Understanding Your Car's Tires
Provided By: CarInsurance.com
The saying, "Where the Rubber Meets the Road” has never been more important than it is with today’s modern automobiles, SUV’s and trucks. Understanding your car's tires can help you be a safe driver and get lower auto insurance rates.
The entire method of control, safety, comfort, and performance of your vehicle comes from a small, roughly five inch square imprint on which each of your tire’s makes contact with the road.
No matter how fast, luxurious, complex, powerful, and sophisticated your vehicle is. Along with your cars suspension system and shock absorbers, literally everything that allows your car to drive smoothly and safely is through your tires and their contact with the highway.
Tires carry you, your children, your spouse, friends, family; all the special people in your life. If your tires are old, weather cracked and worn out, with little or no tread, then you are taking a huge risk of a blowout, accident, or worse.
If you are buying tires, like most of us, you will rely on a reputable tire dealer to install the best tires for your vehicle.
Let’s learn about what is on a tire sidewall so we can know more about what we are buying.
Assume for a moment you are looking at the tire sidewall of a typical American made sedan. For demonstration purposes let’s take a look at the tires on a 2002 Ford Taurus SEL 4 door sedan.
Tire Size Markings
The tire size on this vehicle is expressed on the sidewall as:
- P225/60R16 98T The P represents the car type, which is P for Passenger.
- The 225 represents it’s section width (tire width in mm).
- The 60 is the tires Aspect Ratio (the ratio of the sidewall height to the tread width). Some tires have a very low profile for performance and others are higher to give greater cushion and soften the ride.
- The R represents radial tire construction, (as opposed to bias construction). Almost all modern passenger car tires today are radial construction.
- The 16 represents the rim/wheel size expressed in inches.
- The 98 and T represent the load index and speed symbol.
The load index number tells us the tire on this vehicle is able to carry a maximum load of 1,663 lbs per tire, (750 kg). - The T represents a speed rating of the tire. Since it cannot be assumed a driver will always observe the speed limit, tires are rated for high speed durability by very strict controlled testing. The tires on this vehicle can be driven at a maximum continuous speed of 118 miles per hour, (190 kph). Not that you should do that, but tires must be built with excess capacity in order perform efficiently and last as long as possible.
Also remember that as tires wear and get older on the vehicle, their load and speed ratings would tend to be less than they were when brand new.
Your tire dealer has tables available which will give you the speed and load ratings of different tires.
Other information on a typical tire sidewall would be information such as maximum cold tire inflation pressure, tread wear, traction, and operating temperature ratings, and tire ply construction, and US DOT (Dept. of Transportation) safety codes.
As you can see tires are complex, but the tire industry has standardized the system which will allow the average person buying tires to have a fairly good idea of what he or she is getting.
Remember to buy the very best tires you can afford; keep them rotated and balanced for the longest wear and good ride characteristics.
There are no tire discounts on insurance policies, but other safety devices can help you with discounts. For example, anti-locking brake systems will help reduce your premiums. CarInsurance.com Insurance Companies do reward safe drivers with a reduction of premiums. Your primary goal is to avoid causing injury to yourself or others and to save money by avoiding expensive auto insurance claims. Good tires help you and your family to drive safely and achieve the least possible expense for auto insurance.
Very convenient business!
John M.
Spring Hill, FL
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