All season tyres for front?

[Grahamr123]

I need new front tyres for my focus TDDI. First car, so first time buying new tyres, noobie here.

I came across some Kumho KH21 all season tyres for the same price as midrange summer tyres. Thinking of the snow we seem to have regularly in winter(England), Will I benefit at all from choosing all seasons over summer tyres. I only have Nankangs on the back.

Is it a case of having to change all four tyres to get the most out of them? Is it even worth me bothering?

[HustleRussell]

All season tyres aren't a bad idea at all. Personally I'd put the new all seasons on the back and put your rear(summer) tyres on the front- that way you can postpone fitting new tyres to the front until later in the year when you'll benefit more from the all seasons due to lower temperatures, higher rainfall (if that's possible!?) and snow/ice.

[Grahamr123]

HustleRussell said:

Personally I'd put the new all seasons on the back and put your rear(summer) tyres on the front

Ah ok, why so on the rear though?

[HustleRussell]

Grahamr123 said:

HustleRussell said:

Personally I'd put the new all seasons on the back and put your rear(summer) tyres on the front

Ah ok, why so on the rear though?

Because decent summer tyres are more suitable in the summer, and on a FWD car the front tyres do most of the work. Then later in the year when the Summers on the front wear out, you'll have all weathers all round for later in the year.

[davepoth]

Grahamr123 said:

Ah ok, why so on the rear though?

There's been a nice "debate" about this in Advanced Driving.

The rationale is that you really do not want very good tyres on the front and very bad tyres on the back because the first end of the car to lose traction will be the back. That's a bad thing if you didn't mean to do it and aren't expecting it.

[HustleRussell]

^ there is that too, which I loosely agree with.

[otolith]

That does seem to be the received wisdom - make unexpected oversteer less likely at the expense of poorer braking and (in a fwd car) traction. The Saab could do with some new fronts, and I'm considering buying four Quattrac 3s now, fitting two and putting them on the rear - but then putting the other two on the front in the autumn, by which time it will probably need them.

Ideally rotate tyres and replace four at a time, I think. Used to do that with the RX-8, but we've not had this car long enough to do that, and our other cars are different sizes front to rear.

[kambites]

I'd put whichever tyres are best at displacing standing water on the back. A slight imbalance front to rear wont be the end of the world in the dry, but you really don't want the back to aquaplane before the front.

Best in the long run is to rotate them so all four maintain roughly the same tread depth and get replaced at the same time.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 29th April 16:11

[Liquid Tuna]

Put them on diagonally!!

[jackh707]

Liquid Tuna said:

Put them on diagonally!!

Nah, you want to put them down one side.

[kambites]

jackh707 said:

Nah, you want to put them down one side.

Then pick routes to and from work that are predominantly made up of turns in the direction that put your better tyres on the outside of the bends.