Picking The Right Tire

One of the most important aspects of car safety are the tires that you choose to put on your car. Many people underestimate just how important tires are when it comes to safety. For most driving a car down the road is the most dangerous thing they will do each day. In fact, there are an approximate 1.3 million people that lose their lives in car accidents each year, and approximately 30 million are injured. This just goes to show how important it is to be safe on the road, and tires are a very big part of the equation. Here are a few things that you should know about tires.

Choose Three Season Tires 

You may be tempted to buy one tire to deal with every condition, but this is simply a mistake. The rubber that creates a tire needs to be engineered for a specific purpose, and if you are driving an all season tire, you are giving up a lot of traction in the summer, and not getting great traction in the winter. The best that you can do is decide to get a three season tire. These are designed for road conditions that are not freezing or icy. The rubber will generally be a bit stickier and give you more traction in normal conditions. 

Winter Tires 

If you will be driving in the winter months at all then it is going to be vital that you invest in good winter tires. The rubber is hydrophilic, so it is actually attracted to water. This gives you more traction in icy and snowy conditions. The tires will also have a different tread, where the treads are much wider. You can also have tires with studs which can give you a lot of traction. Simply put, a winter tire is the only way to maximize your traction in the snow and ice. 

Off-Road Tires

If you will be taking your vehicle off road, then it is time to invest in some good trail tires. If you use normal tires you will be spinning your wheels. The tread in an off-road tire will be much deeper and a lot wider. There will be more voids than tread. this simply allows the tire to grab the loose dirt and debris to use from traction. The wide nature of the tread also allows the velocity of the tire to throw the debris out of the tread to maintain a clean tire.