Types of Tires: Your Vancouver Tire Shop Explains The Difference

When it comes time to visit your local Vancouver tire shop for new tires, for some, the variety of options can be dizzying. There is a huge assortment of sizes, tread patterns, features, etc. But making sense of them all and determining which type of tire may be your best choice can actually be much easier than you may think.

To help make the process as smooth as possible at your tire shop, this article provides an overview of the different types of tires and how to determine which one may be the best choice for you.

A Breakdown of the Different Types of Tires Available

As we will get into more below, the type of tire you need will be highly dependent on the type of vehicle you have and what you expect to get out of your tire. So, here is an overview of the type of tires separated by the kind of vehicle they are best for.

Sedans, CUVs, and Minivans

The tires that best fit these vehicles are made for reliability, handling, and comfort, including:

All-Season Tires 

All-season tires help maximize comfort and offer smooth driving conditions on the highway and city streets. More importantly, they provide good traction in almost every weather environment (except in sub-zero temperatures with ice).

Touring Tires 

If you are looking for the smooth ride and traction that all-season tires offer but need more responsive handling and performance, touring tires are a great choice. These tires usually have higher speed ratings, so they provide good control at faster speeds. 

Summer Tires 

Designed to work best in warm weather conditions, summer tires offer more traction and responsive handling compared with all-season tires, even in both dry and wet weather. But their soft rubber means that they are unsuitable for use in cold climates.

Winter Tires 

Winter tires, just like the name implies, are designed to provide traction, stability, and handling in cold weather conditions. These tires can easily handle weather conditions that all-season tires don’t do well in, like snow and ice.

Performance Tires 

Though many variations of all-season tires are geared toward performance, they’re not the same thing as actual performance tires. Performance tires are designed for use on “sports” cars and offer a higher speed rating while also providing good traction in varying weather conditions, especially wet weather.

Trucks and SUVs

Larger vehicles like these need a tire that can adequately carry the higher weight of the vehicle and withstand the driving terrain. The types of tire options for these vehicles include:

Highway Tires

Highway tires are essentially all-season tires made for larger, heavier vehicles like trucks and SUVs. They are designed to provide a smooth ride even while supporting more mass at higher speeds. These tires have tread patterns that provide good traction during all seasons.

All-Terrain or Mud Tires 

If you frequently drive off-road on uneven surfaces, both of these types of tires can help provide comfort and traction in those tricky environments. All-terrain tires have deeper, more complex tread patterns that perform well in sand, dirt, and gravel. Mud tires are sometimes even larger and are designed to handle deep mud and other less solid terrains easily.

Determining Which Type of Tire Is the Best Choice for Your Vehicle

When determining which option in new tires is the best fit for your vehicle, there are two very important things to consider:  

• The tire size and weight capacity: Knowing the specific tire diameter that fits your wheels and how much weight your tires need to carry will quickly narrow down the options available to you. This information can be found in the series of letters and numbers on the sidewall of your current tire as well as in your vehicle’s owner’s manual.
  
  
• The kind of driving you’ll be doing: Some form of all-season tires are usually fine for most drivers since they are made to perform well in a variety of weather or road conditions.
  
  But, for example, some drivers may need to switch to winter tires during the cold and icy months (like we sometimes get here in Vancouver). Or, for another example, if you are going to be driving your truck or SUV off-road a lot, all-season tires aren’t going to cut it.
  
  It mainly comes down to what your driving needs look like and which tires get the job done best.

For a Tire Shop in Vancouver You Can Trust, Look No Further Than Gaynors Automotive

As you can see, there are a variety of different types of tires, all made for specific types of vehicles and needs. But, with the information above, you should be able to more confidently narrow down the options when you need to shop for new tires.

When you need a top Vancouver tire shop, you can count on the experts at Gaynors Automotive! You’ll find knowledgeable tire professionals at each of our convenient locations who can answer any questions you may have, help you narrow down options that will fit your vehicle, and assist you in determining the best choice for your needs and budget.