The tyre is so much more than an air-filled ring of rubber. It’s a complex piece of engineering that comes in many shapes and forms and is designed to tackle a multitude of challenges. Below, we run through the different types of tyre on the market and the specific advantages they can offer your vehicle.
There are two key areas where one type is distinguishable from another – the rubber compound and the tread pattern. These, in turn, are determined by the environment and conditions where the tyre is in use. As long as the right tyre technology is applied, you can be rest assured the wheels of your car or 4x4/SUV will have superior handling and traction.
Summer tyres have a dedicated rubber compound that delivers excellent grip and handling on both dry and wet roads in warmer conditions. They also have reduced rolling resistance and therefore provide greater fuel efficiency and generate less road noise.
The tread pattern on a summer tyre is more streamlined than a winter tyre, with fewer grooves for water clearance, maximising the contact patch with the road. Consequently, the vehicle has superior traction and braking during dry summer months.
However, these same characteristics – the unique rubber compound and simple tread design – make summer tyres unsuitable for winter driving conditions. When the temperature drops below 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit), the compound becomes hard and brittle, and the tread design can’t adequately handle snow or ice.
Run-flat tyres are one of the greatest inventions in the automotive industry since the advent of the pneumatic tyre or the transition from bias-ply to radial tyres. Why is it so revolutionary? In the event of a puncture, or a sudden drop in inflation pressure, a run-flat tyre will remain fully operational until the driver can make it safely home or to the nearest garage.
The functionality of a run-flat tyre is provided by strong and thick reinforced sidewalls so that they can be driven on temporarily after a puncture. In general, you should be able to travel up to 50 miles (80 kilometres) on a punctured run-flat tyre. But keep in mind that they’re not repairable, and you must replace it with a new tyre as soon as possible.
4x4 tyres feature a more widely spaced tread design than conventional car tyres, chiefly a larger tread block and deeper tyre grooves. Standard tyres perform poorly on surfaces like muddy ground because the tread quickly fills with mud and the wheel begins to spin uselessly, digging the tyre deeper and deeper into a hole. By comparison, 4x4 tyres have better traction on tough terrains like mud, grass and snow without the tread area becoming clogged.
