The greatness of winter tyres in winter conditions are indisputable, but once winter has passed it is time to change to summer tyres as they will outperform winter tyres during the warm parts of spring, summer and autumn. This has to do both with the rubber compound, that is optimized for different temperature ranges and tread pattern. Winter tyres turn too soft at high temperatures as they are designed for below zero degrees and their tread is optimized for snow, ice and slush. When the tyres become too soft they will wear out faster and can alter the tread so that they won’t be optimal for the next winter season.
Changing tyres to summer tyres at the end of the winter season when it starts getting warm should be natural and should also be something you look forward to as the weather improves and the roads will be free from snow and sand. Driving on summer roads tend to be a nicer feeling as it is a safer and more of a comfortable drive. It also allows for higher speeds.
Since summer and winter tyres faces completely different weather conditions, it should be obvious that they will be optimized for these and will not perform well outside these conditions. For the summer tyres, the tyres have to be optimized for dry or wet roads in temperatures above zero. For lower temperatures the winter tyres will outperform summer tyres even if there is no snow on the ground. This is all due to the fact that the summer tyres will start becoming harder and lose its flexibility and agility to conform according to the micro-structure of the road, which adds friction as you drive.
Of the summer conditions it is often the wet roads that can cause problems as a lot of water present on the road can cause aquaplaning. You will need to have good tyres to combat aquaplaning, where the tread depth has to be deeper than 4mm. Once you go below this level you should change all tyres to a new set as you really need to have the same grip on all the four tyre positions to be able to have good control over your vehicle. Changing just two tyres will make the vehicle difficult to control as it will over- or understeer. You often achieve equal wear among the four tyres by rotating them and making sure that the tyre pressure is at the correct level. Proper maintenance with checking the tyres for any damages and also making sure that the tread wear is looking ok and that the tyre wear isn’t looking strange across the profile of the tyres. Faulty wheel alignment or unbalanced tyres can cause problems that also lead to that the tyres wear unevenly across the profile.
Your tyre dealer should be able to check your tyres and also rotate them. They should always check them for uneven wear and making sure that the tyres are well balanced. Unbalanced tyres will cause the car to shake at high speeds.
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