Tire Ratings

When looking at all the specs of the tire ratings to fit your car, it's been found that the one item you should pay attention to most is not, suprisingly, the rating for the miles of the tire. The best investment is actually understanding the tread pattern and how treadwear affects traction. A Canadain driving magazine reports:

"...extended tire life comes at the expense of overall traction."

Therefore they go on to explain:

"The traction (tire) rating is a measurement of a tire's ability to stop a car in a straight line on both asphalt and concrete surfaces (again, under controlled conditions). These tests don't take cornering and acceleration forces into account.

When replacing tires, the best advice is to replace them with those with the same or better (tire) rating. This brings some continuity to the driving experience."

You can read the full detail of the article, that's worded a little thick but still if you claw through it you get the idea. It's here. Then to figure out what tires you want take a look at these special offers. Save on quality tires with these manufacturer's promotions available from The Tire Rack.

So with tire ratings what's the thing called a placard?

Or better said, why does the government make the obvious seem so complicated? Well I can't explain the second question, I just pay taxes like the rest and hope to get it right. Now back to car tires and that "placard."

The National Highway Transportation Administration(that's the government agency that helps make this sound complicated).

They explain: "A tire placard is really just a fancy name for a tire information label."

It has on it (by law):

1. The car manufacturer’s recommended psi pounds per square inch) or kilopascals (kPa) of air pressure for your vehicle’s tires
2. The maximum weight (or “load”) you should have in your vehicle. Load or weight limits are usually given in terms of number of occupants or total weight (in pounds or kilograms) and
3. The recommended tire size.

Where do you find this "placard"?

Here's the tricky part, if you review your tire ratings writting on the side of the car tire, you will find the tire ratings infomrtiomation on it, but this not the infomration you need. Many people get tripped up by this. They think the tire rating information is the specifications for the car.

The key is that the placard is on the car not the car tire. You need to read the car tire placard on the car to determine the tires specified for your car and the proper tire size, tire inflation and the tire load limits. Only then do you pick out the tires for your car.

The NTHSA explains ways to hunt down your tire placard:

"You’ll find the label located inside the driver’s side doorframe or doorpost. It may also be affixed to the edge of the driver’s door or the inside of the glove-box door or trunk lid. Next time you get in your vehicle, take a moment to locate your vehicle’s tire placard and make a note of the correct tire pressure and load limits for your vehicle. The same information is also located in your owner’s manual."

So now you know,also it probably wouldn't hurt to take a look at your placard and see if the tire ratings match your actual car tires. You can find more information about tire placards at the NTHSA website and find tire reviews and ratings at The Tire Rack.

 

 

 

Tire purchasing usually isn't something we plan for and research. So how can you get smart about buying car tires quickly, with little pain and make an informed decision?

A good first step is to understand car tire ratings. With an understanding of the basic categories and meanings of tire ratings.

In the United States the tire ratings standards come from the Department of Transportation. The measurement system is called Uniform Tire Quality Grading(UTQG). This gives the overall grading system for tires and how they should perform against specific criteria laid out buy the US Government.

Tire Ratings - Traction grades

Traction grades are an indication of a tire's ability to stop on wet pavement. A higher graded tire should allow a car to stop on wet roads in a shorter distance than a tire with a lower grade. Traction is graded from highest to lowest as "AA", "A", "B", and "C".

Of current tires:

• 3% are rated “AA”
• 75% are rated “A”
• 22% are rated “B”
• only 1 line of tires rated “C”

Tire Ratings - Treadwear grades

Treadwear grades are an indication of a tire's relative wear rate. The higher the treadwear number is, the longer it should take for the tread to wear down.

A control tire is assigned a grade of 100. Other tires are compared to the control tire. For example, a tire grade of 200 should wear twice as long as the control tire.

Of current tires:

• 15% are rated below 200

• 25% are rated 201 - 300

• 32% are rated 301 - 400

• 20% are rated 401 - 500

• 6% are rated 501 - 600

• 2% are rated above 600

Tire Ratings - Temperature grades

Temperature grades are an indication of a tire's resistance to heat. Sustained high temperature (for example, driving long distances in hot weather), can cause a tire to deteriorate, leading to blowouts and tread separation. From highest to lowest, a tire's resistance to heat is graded as “A”, “B”, or “C”.

Of current tires:

• 27% are rated “A”

• 59% are rated “B”

• 11% are rated “C”

Hopefully with this car tire rating information in hand you will be able to get a move onto making an informed decision and a quality car tire buy. A few good links for finding car tires and comparing their tire ratings are The Tire Rack, Tires Easy and Safecar.

I buy car tires so infrequently that finding tire ratings about what are good tires and which ones are not. The trouble of sorting through all the good, bad, and pricing really got frustrating. After thinking about it I figured the Web would be better than my Sunday paper advertsiments to find which tires performed best, but also what the best tire prices were foir which tires. This I found useful, so that before I just chose any tire shop or headed to Sears and tried to figure out what tires I wanted by the price and a little chart.

What I found after searchign through a lot of sites. Some sites had good tire deals but few had a good section on tire reviews. Looking around at sites some were OK but there was a lot of bad stuff out there too. After sorting through the sites the one I found for the best free tire reviews was with the guys at Tire Rack. They have customer reviews and ratings from the companies about how they are supposed to perform. Of course consumer reports has good tire reviews but you have to pay for their service. Tire rack has it free and I found it to be comparable or at least good enough for me to select from their tire reviews.

Anyway check our thier tire ratings as a good source for free. They're under the products section: The Tire Rack