Tips on Choosing the Right Tires for Your Vehicle

Perhaps you've noticed a marked difference in the handling of your vehicle; driving in the rain now feels a lot like skiing, or maybe you took your car in for routine maintenance and the mechanic tells you the tires look like racing slicks. Whatever the reason, you now find yourself faced with the dilemma of choosing the correct tires for you. If you have no knowledge of what your vehicle, the area you live in and your driving habits dictate, you will probably come away with a lightened wallet, incorrect tires, and a bad taste in your mouth. Let's try to shed some light on the situation before you find yourself there.

Three Things which should Dictate the Tires you Choose

There are any number of things which will decide which tires finally go onto your car, including price and availability, tire/wheel size, driving habits, the area you live in, and manufacturer recommendations. First we'll focus on the big three: vehicle specifications, driving habits, and geographical area.

Vehicle Specifications: All vehicles have a specified range of tire sizes. These can sometimes be found in your Owner's Manual, though with the trend of making these more generic, a better source is the informational placard. It should be on the driver side of the vehicle, in the door frame (the body of the car). This will list the manufacturer's recommendations for tire size, tire pressure (at cold), and any other pertinent information. Usually these only show the size tires the vehicle came with from the factory, which is a good thing to go back with. If you want to go with a different size tire, there are other sources, though each vehicle will only have a few different sizes specified, even in these. Information about additional tire sizes for a vehicle can be found at most aftermarket tire dealers. Remember, though, your speedometer and odometer are calibrated to your stock tire size; changing this size will alter both of these. 4 wheel drive owners need to be particularly careful with this, as with tire rotations; these vehicles are very sensitive to tire size changes.

Your specified (or not) tire size will look something like this: P195/70R14. So... what's that mean? Let's break it down. The P stands for Passenger (LT is for Light Truck), the 195 is the width of the tread in millimeters; the 70 is the aspect ratio of the tire, or width of the tire tread divided by the height of the sidewall; the R stands for Radial construction and the last is the size of your wheel in inches. There may be additional letters, like S or Z, these are commonly placed directly before the R and denote your speed rating. (S is rated to 112 mph). Other helpful information, in addition to size and speed ratings, can be found on the sidewall of the tire itself. Temperature, traction, and tread wear ratings can all be found here. All of these will play into the correct tire choice for you, and a good tire dealer will help you decide.

Driving Habits: Now that we know what size tire you need, the next to factors come into play. Driving habits will dictate a lot of what's available to you.

Are you a speed freak, and love the feel of tight cornering and blasting through straight-aways? You'll need a performance tire. These offer superb handling; gripping the asphalt very well. The drawback is that these are made of a softer compound, which will wear out relatively quickly.

Do you drive mainly on highways, and value a smooth, quiet ride? Take a look at a touring style tire. These tires are much more squared off, are made of a harder compound, and usually come with a longer warranty. They will not work well for hard cornering though.

Perhaps you drive a truck and routinely carry heavy loads? Check out the LT rated tires. These have more steel belts, a much more rugged construction, higher temperature ratings, and will do a much better job than a P rated tire.

No matter your driving habits, there will be a tire suited for them.

Geographical Location: What's your local area got to do with tire choice? Lots. If you live in an area with lots of snow and rain, you probably don't want a high performance tire designed mainly for dry conditions. Equally, if you live in the desert, you're not going to be very worried about a rain handling style tire. For a lot of people an all weather tire is a good choice. These tires do an adequate job in wet and dry conditions; however, if you live where there are extremes, choose the features that will give you the best performance and tire life.

Proper Maintenance: Getting the Most Out of Your Tires

Now that you've chosen your tires, had them mounted and balanced and are back on the road, what can you do to make them last as long as possible?

The first thing to do is a four wheel alignment. Your vehicle isn't pulling left or right? That doesn't necessarily mean you don't have an alignment problem. Nine times out of ten, a pull is caused by a tire problem rather than an alignment issue. The best indicator of a vehicle in need of an alignment is tire wear. Unusual edge wear, more on one side of the tire than the other means you need an alignment. You just had one 20,000 miles ago? Alignments can be fickle: hitting a pothole, curbing, road debris and even rough roads will knock your car out of alignment quick. Do a four wheel alignment as needed and with each new set of tires.

Proper rotation is also necessary. Rotate your tires on a regular basis, roughly every 6,000 miles or every other oil change. Tires not properly rotate will begin to cup, and cause noise. In addition, the drive tires (the two wheels which propel the vehicle) will wear out very quickly.

Make sure your tires are inflated properly. Never inflate your tires to the specs on the sidewall. Always use the door placard of the vehicle (remember where that was?). This pressure is specific to your vehicle and will result in the best tire wear. Never adjust tire pressure simply by glancing at the tire. Different surfaces will result in different tire appearance. Make sure you have a good pressure gauge in your vehicle and inspect all four tires every other week. It is normal for a tire to loose 1 psi per month, so check often. Another option is replacing the air in your tires with nitrogen. Many dealerships now offer this, and some service stations are now installing nitrogen machines. Nitrogen is an inert gas, unlike air, thus your tire pressure will not fluctuate with temperature. Nitrogen also migrates through your tire much more slowly than air, resulting in proper inflation for longer periods of time. Proper inflation of your tires will result in better fuel mileage, longer tire wear, and a more comfortable ride.