Winter Tires: Do They Make a Difference?

Tires are the only part of your vehicle designed to touch the road. That makes them vital to vehicle safety, performance, fuel economy, and comfort. Most new cars come from the factory with all-season tires, which are designed to work in a wide range of conditions but not at the extremes. Summer performance tires offer the best traction in warm weather, but their grip and durability fade as the temperatures fall. If you live in a region where the weather turns nasty and temps hover below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, a solid set of winter tires is essential. It can be the difference between arriving safely or ending up off the road. 

Winter Tires Have Special Rubber Compounds

Tire companies use different types of rubbers depending on the tire’s purpose. Performance tires are often softer and stickier than middle-of-the-road all-season tires, but winter tires are specially designed to remain pliable and durable in cold weather. Regular tire rubber can become brittle and crack at temperatures under 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which drastically reduces their traction in addition to causing flat tires. The rubber compounds in winter tires resist cracking in the cold and provide better winter traction. 

Special Tread Patterns Grip Better in Snow and Ice

While most tires have treads that help channel water from under the rubber and keep a constant contact patch with the road, winter tires add siping, or tiny grooves between larger treads, that bite into the snow and provide much better traction, especially under braking. This is important to remember whether you have all-wheel drive or not, as the extra drive wheels won’t help stop your car in the snow. 

Some winter tires offer stud capability, which involves having a tire shop install small metal studs directly through the tire tread. While they are tremendously noisy on dry pavement and can cause damage to bare road surfaces, studs provide the ultimate in traction and grip on snow and ice and may be a necessity in some super-snowy locales. Even so, there are often limits on the times of year when studded tires are allowed because of the damage they can cause in the wrong conditions. 

Things to Know About Winter Tires

Many tire shops like Twin Falls Chevy, offer winter tire changeover, which dramatically reduces the seasonal hassle of switching back and forth. Some also offer storage, so you don’t need a dedicated space to store the dirty tires when they come off your car. It’s worth noting that many people also choose to invest in a cheap set of winter wheels, which can make the changeover process much easier and less likely to damage your expensive factory wheels in the process. It also keeps the road salt and sand off the factory wheels, which are typically vastly more expensive to replace than an aftermarket unit. 

Finally, investing in winter tires means keeping up with two sets of rubber, unfortunately. It’s not a great idea to run winter tires in warmer weather, as they can wear rapidly and don’t provide the best traction. Winter tires are also noisier than all-season or summer performance tires because of their treads. 

Twin Falls Chevrolet can help you understand the differences between winter and other types of tires, and our knowledgeable staff can detail all of the winter-ready features of Chevy’s extensive vehicle lineup.