Snow tires: When you only have two and a front wheel drive van, do you put on back or front.?

You got a lot of really bad advice here. The tire guy is absolutely RIGHT, in fact no reputable tire shop will install two winter tires on the front of any vehicle. Grippier tires on the front will make the vehicle extremely unstable in situations in which you need control, going around corners and braking, do you want the rear end to spin around every time you go to stop on a wet or icy road? Read the links below for more detailed explanations.

Edit: hydroplaning is used to illustrate vehicle behavior in a reduced traction situation, icy, snow covered or slush covered roads will all follow the same dynamic principles. Yes getting going is an issue thats why everybody recommends 4 snow tires, but if you have to install only 2 put them in the back this is done for safety reasons: to save you from having an accident.

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RE:

Snow tires: When you only have two and a front wheel drive van, do you put on back or front.?

I always assumed they'd go on the drive wheels but the tire guy says no, on the back. Is he nuts or am I?

FWD vehicles have better traction in front, and are inclined to spin out in back by design. Everything is a trade off. So by the logic used by this tires salesman, you should never drive a FWD vehicle in the snow, right? Except that FWD vehicles do better than RWD vehicles in the snow due to their front traction for steering and braking. If you own FWD vehicles, you have to know that their rear stability is less than that of RWD, and you drive accordingly. Slow down on corners and curves, and brake their more carefully.

If you have two lousy and two good tires, put the good ones on the front where your best weight and traction is for steering and braking, and slow the hell down so that you don t slip at the rear. Realize that you have made the vehicle comparatively less stable on curves in return for better traction capability in front steering and braking. The front wheels do 80% of your braking, so if your tires are much better up front then you will slide more in back, so drive accordingly. Speed is the biggest factor in losing traction... slower rolling friction is best. What good does it do to buy new tires and put them on a RWD car if your front ones are lousy? You ll slide off the road easier if you have lousy front traction and braking. At least with good traction up front you can steer, brake, and drive at low speeds, whereas you often can t with bad tires up front on FWD.

Wow, some really weird, and dangerously wrong, answers here. If you can, obviously put them on all 4 wheels. That said, if you have to only put them on two for a FWD car, for God's sake put them on the front (drive) wheels.

I drove a Kia Sephia (FWD) in the snow for 6 years, and I only had two snow tires, both mounted on the front -- never had a problem, in fact I drove circles around 4WD cars that just had all-season tires.

I put them on the front for traction AND safety reasons. They have to be on the front, or you'll never get going. Also, if you put them only on the back, you'll never be able to turn -- if you don't have solid traction in front, and you go to turn the wheel at all sharply, you'll just plow straight ahead instead. Lastly, if you have to stop, most of your car's stopping power is from the front tires -- you want the best tires on the front.

In short, it's ONLY your front tires that make you go, and they control most of your turning, and they do most of your stopping. This is a no-brainer, really.

The only potential downside I could see to installing on the fronts only is you could probably get the car to lose control if you tried to stop suddenly at the same time you crank the wheel to one side or the other -- the back end would lose control and pivot around the front end. never happened to me though. Then again, if you only had them on the rear of a FWD car, you never would have gotten going in the first place or been able to turn :-)

Trust me from years of experience and having had zero issues: if you only install two on a FWD car, put them on the front.

As strange as it sounds, if you only have 2 snow tires, they go on the back, and it doesn't matter if you have FWD or RWD. Why? Simple. Put them on the front of your FWD van, and you get going a little better, and you steer a little better, until you have to mash the brakes. Then, the front end stops faster than the back, and you spin out of control into a ditch, or an oncoming semi.

The same applies to any tire replacements. If you replace any 2 tires, the best treads go on the rear, because the same principle applies to skids in snow, ice, rain, sand, any adverse traction conditions. Any reputable tire dealer will not sell and install only 2 new tires, on the front, unless the rear tires are very new with lots of tread.

This is supported by research, and Michelin even has a video on their site showing graphic proof.

You tire guy is correct.

Billy TK, 360 HEMI, hermitofnorthdome, fire4511, Tony V, Stanley G, Lear B, I suggest you do some research, because your information is old, old, old, a carryover from the days when most vehicles were rear wheel drive. I actually have a hard time believing there are that many people out there that think they know better than tire manufacturers, and major tire service dealers, who manufacture and install tires 24 hours a day / 365 days a year. I have a hard time believing there are actually mechanics working on cars who are so far behind in research!

Edit:

If all you want to do is get moving in snow, 2 snow tires on the front will do that. HOWEVER, the safety issue is stopping in a straight line, and snow on the road creates lack of traction, and ice at the corners where the nobs of the world spin their tires. Getting moving is kind of useless if you can't stop in a straight line. Take it from me, 42 years of driving in Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg winters, WAY OVER a million miles driving in everything from light snow to heavy snow, to freezing rain to sheet ice, if your back end stops slower than your front, you might as well close your eyes and pray you hit soft snow, not another vehicle, or a pole, or you don't slide off a cut-bank.

Of course, if you want to be the safest you can be, install 4 winter tires, as advised by highways departments, auto clubs, and vehicle and tire manufacturers.

For pulling power in snow you would have them on the front where the traction wheels are. Many times when I know I have to drive in snowy conditions I put snow tires on front and rear for the stopping power too. The tire guy is not much of a tire guy!

id put them on the front, I always have and dont believe in the whole "best wheels on back" theory for a fwd vehicle

well there are different schools of thought on this. personally i think your tire guy is nuts you always put the snow tires on the drive wheels. i am a mechanic on mostly older cars but i have a front wheel drive and where i get my tires mounted (no i do not do it myself) they tell me i have to put on 4 snow tires and i thought they were crazy. apparently there have been some tests done with front wheel drive cars with snow tires just on the front and if you start to slide the back will come right around but with snow tires on all 4 wheels it is less likely to come around in a slide. personally i think what i was told by my tire guy is just a ploy to get more money out of me so at this point i have decided not to get any snow tires but just to rotate my tires. my thoughts are if you know how to drive in snow it will not matter if you have snow tires on just the front 2 wheels.

one person here said this you need them on the wheels that get less traction so it would be the rear wheels. which makes no sense since they are not the drive wheels.......

Wow....With that reasonong, maybe you should be in a different line of work. ALWAYS install new tires, whether theya re witners, all-season, or summers on the REAR of any vehicle.

Ive had several front wheel drive vehicles and have never bought snow tires the radial tires work fine id put them on the front ask him why he would put them on the back