i can only afford 2 snow tires for the season due to money issue and i was wondering if is it safe to place 2 snow tires on the rear and stock tires (siped) up front. i was looking at a tire brand General Altimax Artic for $63.00 from tire rack(cheapest place i can get them) and i'm hoping that some shop would install them for me. but my concern is still,would it be safe to install them at the rear? thanks and hope to hear from anyone soon.

 

I think that the snow tires should be put on the front tires, because the car is front wheel drive.

Maybe someone else can comment, because I have never put snow tires on my car.

 

The reason for putting them on the rear is stability during braking. I know it sounds weird, but STOPPING is when you really need the stability.

When you have to stop, you want the best traction on the rear; otherwise the car can do a snap spin quicker than you can say "OH-#&$*$^"

It's WAY better to put them on all 4 corners because they behave differently even on dry pavement. Probably better to look for a cheaper snow tire so you can afford 4 of them.

Where do you live? Maybe even a 4-season tire in a narrow width (Accord DX size?) For years (2 VWs & an Integra) I used 4-season tires in the base-car size for winter, then wider tires for 3-seasons. Check that out at TireRack, some of the less-expensive 4-season tires are relatively better in snow compared to the wide high-speed-rated fancy tires. That way you can get 4 of them.

 

you should put on all 4 wheels but if only 2,, put them on the front,,,,,,,,,,,frt wheel drive ,,

 

QFT.

Put them on the front.

You want the traction where your drive wheels are. You can still control a sliding back end with a FWD car as long as you have good traction on the front.

OP, it is best to put them on all 4 corners. Have you looked at other options for tires such as Kijiji, buysell.com, etc?

 

If I couldn't afford new ones, I would definitely attempt to find used ones. You can often find good used tires with most of their tread left for a bargain.

Never had to use snow tires before so I am not competent to give you sound advice on where to put 2 tires. Jimblake makes a good argument for why to put them on the rear, however I would be inclined to put them up front since it is front wheel drive and the majority of the braking is done by the front wheels.

 

That's ONLY true when it's not slippery.

Any pilots out there? It's like ground-looping a taildragger. Only less controllable.

 

^ Really? I didn't realize that. I figured with a 14 year old car the technology wasn't that advanced to be able to apply rear brakes more if the front tires were slipping. I just assumed that there was a set distribution of braking on all wheels for older cars (looks I fell into the classic definition of "assume")

 

There IS a certain distribution of clamping force of caliper onto the rotor. The problem lies with how easily the traction disappears between tire & road.

Under very light braking, the front & rear are more equal. When you step on the brake pedal harder, the proportioning valve reduces the rear braking to avoid locking up the rear brakes. When it's very slippery, the rear wheels can lock up long before the proportioning valve takes action.

On newer cars that's partially handled with ABS, but there's still a proportioning valve. Newer yet, if a car has electronic brake-force distribution that's even more sophisticated control. 1996 may or may not have ABS, but it certainly doesn't have EBD.

When it's very slippery, you don't want to let the rear brakes lock. That removes most of your control over which direction you're going.

 

Anyone who has done any ice racing in a FWD knows you want the traction in the front. This will keep the wheels from locking up and the vehicle from not changing direction.

The majority of braking is still done in the front. This is why you will go through front pads 2 times faster than the rears.