The best way to battle the changing weather conditions during the year is to have two sets of tyres and change them during the year before and after the winter season. This should be done so that you always have winter tyres on your vehicle during the winter season when you have winter conditions. Changing between tyres allow you to have the best tyres for each season and the best safety and performance from the tyres. It is always difficult to design tyres so that they can manage the big difference in weather conditions. This is why you will need to change the tyres. During the summer you will need much different type of tyres, tyres that are performing well on dry and wet asphalt and can manage high speeds and have good cornering properties. The tyre should also have good properties for preventing aquaplaning.
Summer tyres would perform very poorly in cold and winter conditions as the rubber compound used in summer tyres are optimized for warm temperatures. This means that at low temperatures, the rubber become very hard and would not be able to provide the necessary grip required during the winter. This is why you need to change tyres to a set of winter tyres. Winter tyres uses a completely different rubber composition. They use a composition that is optimized for cold weathers, so that they stay soft and able to comply with the road surface for optimal grip.
With winter tyres you can also choose if you want to have non-studded or studded tyres. The studded have metal studs protruding from the tread to create good grip. This will be the best option for icy surfaces. For the non-studded tyres, they use a unique tread design to create the grip on ice, which give you still good grip, but not as good as with the metal studs. When it comes to snow, both these tyres will perform good, except on tightly packed snow, which becomes almost like ice and here again the studded will be better.
Using dedicated tyres is the best option for making sure that you will stay safe all year round. The main challenge will be when to actually make the change. With studded tyres you often have restriction on the period that they can be used, but you want to make sure that you have them mounted on your car before the winter weather arrives, as it is not safe to drive without them on your car.
For some areas all-weather tyres can be a good alternative to changing tyres, you might not have the same performance as the dedicated tyres, but you have convenience as you can drive all year round without having to change tyres. You do need to make sure that they are winter approved and of high quality, as they will need to handle both summer and winter conditions in a safe way.
For more information regarding summer and winter tyres, visit: www.nokiantyres.com