So why is it that we change our car tires for winter and summer? Someone told me the winter tires have a sturdier profile so you don’t slide as easy in snow but why can’t we just leave them on during summer as well? Why different tires for different seasons?
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Two main reasons.
1) The rubber get softer when it’s hot and harder when it’s cold, if it’s too hard or too soft the grip of the tire won’t be right and this would also lead to damaging your tire more quickly, having to buy new tires more often. Winter tire have a softer rubber so that it’s optimal at lower temperature, while summer tire are harder so they don’t become too soft during hot temperature.
2) The design is also different. Winter tire have deeper grooves and sharp edges for better grip on snow, slush and ice. Summer tire have a mix of shallow and deep grooves for good traction on different type of road, and able to evacuate water from under it.
Summer and all-seasons tires are closer in design, it’s mostly the rubber than is different since all-seasons need to be have a decent balance of softness/hardness at different temperature. If the difference in temperature between summer and winter isn’t too big and snow/ice isn’t too much of a problem, then all-seasons tire will do the job. But otherwise you need winter tires otherwise you just won’t have enough traction to stay on the road in some situation.
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