When you have a bigger car like an SUV, you tend to be more safe when driving compared to normal passenger cars. This is based on survival statistics from accidents. In an SUV you sit higher up and you have a heavier vehicle. These heavier and larger SUVs will require different tires with different features than car tires. This is because both the height and weight of the SUV require that the SUV tires will be stable when you drive and that you have tires that can still offer these heavy vehicles a short braking distance.
SUV tires will need to be able to handle the higher weight and both lateral and longitudinal grip to compensate for the side forces caused by the taller vehicle. When it comes to tires, you have all-season tires for the warm seasons of the year and then you have winter tires that you should use during the cold period. You can also use all-weather tires that are a combination of all-season tires and winter tires, they will act as all-season tires during the warm seasons and will provide good grip on dry and wet tarmac and then when the cold winter weather arrives they will act as winter tires and provide excellent grip on snow and ice. This gives you very good flexibility and protection for the whole year.
Using all-year round tires gives you a lot of flexibility as you never have to worry about having tires that are not good for the weather conditions, which can happen when you have all-season tires and you end up with snow and ice covered streets and all-season tires can’t provide you with the necessary grip on these conditions as they aren’t approved for winter use. All-season tires are basically summer tires with the wrong rubber compound and tread for winter use.
With all-weather tires that are approved for winter use, they have the severe service emblem on the sidewall of the tires. This means that they can safely be used during the winter time and can be used anywhere were winter tires are required. The good thing is that they are much safer than tires with M+S marking as these have passed performance tests. The M+S marking is mere an indication that the tread pattern is optimized for heavy solids.
When you only use one set of tires for the whole year it is important that you even out differences in wear between the front and the rear tires, which is caused by various factors. This can be caused by if it is front or rear wheel drive, weight distribution, curve taking etc. You should change the tire placement, i.e., rotation of the tires when you notice a difference of more than 5/64 inches. This is why you need to measure the tread depth when you notice this difference and change to new set of tires when you reach a tread depth of 5/32 inches.
For more information regarding all-weather tires for SUVs, visit: www.nokiantires.com