873/1960

I'm planning on taking a month long, ~5000 mile road trip, from Chicago to Arizona, Utah, up the California coast, and back - starting next week. I'm debating whether to run my winter or summer tires. I'm going to be driving though a lot of climates and I obviously can't predict what the weather will be like several weeks in advance. Average temperatures look like they range from 20s to 60s, but probably most of it will be in 40-60 range when I'm driving. Snow seems unlikely for most areas but certainly possible for some of them. If I mount the summer tires I could theoretically wait a day or two for roads to be plowed should it snow, but I also know that driving on even a little snow with summer tires is horrible.

I can't seem to find much specific information on the performance of winter tires in warmer temperatures besides "they don't work as well and wear faster." I'm not too concerned about putting a lot of wear on them, but I'd prefer not to slide off the side of a mountain.

Would you mount your winter or summer tires for a trip like this?

p987yow

I'd mount performance winters like Michelin Pilot Aplin PA4 N-spec's.

873/1960

I have performance winters. So to be more specific the choice would be between Michelin Pilot Super Sports and Dunlop Winter Sports 3D.

schuy

I would recomend using winter tires. I'd take a leaf out of the germans book on this. In Germany winter tires are required for winter weather. The down side of summer tires on snow or cold is pretty big.

Schnauzer

I vote for mounting the winter tires to get away from Chicago without a problem. You could see snow and low temps in all those states. The difference in normal driving will be small. This sounds like a great trip.