Why Winter Tires

With the arrival of cold temperatures this weekend, it is time once again to brace ourselves for another New Hampshire winter. When preparing your car for winter weather, the single most important thing to consider is the condition of your tires. From a safety standpoint, good tires are crucial; your tires connect your vehicle to the road.

At a bare minimum, to pass a New Hampshire safety inspection, your tires need 2/32 of an inch of tread at the thinnest part of the tire and cannot show signs of uneven wear. But 2/32 of an inch is not very much tread, and it may not be up to the challenge of icy winter roads. In addition to wanting more than the minimum level of tread, you might consider getting snow tires.

Snow tires are specifically designed to grip the road in cold, icy conditions. Snow tires achieve superior traction through a more aggressive tread pattern and a softer rubber compound. So why have snow tires? Why not just make all tires have better tread and grip? The answer is that the different rubber compounds work better at different temperatures. The softer rubber compound functions best in colder weather (generally below 45 degrees F), and will actually wear more quickly in warmer weather, whereas summer tires are designed to function best in warmer weather. For this reason, it is important to take your snow tires off once warm spring temperatures arrive to help prolong the life of your snow tires.

As with summer tires, keeping your tires properly inflated and having them rotated every 5,000 miles or so will help them last longer. In fact, keeping your tires properly inflated has the added benefit of improving your fuel economy. As far as rotating your tires, we offer free tire rotations for the life of every tire we sell.

Whether or not you are ready for winter to come, you can at least make sure that your vehicle is ready for winter by looking into snow tires before the snow arrives.

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