> If you delete the "utqgs.html" part of the URL and go to
> http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov./cars/testing/tirerate/, there's
> a little more info there you might want to take a look at.
Yep, I forget sometimes you can do that. =)
> stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu wrote:
> The higher the number, the longer the tire should last. So,
> if a tire has a high wear rating, that just might mean
> that they're really hard rubber and they might actually suck.
> The tires I bought for my 3000GT VR-4 (at $900 per set!!!!)
> didn't have a really great wear rating, but boy did they
> grip! :-) (You have to sacrifice wear for traction, usually.)
> On the other hand, my Firehawk SS-10s have a 400 treadwear
> rating I believe, and they grip fairly good.
>
> Generally, a tire that is rated 400 can be expected to last
> twice as long as a tire rated 200 or 4 times as long as a tire
> rated 100 under identical conditions. That info is given on
> the page at the URL above. However, what they don't tell you
> is that is only true WITHIN A GIVEN BRAND!! It looks like all
> they did was to take the manufacturer's ratings and post them
> on the page, rather than doing their own testing. Its still
> a decent resource, but a bit misleading if you don't know that.
>
> You see, every manufacturer rates their own tires; it isn't done
> by an independent lab somewhere. What this means is that what
> Michilin calls a 400 rating tire might be Goodyear's idea of
> a 200 rating tire. If that were the case, a 400AA Goodyear
> would last twice as long as a 400AA Michilin!! I just
> used Goodyear an Michilin as an example, I don't actually
> know how each compares, and I'm sure the ratings are
> closer than that, but you can see the problem. The treadwear
> ratings are only useful when comparing tires from the same
> manufacturer. They're practically useless for comparing tires
> from different companies. But, they give people a warm fuzzy
> feeling inside and I guess that's all that's important. ;-)
>
> -Jon-
AHA! So I guess experience with some name brand tires
and how they wear kinda gives you an overall perspective
as to how they will perform in comparison using this chart.
Many thanks Jon
GS -
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:18:19 EDT