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Quite a few inexperienced individuals have some difficulty in knowing what the right tires are for their vehicle when it comes time to replace them. There are many ratings and acronyms thrown around the automotive industry of agencies assigning safety and operational ratings.
On the inside of the driver’s side door jamb is a sticker with a variety of information on it. This placard of information is the place to start to locate the proper tire size and specifications for your automobile. Information for proper inflation and appropriate load limits will also be on this placard. Do not use the information that is physically on the tire itself.
A traction grade provides a measure of how well the tire is able to stop on wet pavement. A higher grade for a tire indicates that it will stop in a shorter distance on wet pavement than a different tire with a lower grade. The traction grades are ranked from highest to lowest as follows: AA, A, B, C.
The relative wear rate of a tire is gauged by the tread wear grade. A higher tread wear grade indicates that the tire will take the tread a longer time to wear down. A control tire is used in the testing which is rated at 100. Tested tires are rated in comparison to the control tire. A rating of 200 indicates the tread will last twice as long, 300 thrice as long, and so forth.
The final statistic of note is the temperature grade. The temperature grade indicates the intensity of the heat that the tire can withstand before becoming compromised. This scale is rated from highest to lowest as: A, B, C.
The choice in tires for your automobile is an important one. They are one of the most vital components since they are at the end of control of the vehicle. Using appropriately graded tires for the conditions you drive in will help lengthen the life of your tires and keep the occupants of the vehicle safe.
One should check the air levels of their tires often to ensure they are not under or overinflated. Inspecting the tread wear on the tire can help shed some light on how the vehicle might be performing with those tires. Alignment may be off if either the inside or outside of the tire is wearing unevenly. Under-inflated tires and bad alignment can cause the tires to wear unevenly and fail much sooner than they normally would. Check your tires before any lengthy excursions and periodically if your driving is only local.
