Are just two winter tires on your car enough?

We asked our viewers to send us their questions and concerns about winter tires, and we posed those to tire expert Paul Luciano, co-owner of CP Tire in Carleton Place, Ontario.

Melinda from Ontario asks, “What if just put on two winter tires ?”

Paul Luciano: On a front-wheel drive car, you’re required – not by law, but you’re required to put on four at most tire locations because it affects the brake proportioning on your vehicle. It would be like disconnecting the rear brakes and running with the front brakes on the car. When you need to do a panic stop, the back-end of the car could come out around you. That’s when you need your snow tires and your brakes to be working: when you make a panic stop and you risk going out of control when you need that traction. Definitely not on a front-wheel drive car.

On a real-wheel drive, you can put them on the back only but on all front-wheel drives, four tires is required. It’s not a law but there is a liability issue with it.

Print