Tires without any tread have the greatest possible surface contact with the road. That's why they use them for racing.

But, tires that must handle rain and snow have different tread patterns dedicated for specific uses. A typical rain tire..........or all season tire.........will have less surface contact than a racing tire with no tread. A typical snow tire will have less surface contact than an all season tire.

However, surface contact is not the main issue in snow. The best traction is obtained with the highest pressure per square inch of contact surface..........thereby allowing tires with less surface contact to perform better under snow conditions.

Surface contact is determined by size, tread, and inflation...........but, three out of four ain't bad.

It seems with snow tires, at least the packages Tirerack sells they try to get you to go down a size. Wide tires don't dig in, they just slide over the snow.

Watching those SUV's with 22in wheels is most entertaining in the snow! They have 4wd which spins all 4 wheels at the same rate, and they go no where. I guess the salesman at the "dub" store forgot to tell them about summer tires not doing jack in the snow.

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

Compound affects surface contact too. The effect on size of contact is minimal (softer compounds would have slightly more surface contacting the road), but I meant it in terms of effectiveness moreso than amount of contact.

In terms of grip/traction, snow tires are also better at evacuating snow through the grooves in the tread pattern.

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1984 300TD

Are you thinking that a softer compound would provide some squish of the tread face.........and thereby offer more surface contact? If so, then I'd agree, but the difference would be really minimal compared to the large open treads found in just about every winter tire.

It's agreed that the softer compound is more effective.

Well not quite, soft tires get hard when it gets below freezing and they suck. If you look at the serious performance tires they have two real warnings, 1. No snow, 2. Not below 30. You have to keep serious heat in them, to get traction.

Snow tires probably use a different compound, I remember reading Blizak(sp?) had some special tread that was supposed to stay soft below freezing.

As far as the contact patch, well that depends what you are running. My buddy runs 285/18 SP9000's in the back of his S in the summer, and 275's up front. The winter rubber are the 16in stockers that are 235 I beleive. The contact patch is like half. FYI 2in of snow+Dunlop SP9000's=one freaked out ASR system and a stuck car.

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

We used to use summer and winter tires on our slightly modified 1997 Subaru Impreza. For summer tires we used Bridgestone "Pole Position" tires. The car handled great with those tires, so long as it was dry or wet. On anything frozen, they were worthless. I found this out one year when we got an early snow. I hadn't switched to the all-season tires yet. That Subaru wasn't going anywhere on those Pole Positions, and this was a car that was as close to unstoppable in the snow as I have ever seen. God, I miss that car.

Yeah my friends, sisters husband has a new A4 with performance tires...you should have seen it trying to claw its way up the hill in the snow, all 4 wheels spinning sliding backwards. He had snows on his last one, it was like a Hummer in the snow.

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2026 Genesis GV70
2007 Tiara 3200

Yes. It is pretty minimal.


Pole Positions are fantastic street legal high performance tires. Anything with better grip (besides Falken Azenis) are probably not DOT legal.
That is why they are useless in the snow.

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1984 300TD

The important thing is that you got four snow tires. Having snows on just the front end of a VW will get you swapping ends in a curve. Just remember to stomp on the clutch if you get in trouble with the car in snow/ice.

Ordered all four.


it's the dunlop ds-2 tire mentioned earlier in this thread. I guess after you wear the winter compound down, it turns into a regular set of all-seasons.


and yes, stomping the clutch when hard braking was one of the first lessons. Engine braking was the second.

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-1983 VW Rabbit LS Diesel (5speed, VNT/Giles build)