Winter Tires vs. All-Season Tires

2023 Ford F-150

In Lafayette, we experience truly epic winter weather. While you might be fine driving on all-season tires down south, it’s not going to cut it on the streets of Indianapolis in February. Take a moment to learn all about the differences between winter tires vs. all-season tires, as well as about special considerations to make regarding tire pressure in winter and winter tire storage. If you’d like to install winter tires, explore our parts specials and contact the parts center at Ford of Lafayette to learn about the many options we have for your Frankfort vehicle. 

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Differences Between Winter Tires vs. All-Season Tires  

If you live in Delphi, it’s pretty important that you put winter tires on your car by December. Still, let’s take a look at the different advantages that each type of tire provides.

 

Winter Tires: 

  • Feature a unique rubber compound that can withstand freezing temperatures without damage, while staying flexible in brutally cold temps to maximize traction. 
  • Include a specially designed tread with deeper grooves and more complex tread patterns designed to maximize traction on ice and snow. 
  • Provide an edge when it comes to cutting through ice-buildups and snow banks, thanks to the “biting” designs featured along the edges of the tire.  

 

All-Season Tires: 

  • Are much quieter than winter tires, thanks to smoother tread grooves and edges. 
  • Provide performance with better fuel economy numbers than winter tires, because they’re less frictive on the road, thereby easing the burden placed on the engine. 
  • Tend to last longer than summer or winter tires.           

Winter Tire Storage Tips

If you’d like to install winter tires for your vehicle, you’ll need to make sure you take them off in the Spring. While they perform well on snow and ice, they can hamper performance and fuel economy on dry roads, and they’re quite noisy. Because of this, you’ll need to take them off and store them. When storing winter tires: 

 

  • Clean them before you put them in storage, as grime and salt will corrode the tread and decrease their lifespan. 
  • Keep your winter tire storage area clean, and make sure they’re stored at room temperature. 
  • Stack them on top of one another and rotate them now and then in order to avoid developing deformities, buckles, and wear.  
  • Fill them to the correct tire pressure, because tire pressure in winter always drops. 

Install Winter Tires Near Delphi at Ford of Lafayette 

Now that you’ve compared winter tires vs. all-season tires, and glanced over our winter tire storage tips, call Ford of Lafayette at (765) 257-2896. We’ll guide you through all of the different brands of winter tires we carry and facilitate installation at our service center if you like. Before you call, however, explore our service tips for other help regarding car care!