Improve Your Handling With Winter Tyres
Some motorists think that winter tyres are an unnecessary expense, but fitting winter tyres can greatly improve your vehicle’s handling and keep you safe during the cold weather.
Tyres in general can easily be ignored when looking at your car’s maintenance, but your tyres can have a huge effect on the performance of your vehicle, including braking, acceleration, steering and general ride quality. Properly-inflated tyres with sufficient tread depth can provide much better grip and handling, especially on wet, snow-covered or icy roads. But going one step further and having winter tyres fitted to your car this year might really surprise you at how much better your car performs in the winter months.
Winter tyres reduce braking distance in wintry road conditions, making driving much safer and your car more responsive – even in hail, ice and snow. The last few winters have been very snowy, and there’s no sign that this year will be any different. Average temperatures of below 7°C are common for almost five whole months of the year in the UK, and it is below this temperature that regular tyres start to under-perform.
At less than 7°C, regular tyres become stiff and less flexible, reducing their grip and handling qualities. Winter tyres are made of special compounds that work best at lower temperatures, resist erosion and degeneration from the harsh effects of snow and salt, and often have special tread patterns to help grip on icy surfaces.
With many of us actually snowed in last year, driving became something of a last-case-scenario in the depth of the winter. Simply getting out of your drive or street could be highly dangerous in thick snow and slushy roads. Having winter tyres could change this, provide you with a safe and reliable vehicle and prevent you taking days off because of ‘snow days’.
Drop into a Grippy tyre specialist to find out more about winter tyres and to have yours fitted as the weather turns colder. We provide a huge range of tyres for motorbikes, cars, vans and even fleet vehicles, with competitive online prices and a high quality fitting service.