Directional Tyres: Pros and Cons
To cater to different types of driving conditions, tyre companies design a wide variety of tyres with unique tread patterns which can help you achieve the driving experience you are aiming for. Today we are here to put some light on directional tyres, what that even means along with the pros and cons of having them.
What is a directional tyre?
A directional tire is, quite simply, a tire that is engineered to roll in only one direction. It’s really important here to mount a directional tyre correctly; otherwise, you will not be able to see the expected results. The directional treads on these tyres are designed to cut through and evacuate standing road precipitation when the tire is mounted correctly. This property allows it to gracefully glide in snowy and wet conditions if you happen to live in such an area where it snows/rains a lot.
Since now you briefly know what are directional tyres the next thing you want to know is how to detect if a tyre is directional or not. Running directional tyres incorrectly can harm the tyres as well as your driving experience so manufacturers are bound to mark the direction of the tyres. Try to spot an arrow or a rotational direction indication on the sidewall of the tyre.
Why is it important to know if tires are directional?
Mounting directional tires in reverse has its fair share of downsides since these tires are very limited in terms of tire rotation patterns. Only a front-to-back tire rotation is possible on either left or right side of the vehicle that too provided the car has the same size tires front and rear. Any side-to-side rotation would result in the directional tire facing backward. So you don’t want an expensive replacement sooner than you might expect.
Directional tire examples, tread patterns
Directional tires are often identifiable due to their distinct, one-way tread patterns. Directional tires typically have a tread “flow” that suggests a rolling direction. Some examples:
Pro 1: Superior wet traction
The primary advantage of directional tires is that they offer great resistance to hydroplaning. They consist of a V-shaped tread design which helps push water from the center rib outward as the tire rotates to evacuate water. This makes it more efficient than tyres with a standard tread. In result, you get the most traction out of your tyres in wet conditions.
Pro 2: Handling Improvements
Directional tires have better traction and handling at high speeds that why we see it in on most high-performance sports cars and racecars.
Pro 3: Fuel efficiency
Since they are designed to rotate in one direction only. In return, they provide excellent fuel economy and only that they also look very good too.
Let’s move on to the cons of directional tyres.
The noticeable disadvantage of directional tires is that they can only be rotated from front-to-back.
For side to side rotation will require you to go an extra mile dismount, flip and remount the tyres. Since they can’t be rotated in the standard pattern, directional tyres suffer from a shorter tread life than normal tires, so they wear out quicker. Some high-end vehicles like Bently and Lamborghini have different sized tires on the front and the rear. If this is the case on your car, you will not be able to rotate directional tires at all unless you dismount and remount them. So if you buy these tyres make sure you are willing to put this additional effort.
Fun Fact: The opposite of a directional tire is a non-directional tire, which can rotate in either direction with equal performance, regardless of the road conditions; however, with the sacrifice of traction.
There are other tyres of tyres treat patterns too which we will cover later. Make sure to stay tunned or more informative updates like these only on PakWheels.