Should you change your tyres to low-profile tyres?
After buying a new car, replacing tires and alloys is becoming a trend in Pakistan. But, there are also people who instead of some mere changes, buy brand new rubbers and pair of alloys for their new cars. Usually, they buy an alloy of bigger size. When you opt for an alloy of bigger size than in order to fit it under fender you have to decrease the side of the tire.
For this to understand, you can take example of Toyota Corolla. It comes with a 15” alloy with a 195/65R15 Euro Star tire made by General Tyres Pakistan. And let’s say you have decided to use 17’’ alloys on your car. So you install a lower profile tires in order to keep the diameter of alloy wheel and tire combined. You have to do this so that tires fit properly and also tires don’t end up rubbing against the edges of fender or to the insides of the car.
Alternating and decreasing the profile of tires can have both pros and cons. First let’s start with the positive aspects.
PROS:
- By decreasing the profile of the tires, the handling of the vehicle will be improved easily and hence this is the major benefit.
- While driving, only little corrections regarding the steering are done because there is less cushion of air and rubber.
- And since there are less air and rubber to “jiggle” your car, that’s why at high speed your call will be more stable. There will be more grip, and the car will also look cool,
- There will be less outward sway and body roll when the vehicle is cornering hard.
- You’ll feel that vehicle is more in control.
- When cornering, the tires will bite road more and keep the vehicle in control.
- Your car will lean on the rubber more; if, let’s say you have 65 profile tire as compare to the tire of 45 or 50 profile tire.
CONS:
- Even though decreasing the profile has its advantages, but still, its negative aspects shouldn’t be neglected.
- One of the biggest drawbacks is that the rider will lose his comfort. Since the cushion is less in the low profile tire, this will make the ride bumpy. There will be an increase in bumps and humps even a small disturbance or crack on the road will be felt easily inside the car.
- On high speed, there will be an increase in noise pollution.
- Increasing the size of alloy means that you are increasing the weight. This unladen weight is actually the weight under the shock absorber. And when the weight increase due to increase in size, it’ll affect the suspension of the car.
- Hence, you are indirectly increasing the stress on the suspension by increasing the unladen weight. This increased stress on the suspension will cause the suspension parts to wear out much more quickly as compared to the normal regular sized alloy.
- There will also be increased chances that your vehicle end up hitting a pothole, leading to the permanent damage to the damage of your expensive alloy of the wheel.
So, we can say that even though the new and big alloy for your tire will look cool on your vehicle and have few advantages too but still those advantages come at the cost of suspension repair bills and of comfort. And it will also be hard to drive a car having low profile tires on a regular basis considering the conditions of roads in Pakistan.
That’s it from our side, drop your thoughts in the comments section below. Stay tuned to PakWheels.com for all the latest updates in the local auto industry.