The Many Different Types of Tires

Tires are the final point of contact in getting the engine power to the ground, so it’s a pretty important part of the car. Whether or not it’s the most important is debatable, as getting the car moving depends on a clutch, transmission, differential, axles and tires all working together. However a tire blowout at freeway speeds is something dangerous enough to severely injure yourself and others, so choosing the correct tire is paramount.

There are multiple different tire compounds for multiple conditions, because unfortunately what’s safest and best in hot weather isn’t necessarily going to be safest and best in cold or wet weather. For that reason, when buying tires you must take into account the climate you live in and choose accordingly.

Residents in certain parts of Alaska or Canada might want to invest in snow tires, whereas Silicon Valley residents could get away with summer tires. It just depends on what your car is up against, and that includes your driving style. It is of course possible to run whatever compound you want, but just make sure it’s safe.

Common Tires

All-Season/All-Weather Tires

While technically there are tires meant for year-round usage, namely all-weather tires, it’s extraordinarily circumstantial. All-season tires in theory should last through every kind of weather, even light snow, but while they handle every kind of weather well, they don’t handle any particular kind of weather exceptionally.

In areas of extreme temperatures, all-season or all-weather tires might not be the best option. However if you live in a place with moderate temperatures, then all-season or all-weather tires are a solid choice. There are also choices of high performance all-season tires, as well as ultra high performance all-season tires.

Summer tires

Geared more towards performance, summer tires offer better grip for cornering and braking thanks to their tread pattern and compound material. They tend to be a bit more expensive, and probably won’t last as long as all-season tires, but the point of them is mostly to aid a driver in high speed exploits. There are also max performance summer grade tires, and ultra performance summer tires, the differences of those from the normal summer tires being even better handling and grip.

Grand Touring Tires

These tires are not intended for snow or ice, but rather are ideal for wet or dry conditions. Grand touring tires offer good street performance including handling capabilities, ride noise and comfort. There’s all-season grand touring tires as well.

Specialty tires

Studless ice/snow

Sometimes, when you find you’re driving on ice the car might slide around uncontrollably. This is due to the fact that ice is interrupting your tire’s ability to effectively create friction against the road. A solution to this is to buy ice and snow tires with little metal studs protruding from the tread.

It’s up to the studs to break through the icy blanket covering the road and into the tarmac, thus creating grip. With this comes a few inconveniences though, including a noisy ride and road damage. To combat these idiosyncrasies, studless ice and snow tires were born.

Studded tires have become very limited in a legal sense, in terms of their usage. Some states have allowed them only in certain times of the year under certain conditions, while other states have simply outlawed them completely. Studless tires are the new frontier, and thanks to new rubber compound technology, studless tires accomplish what studded tires did, without the headaches that follow.

They use increased flexibility to dynamically interact with the changing road conditions, where a non-ice or snow tire would become rigid with the outside temperature. Snow tires in general have deeper treads, ad are therefore able to cut through snow down to the tarmac. There are also *studless tires for light trucks and SUVs, as well as performance versions of each.