As they say: prepare a sled in the summer, and a cart in the winter. This folk wisdom fully corresponds to today's realities in preparing a car for operation in the most difficult period - winter.
It is
better to buy
winter tires in the summer, when prices are not yet determined by a seasonal increase. So
which winter tires are better?As soon as car owners have a choice, every time this question arises. Although there remains a small proportion of reckless drivers who do not change tires depending on the season and continue to drive summer tires in the winter, not really addressing the issue: which winter tires are better. However, even at low negative temperatures, the braking distance of a car on summer wheels is several times greater than that of a similar one, but with winter tires. This is proved by repeated crash tests. You can not save on your safety, as well as on the life and health of others.
Winter tires are of two types: studless and studded.
So which winter tires are better: studded or Velcro, that is, studless?
Rubber manufacturers conducted operational tests. At temperatures below minus 20 degrees, oddly enough, the studless tires showed shorter braking distances. Just at such low temperatures, the spikes simply did not have time to break through the ice and catch. However, at temperatures from minus 10 to minus 15, the characteristics of both types of tires were approximately the same. Well, at air temperatures close to zero, definitely, studded tires won. Since at such temperatures, Velcro simply glided on melted ice and snow, and the spikes gnawed gently into the ice and braked very well.
Thus, knowing what constant winter temperatures are in your region, you can already conclude: which rubber is better - Velcro or spikes, just for you.
In addition, the performance of winter tires is greatly affected by the quality of the rubber itself and, of course, the tread pattern. They are distinguished by two: Scandinavian (or Finnish) and European.
The European pattern on winter tires is designed to operate rubber on winter European roads with rare snow, at temperatures around zero. Therefore, such rubber is suitable for operation in the southern regions of our country, but not in the middle and central parts of it.
The Scandinavian tread was developed specifically for the northern European countries and takes into account the peculiarities of operation at low winter temperatures and high snow cover, and ice formation conditions.
Which winter tires are better - it’s still quite difficult to decide. Studded tires are quite noisy in operation. In addition, when driving within a large city, where roads are constantly cleaned and treated with anti-icing reagents, asphalt is almost always clean in winter. And when driving on asphalt on studded tires - the spikes are lost, the rubber deteriorates.
In addition, on asphalt, the braking distance of studded tires is significantly longer than that of studless winter tires.
However, if you drive outside the city or in an area where snow lies on the roads in winter, it is better to prefer studded tires, which behave more safely and more manageably than Velcro at average Russian winter temperatures on snow and ice.
Decide what temperatures in your region are in winter, what quality of snow removal, how often you will travel to suburban sections of roads or off-road, and then decide which winter tires are best for your car.