Tires

There is always the question about which is better. All season or winter tires? The answer will always depend on your current driving habits, conditions and where you live. For most of Vancouver Island, we get very little snow and lots of rain. In these conditions, in most cases we will recommend a good all season tire, from one of our recommended and trusted brands.

All season tires can handle some winter driving but most effective for spring, summer & fall. Many vehicles come factory with all season tires to provide a quiet ride, decent tread life and year round performance.

During those winters when it does snow, we recommend mounting a full set of winter tires on your vehicle, or a second set of wheels with winter tires. This will help improve safety by increasing traction, and decreasing the chance of losing control while driving on snowy, wet, ice covered roads.

One of the biggest misconceptions about winter tires is that they only provide more traction or grippier tread patterns, for the icy or snowy roads. There is another reason winter tires are better for the colder temperatures. Winter tires have a different “recipe” or formula in the actual tire compound. The rubber is designed to stay more pliable in the colder temperatures, keeping your traction at its maximum during cold days, even without snow on the road. Think of it this way; In cold temperatures all season or summer tires become hard, like hockey pucks, and lose all pliability on the road.

It is also important to remember to remove your winter tires as spring arrives. If you leave them on too long, the rubber will wear down faster on heated or dry pavement. As the effect is the exact opposite when you have higher temperatures with your winter tires.

At the end of the day, all season tires are a good option for drivers who want year round performance and don’t frequently deal with driving in extreme cold, ice and snow. But we always recommend owning a set of winter tires…just in case.

There are so many other types of tires we sell, including All Terrain, Mud, Light or Medium truck tires and so much more! Please head over to our blog section and keep an eye out for our updated post about additional tire types, sales, recommendations and more.