Summer tyres and winter tyres – All you need to know

Aiman Laghari

11 Oct 2018

Mainly, four major types of tyres are being used all over the world, namely summer tyres, winter tyres, all-season tyres, and all-weather tyres. In our previous article we have already discussed all seasons tyres and all weather tyres, therefore in this article, we’ll be focusing on the summer and winter tyres with a special emphasis on winter tyres since, summer is about to end, and winter is fast approaching.

Summer tyres:

Just as the name indicates, these tyres are manufactured to perform better in a hot climate country such as Pakistan. Some may still suggest that all-weather tyres are a better choice even in summers, however, in a country like Pakistan where the temperature reaches 50-degree Celsius all weather tyres wear out quickly as compare to summer tyres since the later have a specific design and rubber compound which offers excellent braking and grip capability in summers. Other benefits of summer tyres are:

Summer tyres have fewer grooves, which will provide a good grip by helping tyres to have more direct contact with the road.
Due to their less friction and stiffer construction, they provide better fuel economy as compared to all season and all weather tyre.
Summer tyres give better agility.
They don’t wear out at a high temperature.
They provide high performance in wet and dry areas.
They provide good stability than other types of tyres at high speed when the temperature is high in summer.
They even have great acceleration and cornering ability in extreme hot climatic conditions as compare to all season tyres.

Winter Tyres:

Just as people are getting ready for the winter season, similarly, automobile enthusiasts should also prepare for this season and choose tyres correctly as many die in road accidents in winter due to the poor choice of tyres. In this section, we’ll be now focusing on the winter tyres. Just as the name indicates, winter tyres are the tyres to be used in cold and snowy climate.

Winter tyres are same as regular tyres except that they are particularly designed for the winter season.
People in Pakistan usually don’t know about these tyres, hence using the summer tyres in winter will lead to accidents. However, again the winter tyres shouldn’t be used in summer because their soft rubber is specially designed for winter and they’ll wear out in summer.
Even though winter tyres appear the same, they are made from a different technology.
Use of winter tyres to below seven degree-Celsius will still keep them soft and bite road well in cool weather which allows the vehicle to drive properly in winter.
Winter tyres have other groves known as Sipes, which helps the tyre to bite road well thus avoiding the car from getting out of control.
These sipes also help the tyre in squeezing rubber of tires into the road properly and negate anything which might be a hindrance with the rubber road contact. This function of sipes helps the driver to drive without worrying too much in winters.
Winter tyres can apply brake quickly on icy roads as compared to other regular tyres.
The road grip of winter tyres is directly linked with the air pressure in them; hence one should always check the air pressure of winter tyres before driving. If air pressure is low, this would automatically lead to low grip on the road and vice versa.
Apart from the aforementioned points about winter tyres, the people in the northern areas of Pakistan use metal chains on tyres of their vehicles to assure a good road grip of tyres and to also assure better safety on snowy roads. However, this chaining of tyres have drawbacks too, the one being that if the chain is loose, it might come out and wrap around the axle of the car and thus damaging the car.
Still, people in Pakistan don’t know much about winter tyres. Therefore they use chains for their vehicle’s tyres.
Brand new winter tyres might not be easy to find in Pakistan still one can get second hand imported tyres easily, which not only would be efficient to use in winters but will also avoid accidents in winters.

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