A Guide to Car Tires
How much do you know about automobile tires? You know they’re necessary, but do you know whether you should change them out when the seasons change? Do you understand the distinctions between the many kinds of tires? What about your pressure? Do you know how it affects how your automobile handles?
The following are the most common tire types:
Tires for All Seasons
These are the best tires for the ordinary driver because they contain a good combination of characteristics, such as moderate tread depths and rubber compositions that last longer than summer tires. They function well in hot temperatures but may not grip hot roads as well as summer tires. They’re also unsuitable for cold weather, since the rubber in all-season tires hardens and loses traction at temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius. All-season tires are standard on the majority of new automobiles.
Tires for Winter
This will allow you to drive safely over ice, snow, and slush. They’re comprised of rubber compounds that remain soft in freezing temperatures (-40 degrees! ), and they feature tread patterns engineered to shed water and slush, allowing you to keep traction on the road. They may seem heavier and clunkier than all-season, but the increased safety is definitely worth the trade-off.
Tires for Summer
These are suitable for high-performance automobiles since they are quick and nimble. Summer tires are comprised of rubber compositions that stay more flexible than all-season tires, providing them superior road traction. Additionally, their tread patterns contain fewer grooves, allowing the tire to make more contact with the pavement for best handling.
All-Season Tires
All-weather tires, which are relatively new to the market, are intended to be a more winter-than-all-season option that can still be used in milder weather. They were created for drivers in metropolitan areas with moderate winters. They remain soft at temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius, unlike all-seasons. Many people in places like Vancouver and Toronto like them as a not-quite-winter tire.
Tires that go flat
With many manufacturers prioritizing cargo space over spare tires, run-flats are an excellent option, allowing you to drive up to 80 kilometers on a punctured tire. These eliminate the requirement for a spare tire since you have plenty of time to travel to a repair shop before the tire has to be changed. Run-flat tires have a specific sort of sidewall that sustains the vehicle’s weight even when the tire pressure lowers due to a puncture or flat. When looking for a secondhand automobile, it’s crucial to know whether it has run-flat tires instead of a spare tire – they’re convenient but costly to repair.
Winter or all-season tires? Which Winter Tires Are the Best?
We see/hear the same remarks concerning winter tires every October/November:
“All-seasons are sufficient!”
“Winter tires are nothing more than a marketing ploy!”
And our personal favorite: “I don’t need winter tires since I have all-wheel drive!”
All of these assertions are false.
Yes, winter automobile tires are pricey, but this isn’t simply a ploy to encourage you to purchase a second pair. Plus, driving on winter tires for half the year means your all-seasons (or summer tires) get a lengthy vacation, extending their life – so, although it’s a major expense in the short term, it’s not so awful in the long run.
Winter tires are built of a different material than all-season tires. Because it is meant to remain supple in freezing conditions, this rubber grips cold roads better. All-season tires’ rubber compositions begin to harden when temperatures fall below 7 degrees Celsius, whilst winter tires remain soft down to -40 degrees Celsius. It’s comparable to comparing the soles of your winter boots to the soles of your flip-flops.
Winter tires and all-wheel drive work well together, but they are not mutually exclusive. Having an all-wheel drive vehicle is fantastic. It improves your car’s acceleration grip, giving you more power to start rolling, and it may enhance its handling in poor road conditions. It’s a great performance benefit, but it’s not a safety feature. All-wheel drive provides nothing to assist your vehicle in stopping; it is entirely up to the brakes and tires. To put it simply, all-wheel drive will assist you start, but it will not help you stop. Want to lessen your chances of crashing through a stop sign into someone’s trunk? Purchase winter tires. Because your winter tires hold the road, you’ll skid less and stop better – that’s what they’re built for. That’s all there is to it.
Car Tire Issues – The Importance of Maintaining Proper Car Tire Pressure
Automobile tire pressure is one of the most prevalent causes of car tire troubles. It is crucial to drive on tires that are properly inflated in order to be safe on the road. This entails monitoring your tire pressure on a regular basis and ensuring that it is in accordance with the vehicle manufacturer’s guidelines – NOT the figure written on the tire’s sidewall – this is the tire’s maximum (not recommended) pressure.
Maintaining optimum tire pressure is critical to reducing the likelihood of a puncture or flatness, as well as improving vehicle handling and reducing excessive and uneven tread wear. Car tire pressure also affects fuel economy; cars with under-inflated tires use more energy to move, while vehicles with over-inflated tires perform poorly since there is less rubber in touch with the road. Having the correct tires and properly maintaining them is critical to driving safely.