Make a Choice: All Season or Winter Tyres?

Posted by tyresshrewsbury on November 11th, 2020

Winter tyres and all-season tyres are often made to stand against each other as competitors. One reason for this can be the replacement theory. Since all-season tyres were made to change into winter tyres once the season arrived in a moderate climatic place, a comparison comes up automatically. Before this, there were only summer and winter tyres, so drivers had to change into winter tyres once summer would be over, irrespective of winter's intensity. Now with the option of all-season tyres, the problem of changing tyres with the season has been dealt away with beautifully.

All season tyres are different from winter tyres in some fundamental ways. But it also shares some similar traits with the latter, which allows its performance during the wintertime. Both the tyres are made using different high technologies. Different companies that provide the service of Tyre Fitting Shrewsbury to their customers keep both varieties in stock for purchase and fitting as it can be a tough choice and is also highly variable. 

Visually the two tyre varieties might not look different at all as they are not intended to. But the difference lies elsewhere, to be precise, in the design structure and the compounds used in the production.

Let us gather some interesting information about these two tyres.

The difference in Tread Compound

Tyre performance depends highly on the softness and flexibility of the rubber compound used in the treads. But the flexibility of rubber changes according to the season and the surrounding temperature. The rubber, which is used to make winter tyres are best for winter and cold temperature usage, whereas in hot and humid climates, it will lose its optimum capacity due to the softening of it, and eventually, it shall wear out or even melt. On the other hand, the rubber used in all-season tyres is best for the high-temperature regions as they remain aptly flexible to provide proper gripping of the road surface. This same rubber starts to harden at low temperatures, which makes it poor at road-gripping and providing traction.

Interestingly, the rubber of both winter and all-season tyres contains the same traction at 42 degrees Fahrenheit. But if temperature drops, winter tyres become grippier or else with a rise in temperature all season Tyres Shrewsbury retain the required hardness and resist wearing. All season tyres lose their traction below 42 degrees.

The difference in Design Structure

The tyre treads are designed differently for each tyre variety, depending on the purpose of it. So, it is evident that all-season tyre treads will be differently designed from winter tyres.

As all-season tyres are a combination of summer and winter tyres, it had to be designed to endure the high temperature well. So, these tyres have a lot more in common with that of the summer tyres tread. Just like summer tyres, all-season tyres have wide grooves separating the solid tread blocks from each other. In this way, the problem of hydroplaning is also avoided successfully. But these tyres also need to have a grip on snowy roads, which is why they also have narrow slits in the tread, also called tread sipes. This allows the tyres to have a biting edge on the winter streets, making the drive comfortable and safe, even noiseless to an extent. This intricate designing of the all-season tyre treads allows them to be fuel-efficient as well as durable.

Winter tyre treads are mainly designed to have enough high tread sipes, which does not allow them to slip on ice and provide proper gripping.

The ultimate choice of tyres remains in the hands of the driver. Both tyre varieties are right in their way. Now the choice should be made depending on the vehicle's geographical location and its purpose.