quick tire question..

[johnnyturbo2002]

I have two different brands of snow tires for front and back. Dunlops and Pirellis..Where should I put each brand? Better traction to the drive wheels or to the steering? Putting them on today...

[Paul in NZ]

contrary to popular beleif i beleive the best should go on the rear ??

[timandbim]

i hope this starts a discussion, same deal here and it's my first winter with the car.
i bought new summer tires for it but i'm sticking (i hope) with the snowtires that came with it, 2 pairs also. both have decent tread but i was going to put the better ones on the back. they are 205/65/15 - i think that's good and skinny for snow...??? i guess it depends on how stuck you expect to get in parking spots. i havce spent a lot of winters in different canadian cities (edmonton, vancouver and montreal) and the road conditions are very different in each one... here you need serious rear traction just to get out of a parking space as it is nothing but ice a lot of the time.

[Torque]

Either way you do it, there is a trade-off.

Better on the back: easier to get going, you won't be oversteering all over the place; worse braking (since the fronts do more braking), more understeer ...

Better on the front: Lots of wheelspin, lots of sliding, better braking.

Overall, I'd go with better tires on the back. In 90 percent of the situations you encounter in your day to day driving, understeer is a lot safer than oversteer.

[filip00]

better tires should go in the back. although if they're good, i doubt you'll experience the difference in snow.

[johnnyturbo2002]

well, they were both decent tread, but the patterns are different. the backs have a good V pattern, so, I thought that they would be good for the traction side. The fronts are the more normal look tread, with good sipping action, so I put those on front for better steering and breaking. Thanks ffor the interest and reply.

[Ross]

The front does all the steering and most of the stopping.
What's the use of being able to accelerate if you can't stop or turn?
Best to the front.

[timandbim]

i agree that steering and stopping is more important. it's just that here, the most common problem is being stuck in an icy parking space with 2 feet of snow walled up around you from the snow ploughs. no matter what you're driving you have to seriously spin your wheels to get onto the cleared part of the road. in edmonton, with less and 'drier' (colder and less icy) snow and in vancouver, where it just rains all the time i would probably put the better tires on the front.
still haven't decided for sure though, appreciate the comments.