Many of car owners get confused while trying to determine if they should use all season tire or snow tire.
Thus, it is important to understand the differences between these 2 types of tire as it would help to save a lot of your money and time as well as prevent you from possible incidents.
Moreover, a lot of cars also provide tire inflator or jump starter for emergency situation, thus you should need to be sure to go for the most suitable tires.
If you are living in a place that only has small snow flurries in winter season, then you would probably go for all season tires. In other cases, it is sensible to choose a proper set of snow tires.
Read the following sections to find out some useful pieces of advice on how to differentiate between all season tire and snow tire.
What Are All Season Tires?
As it shows in the name, an all season tire could be used for your car in most of seasons. It is not made by the similar form rubber in snow tires so it is definitely not as good in snowy and cold weather conditions.
Latest models of all season tire are created to offer various performance and could provide a quiet and smooth ride while saving the energy at the same time.
Because this type of tire is made to work with most forms of weather conditions, it would not provide car owners with driving capability or special handling.
What Are Snow Tires?
The snow tires are designed with an exceptional element, which are put in the rubber, to remain flexible in low temperatures.
The flexibility of a snow tire also means that the rubber is rather soft and would wear out rapidly in other seasons and would not offer proper handling.
The tread is made to get rid of water and snow out of the road with small cuts in the rubber, which offers grip on slippy surfaces of road.
Performance of All Season Tire versus Snow Tire
In most of the time, except for winter condition, an all season tire would definitely be better than a snow one in terms of handling and performance.
In hotter weather conditions and clear streets, the soft rubber of a snow tire will wear out rapidly and does not offer proper traction. The same is correct in hot but rainy weather as the tread is made for snowy conditions.
Traction of Snow Tire versus All Season Tire
In general, a tire would have some small cuts in the tread of rubber to keep the traction on slippy roads. The more these are, the greater the traction you gain. A snow tire is particularly made with those types of small cut and they could make a significant difference.
When you want to replace a snow tire, you have to replace all 4 tires, not just two as the traction advantage would disappear and you could end up falling on the road.
An all season tire would lock and make you to lose control of the car on slippy roads with snow or ice, while a snow one would help you to get a better brake.
It is really essential for you to brake slowly and slightly if your car is using the all season tires during winter season to lower the risks of accident.
Speed of Driving
There is, in fact, no actual comparison between all season tire and snow tire when it comes to the speed of driving.
Having the snow tires does not mean that you could drive a car at higher speed compared all season one. A snow tire is not designed for speed but for greater traction in cold conditions with slippy roads. You would never want to face the risk of getting in any accidents.
An all season tire is designed to drive a car at higher speed than a snow tire as it is manufactured for hotter weather conditions. The tread of an all season tire is also designed to offer greater traction in rainy conditions than the tread of a snow tire.
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