What Are All-Season Tires And Are They Right For You?
Buying tires for a vehicle can be tricky business. Between treadwear ratings, speed ratings, temperature recommendations and sizes, it’s hard to determine which tire is best-suited for a particular vehicle and geographical region.To get more news about best all season tires for cars, you can visit gofortunetire.com official website.
Up until the late 1970s, drivers in many parts of the world were faced with the burden of swapping out tires when the weather turned cold. In 1977, to ease the inconvenience of switching between summer and snow tires, the Goodyear Tire Rubber Company released the first all-season tire.
All-season meant that the tires were good for use in most places for most of the year. It did not mean that a driver can have the tires installed and forget about it. Though most new vehicles today come with some variation of the factory-installed all-season tire, there are still situations that can seriously challenge all-season tires and push them beyond their limits.
Knowing what tires are appropriate for certain vehicles and regions can help foster driver, passenger and road safety. As summer weather cools, hinting the coming of colder, harsher seasons, drivers should take extra care in safe-proofing their vehicles, which includes tire awareness.
This is especially true for parents facing anxiety about new, coronavirus-impacted carpooling routines in the fall.
According to a study conducted by tire giant Michelin, 39% of parents surveyed say they are taking better care of their vehicles since they know they’ll be driving more. Seventy percent say they’d prefer that their kids ride alone in the car with them, which means more cars on the roads.
All-season tires feature tread patterns and rubber compounds that make them suitable for use in wet conditions and a wide range of hot and cold temperatures. The tires are engineered to stand up to light snow, which means that drivers can use them year-round in most temperatures. The rubbers used in all-season tires are designed to stay flexible and pliable, even in temperatures that hover around the freezing mark.
Even though the term “all-season” implies the tires are good in all seasons, that isn’t the case. They are engineered to have year-round pliability, but all-season tires aren’t a suitable stand-in for dedicated winter tires. Nor will they provide maximum grip in warm weather. Tire makers sacrifice maximum warm-weather grip to create a longer-lasting tire. That also means a dedicated winter tire is ideal in the coldest climates.
There are a variety of conditions for which a specially designed tire will be the best and safest bet. All-season tires are suitable for “the middle,” but fall short in extremes on either end of the weather and temperature spectrum. Some of the most common specialized rubber includes summer, winter and off-road tires.
Summer tires are made of a sticky rubber compound designed to provide maximum traction in warm weather. The tires offer great performance in cornering, accelerating and braking, but are only at their best when temperatures are above 40 degrees. Because of that sticky rubber, summer tires wear down faster than all-season tires, resulting in much shorter tread life.
These tires are suitable for sports cars, performance-oriented vehicles, summer vehicles, drivers who live in warm climates (Southern California, Florida, Hawaii) and anyone who wants maximum traction in summer.
