plow) you will need a 'snow' tire, something like a bridgestone or hakkepelita. When the temps warm up these tires of course are too soft and can get damaged so need to be changed out.
If you just get temps in the freezing and below freezing areas but roads are clear you can work with a michelin x-ice or Pirelli Sottozero.

It all depends on where you live and how many months out of the year it snows or is cold.
Warm (above 60) 12 months out of the year, go with summers year round.

Warm about 8 months out of the year then you can get summers and just switch to snows when you need and skip the all seasons.

Live somewhere it never gets warm and never gets cold, all seasons year round.

Live anywhere that it actually snows, get tires for that condition as long as conditions remain.

Seth

[Ron Jeffries]

yes, i have snows for michigan winter, wear them late november-early april. but we have cold and wet often. i don't drive so wildly as to need full summer adhesion. had RFT on the 135is, which was stiffer than the 240, and ride was ok. so i'm thinking maybe all seasons for 2/3 of the year and then real winter ones. my winters are contis presently, if i recall.

[sethwas]

Got it - well if you were hardcore you would get a blizzak for your winter months. An A/S for when it isn't snowing, and a pure summer for when its hot.

But that's probably unrealistic. Assuming this is your only car, I would get a proper snow winter tire for the snowy months, and then the best performing (to your tastes - whether that's grip or comfort) all season for the rest and skip the summers.

Seth

[Ron Jeffries]

yes, that's roughly my plan, good snows for winter, a sporty all-season for the rest of the year. both RFT, i think. i'll pay the price in ride for the security.

[msej449]

Time for me to annoy establised members and trot out my special diagram, which I hope helps you decide:



The idea is to represent where each type of tire - summer, winter and all-season - sits on the spectrum from warm and dry on the left, through cool and wet to cold and slush/snow on the right.

Not meant to be definitive, and almost no one agrees on where the actual boundaries sit. All-seasons can represent a good solution in many cases, but in my view, not where (a) you'll hit snow regularly or for any protracted period and (b) for a high-performance vehicle like the M235/240i, where I feel that its performance bias (and I don't mean driving aggressively) 'stretches' that segment where winters are better than all-seasons.

I have Michelin CrossClimate all-seasons on our small sedan that we have for mainly local driving, shopping and trips to the municipal dump, and they work very well. But For my M235i I have Pirelli Winter Sottozero S3 in the winter, and not only are they good in the snow, but excellent in the heavy rain and standing water we get a lot here in our UK South Coast winters. They're much, much less prone to hydroplaning than the stock summers.

[Maynard]

There is a "Run-Flat" option button to specify just RFT's in a Tire Rack search, if options are available. I had the factory Conti-5 summer RFT's when new, and those had pretty good tread for wet (but kind of crappy overall for wear/noise, as per most RFT's, and I swapped for non-RFT Conti summers). I think they also make a RFT version of the all-season performer that might be a good option for you. I've heard more complaints about Pirelli than all the others combined, so I'd avoid their all-season even if it is dealer-recommended as a factory option. FWIW, I would think a summer tire would have better wet traction than an all-season until you get into sub-40 temps, or really massive rainfall; unless you are personally finding that you have poor traction in the wet, consider trialing a different treat pattern in a summer tire (i.e. blocks, rather than circumferential rings) and swapping to winters a little sooner.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by msej449

Time for me to annoy establised members and trot out my special diagram, which I hope helps you decide

Having lived everywhere from the tropics to North Dakota and Northern New England, I think your graphic is a very useful guide for an owner undecided about the tire he or she might need. Thanks for posting it.

[Caltexan]

Originally Posted by msej449

Time for me to annoy establised members and trot out my special diagram, which I hope helps you decide:



The idea is to represent where each type of tire - summer, winter and all-season - sits on the spectrum from warm and dry on the left, through cool and wet to cold and slush/snow on the right.

Not meant to be definitive, and almost no one agrees on where the actual boundaries sit. All-seasons can represent a good solution in many cases, but in my view, not where (a) you'll hit snow regularly or for any protracted period and (b) for a high-performance vehicle like the M235/240i, where I feel that its performance bias (and I don't mean driving aggressively) 'stretches' that segment where winters are better than all-seasons.

A very interesting chart. I'm currently wrestling with how to spec a new M240i build with regards to wheels and tires. I live in North Texas where snow is extremely rare, ice and sleet are common though they shut down the whole region for days so I won't be driving in ice and sleet.

The issue here is that DFW is rainy. Really rainy in the spring. Standing water, gullywashing thunderstorms... Just nasty in the spring. And winter temps while milder than much of the USA still mean plenty of days where the temp never gets above freezing.

The flip side of that is it gets hot here in the summer. Lots of summer days around 100F and some summer thunderstorms too. This is NOT SoCal or the desert!

Given the above, am I going to have to compromise performance and spec my new M240i with all season tires if I want decent safety and hydroplaning-resistance in our nasty spring rains?