Snow tires fall in that category of items which you use for a couple of months, then you have to store for the rest of the year. Storage is a pain for so many of us, who are living in small apartments. However, no mater how small your place may be, if you live in a country where snow does fall and where temperatures go beyond the freezing point, you need winter tires and you’ll see why in this article.
What Makes Snow Tires Different From Regular Ones
Snow tires have a special tread pattern which is designed in such a manner that it helps biting into the snow, therefore offering a better grip in case of acceleration or brake. Such tires are made of a different type of rubber than all-season or summer tires. The rubber used in snow tires has the property to maintain its flexibility even at low temperatures, when common tires get brittle even if roads are clean with no ice or snow on them. A loose grip brings you nothing but trouble: whenever you stop the car you’ll find it difficult to get it moving again without getting it pushed by some other people. Moreover, the lack of grip will cause your car to slide on icy or snowy roads, will increase your fuel consumption and will lead to advanced wear of the clutch. Even if you didn’t care that your life was in danger, at least be aware that your wallet is in danger, so don’t be cheap and buy snow tires for the winter season if you want to use your car.
Why Not Use All-Season Tires In Winter?
It’s true that all-season means “to be used on any kind of weather or road conditions”. Of course you can use them, but they won’t perform as well as the tires that are built specifically for harsh road conditions like ice, snow or extremely low temperatures. Why do you think professional sport equipment is so expensive, yet best performers don’t spare their money and buy each and every new and improved item? That’s because it helps them perform. Only think of skating, for instance: there are skates made for artistic skating and skates made for speed skating. You can get a high skating speed with artistic skates, but you’ll be faster with speed skates.
Some drivers claim that it’s enough to put snow tires only on the drive wheels of the car. This is a mistake that may lead to many accidents, because there will be a very big difference between the grip on the drive wheels and the grip on the other wheels, thus making your car spin out much easier than in case of equal grip on all four wheels.
Another issue that’s very common amongst drivers: they tend to leave their winter tires on during summer time, thinking that they’d save money and still be safe. This is also wrong, because snow tires are exposed to a much faster wear when used at high temperature, on dry roads. So, if you keep them over summer, you may be in the situation to need to buy new ones in the beginning of next winter.
Good car tires are expensive. Storage is a pain, as four tires need a lot of space. Yet, if you can’t afford to drive a car in winter times, maybe you’d better not drive it rather than use all sort of improvisations that put your life at risk. While it’s true that it’s your life and you’re free to do what you want with it, but you put at risk also the life of other participants in traffic, who may have the bad luck to be in your way when you’ll have an accident because of not having snow tires.
