What are winter tires? What are the differences between summer and winter tires? What is the best time to have winter tires installed on a vehicle?
Winter tires are essential for both our safety and the safety of our vehicles in these winter months.
What are winter tires, and should they be used in the winter?
Our country is very unaware of winter tires. Winter tires are often not known by drivers or thought to be only for heavy snow and/or ice.
A winter tire can actually be a benefit for drivers on slushy, ice, frost zone, or even wet asphalt. In fact, you will be safer with winter tires in all conditions where the temperature drops below 7°C.
Why?
Winter tires don’t harden at low temperatures, unlike summer tires (which are the standard tires used for daily driving). Winter tires have a better grip and can stop at shorter distances, increasing safety.
What’s the difference between winter and summer tires?
Winter tires have a rubber compound that is different to summer tires. It is designed for temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius. A summer tire’s grip is affected by temperature drops.
Winter tires are made of specially-formulated compounds that contain more natural rubber. This allows them to not harden in colder weather, and provides greater grip and safety on roads.
Winter tires offer a superior grip on snow and ice, which is something no other summer tire can match. A vehicle equipped with winter tires can stop at 35 meters on a snow-covered road (at 50 km/h) – with normal tires this braking distance is 8 meters longer (43 metres). This applies to two sizes of vehicles.
Winter safety
Winter is 6 times more dangerous for drivers than summer. Snow and ice can increase the risk and make it even more dangerous.
Continental conducted a survey and found that more than 3,000,000 drivers were involved in accidents during the Great Frost in 2010; 45 percent of these drivers narrowly avoided an accident.
Nearly half of all accident reports are made during winter months.
Winter driving conditions are often not considered by drivers. Many don’t realize the safety benefits of winter tires.
When should I install winter tires on my vehicle?
It is recommended to change to winter tires in the country between October-April, taking into consideration regional variations.
The complex compound technology ensures winter tires are quieter and more comfortable than summer tires, and they wear less slowly.
In dry road conditions, winter tires can have a limited braking distance, but experts agree that it is better for winter tires to be used all year. Winter tires are more prone to braking problems than summer tires. .
