Need some input here, ASAP, cuz I need to order snows right away. I haven't driven a FWD car in the snow in years. TireRack et al. say always to use 4 snow tires. Obviously they want to sell as many tires as possible tho. I can see why for RWD (rear for acceleration, front for braking/steering) or AWD, but not FWD. I mean, the front wheels accelerate, steer, and do most of the braking. Obviously the tail would be a little losser but I don't see that being a major problem. Who runs snows on just the front?

 

Personnally, I put all four on. Yeah, the front's do the accelerating, steering and most of the braking, but a loose tail in a FWD car is not a condition I want on the street. Not only will it be looser in straight line braking, but if you have to hit the brakes hard when you're going anywhere but straight, that suckers coming around and there's not much you can do it about. Last winter, I left some all seasons on it and it was a joke. This winter, I don't want to have to worry about staying home if there's weather out there, and all four are worth the money for me.

 

Your car will be incredibly unpredictable if you only have snowtires on the front, I have a few friends who work, or have worked, in tire shops (belle and discount) and my dad's best friend owns a tire business, they all say get ALL 4 or don't get any, having 2 is too unsafe.

 

OK, cool. I was hoping for some Guardex but I can't find any, so I guess it's 4 Artic Alpins for me.

 

Don't get Arctic Alpins, they blow chunks! As usesless as **** on a bull!

 

Don't get Arctic Alpins, they blow chunks! As usesless as **** on a bull! And get 4 tires!

 

I love my Hakka NRW's, but we haven't had any snow yet

 

I have tried both, and four is the way to go.

Let's assume you can find two snows for the front end that are the exact same size as your other two tires: the two sets will react differently to temperature changes; and in snow, the back tires will tend to load up with snow, causing more lateral drift and less traction.

For best results,in a snowy area, go with four tires, dropping down a size or two. Narrower snows will give far more traction because they cut through the crud instead of riding on top of it.

I've never been happy with how snow tires handle, but it beats eating a guard rail.

 

Personal experience or rumor? Any recomendations then?

 

Experience! Had them on my 626 and I should have kept my 4 seasons.

I am currently running Blizzak WS-50's (205/65/15) and they are pretty good but they do not tolerate abuse, they wear quickly.

The Yoko Guardex 720 looks nice too.

 

Not sure what your beef with Artics is, but I've had good results with them for two winters (in Cleveland, where it snows quite a bit). They grip well on snow, ice and in the rain. They are noisy, especially in the rain, and the overall handling of the car suffers from the 60 series profile.

No, they are not performance tires by any stretch of the imagination, but I bought them to keep me on the road, not to dragrace.

To the original poster - get all four - sure, the back tires don't do much besides hold the rear-end up, but on a slippery turn, the fronts will hold and the rears will likely slip, leading to oversteer and possible loss of control.