Installation of winter tires is necessary primarily to ensure safe driving in the winter when the road surface encounters ice, snow, and slush. Nowadays manufacturers offer a wide range of winter tires, which differ in size, tread pattern, and composition of the rubber mixture. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that when choosing winter tires there is no universal solution for all winter road conditions.
What Influences the Choice of Winter Tires
As a driver, you’ve probably wondered why manufacturers produce so many varieties of tires. If you omit the issues of marketing, in most cases the creation of new variations is quite justified. Motorists, on the other hand, face the difficult task of figuring out which model is ideal for a particular car.
Climatic Factors
First, assess what weather conditions prevail in your area. This is perhaps the most important factor to focus on when choosing a tire. As a rule, the winter weather in Ukraine is changeable: with heavy snowfalls and severe frosts, which are replaced by thaws and even rains. Adjusting to different conditions is quite difficult, but with today’s range of tires is quite possible.
What is the Difference Between Winter and Summer Tires?
The main difference between the former and the latter is that winter tires are made of softer rubber, while summer ones are made of harder rubber. This is the main difference and then comes the tread pattern.
According to the type of rubber, winter tires are divided into three main categories:
- Studded;
- Non-spiked;
- All-season tires.
Each category is indispensable in its field, to a greater or lesser extent. The last refinement is that all-season tires are more versatile than all the others. But the rubber in them is not the best. But about that later, but for now let’s take a close look at all the features of winter tires.
Therefore, the choice of tires in the first place should be made taking into account the terrain. If you use your vehicle mainly in the city, where the roads are cleared of snow by utilities, choose non-studded tires. For regions with a southern climate, European-type tires are ideal. For regions with harsher weather conditions, where snowfall is common, studded tires are recommended, since they are most effective on ice and packed snow.
Considering the specifics of Canadian roads and the fact that we have to drive on ice and slush most of the winter, we recommend choosing the Scandinavian type of tires, as this type of rubber provides the most reliable traction on snowy or icy roads and is well cleared of snow and mud.
Conclusion
Do not delay changing from summer tires to winter ones. You should call for a tire fitting when the temperature drops to 7 degrees Celsius. At lower temperatures, summer tires can lose traction, which can lead to poor handling of the car.
