When to Buy Tires: Winter Tires vs. All-Season Tires
Vehicle manufacturers install all-season tires on new cars so you don’t have to buy tires of the specific brand when you buy a new car. These tires are made to be driven all year round, are quiet, and have a long tread life. They can also perform on both wet and dry roads.
Winter tires have a soft rubber for flexibility. During the cold season, rubber contracts and shrinks, becoming stiff. This reduces the traction of the tires, making it difficult to drive in cold climates. At some point, you will need to buy tires to replace the existing ones. Here are some key differences between winter and all-season tires.
- All-Season Tires Can Drive On Winter Roads
To make them suitable for both kinds of weather, all-season tires are made with a combination of summer and winter characteristics. Summer tires are made for summer areas, meaning they perform best on dry roads.
Winter tires are made for snowy roads, with all their characteristics focusing on the cold climate. Therefore, they perform best in cold weather.
On the other hand, All-season tires combine winter and summer characteristics, meaning they are not the best when the two kinds of weather are to the extreme. In this case, when you buy tires, you need to consider the severity of climate conditions in your region to know whether all seasons tires would be ideal for you. If the conditions are always extreme, you would be better off if you buy tires specific to a particular season.
- Winter Tires
These are entirely made for snowy roads. Their tire compound is made to withstand too cold roads, and its tread pattern is deep to ensure high traction since snow is highly slippery. In addition, the tread rubber is soft to provide flexibility.
Unfortunately, rubber tends to contract in cold weather. This contraction causes stiffness which reduces traction on the tire, and this can cause accidents. The unique features of winter tires are explained below.
- Soft Tread Rubber
Winter tires are made with soft rubber to prevent stiffening so check the material when you buy tires for winter. When tires stiffen, there is reduced traction. Icy roads are slippery, and without enough traction, the vehicle can slide, causing accidents. A soft tread ensures the rubber is flexible, which gives the tire more grip on the road.
- Deep Tread Patterns
Winter cheap tires Canada are recognized with their deep tread depths with unique patterns. When a vehicle moves on snow, ice is likely to build upon the tire’s tread patterns, which reduces traction. Having deeper tread depths ensures less snow build-up, maintaining the tire’s traction. The unique tread patterns are for slashing water on the road and channeling snow on the sides. This is a helpful feature in winter.
- Biting Edges
Every tire has a biting edge which comprises of tiny slits on the tire’s tread. These are used to increase traction on winter roads. With good biting edges, it is easy to control the vehicle on slippery roads especially during the winter season.
- Which Type Of Tires Should You Buy?
Whether to choose winter or all-season cheap tires Canada depends on the climate in your region. If you experience icy seasons in winter, then winter tires will be the safest to drive on snowy roads. Snow is slippery, and this can cause accidents.
Winter tires have a flexible rubber with deep treads to increase traction, which reduces the chances of accidents. However, these tires are expensive to buy. You will also incur the extra cost of installing and uninstalling them with the change in seasons.
Winter tires also need special storage in garages, which is an additional cost. If you stored them in your home, you would need a cool and dry place for keeping them, which takes up extra space.
All-season tires, on the other hand, are designed for driving in a wet and dry climate. Therefore, they have a combination of the characteristics of summer and winter tires. As a result, drivers find these tires convenient because you don’t need to change them when summer or winter comes.
However, all-season tires will not perform well if the weather changes to the extreme. For example, they might not be the best for too cold winters and too hot summer because their tire compound is not made to withstand the extremes of these two climates.
When you change the tires, ensure your front and rear tires match. For example, it is not advisable to have winter tires on the front and all-season tires at the back.
