What You Need to Know When Buying New Car Tires
Tires may be the single most critical item the average owner will replace on their car. Not only do these deceptively simple donuts keep your ride rolling down the road, selecting the right one for replacement may be a matter of life or death.
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Weight
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Heavier vehicles require heavier tires.Large SUV and truck tires have heavier sidewalls to bear the increased load.
Speed Rating
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Buying the right tire for your intended speed is vitally important to safety, lest the tire begin to melt and separate at super-legal velocities. Speed ratings are alphabetical, and include: M (under 81 mph), S (the most common, 112 mph max), and Y (186 mph.)
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Wet or Dry Traction
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Tires engineered for greater traction in wet or snowy conditions have more and wider channels for water run-off. Bear in mind that more water channels mean less rubber on the road, so dry traction may suffer on "wet" tires.
All-Road or All-Terrain
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Off-road tires have a "knobby" tread design, which is optimized to bite into dirt and grass. Larger knobs will do a better job off-road, but on-road traction will suffer and safe top speed is limited.
Wear Rating
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Wear ratings go from 100 to 600, and are an indicator of longevity. Higher wear ratings mean longer life and better economy, but generally utilize harder rubber compounds that will hurt dry traction.
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References
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Saquan Stimpson
