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It's one of the oldest argument on the internet, and it crops up every winter.

Are you better off with a narrow or wide winter tire?

In this video we'll find out whether a narrow tyre or a wide tyre is best for snow and ice by comparing a 205 wide tyre on a 16" wheel, all the way up to a 275 tyre on a 19" wheel!

First, let's quickly talk about why we're having this argument. There are two contrasting theories about grip on snow and ice, and both of them are technically correct.

The first is the one you most often hear from the internet experts, and it gets used for dry and wet performance too. That is that a narrow tyre can apply more pressure on the surface below. While this is true specifically from a physical grip point of view, it ignores the fact tyres produce chemical grip, and that the footprint shape changes with different tyres widths. Which is kinda a shame as I think a La Ferrari would look hilarious on 155 wide tyres.

The second argument is that a wider tyre has more in contact with the surface., which means more compound to grip, a greater distance of sipes, the cuts in the rubber in a winter tyres tread pattern which gives the tyre more gripping edges, and everything else being equal, a wider tyre should have a little more space to pack snow into the tread, and as snow grips snow pretty effectively, this is an advantage.