Ever wonder what those letters and numbers on tires mean? While driving on those smooth Canadian roads is fulfilling, ensure you understand your tire size, ratings, and tire load index recommended by your vehicle manufacturer.

Every type of tire comes with those numbers and letters, indicators of what you must look for when buying new tires. Understanding these ratings will help you get the best tires, but you also need guidance from our expert dealers at Tread Nation Canada for the right tire.

What You Need to Know About Tire Ratings

Tire manufacturers know the unique function of these vehicle accessories and how they affect driving conditions. They ensure they meet the required quality standards and expected performance, such as marking the speed rating in sedans, light trucks, and passenger car tires.

Tire speed rating indicates the speed capability, showing the fastest or maximum speed it can handle. It presents its ability to withstand such driving needs without blowouts. So, how do you pick the right tire speed rating for your sedan or light truck? You can check in the manual, the driver’s side door jamb, the glove box door, the gas tank hatch, and others.

But it’s easy to locate on your tire sidewall since it’s in the tire’s size code character sequence. It’s vital to note that the speed capability or rating isn’t the same as the stipulated travel speed, usually denoted by a speed symbol. The rating also exceeds the maximum highway speeds.

This higher speed rating doesn’t justify speeding beyond the legal highway speed limit. Always avoid high speeds and drive within the safe and recommended limit.

What Tire Rating and Grade Means

When you understand how to read tire ratings, you can easily denote:

• Load carrying capacity
• Inflation pressure
• Aspect ratio
• Maximum speed
• Tire size

Tire ratings show the treadwear grade. This is a numerical figure of its wear rate shown during tire testing in controlled environments. It also indicates traction grades, which reflect the tire’s ability to efficiently handle cornering, braking, and control, mainly on wet surfaces. This is an ideal factor for picking the right winter tires.

Temperature grade is another aspect of tire rating used to portray the tire’s capability to dissipate heat. Generally, universal standards have been set to ensure consistency under Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG). This allows tire manufacturers to give their grade and rating mainly on treadwear, traction, and temperature.

Understanding tire ratings is vital for any Canadian driver looking for high-performance tires. Tires are your vehicle’s direct contact with the road, so decoding the correct rating will help you get the right season tires or load index that is not lower than the original equipment.

Benefits of Buying through TreadNation

Your vehicle model, road conditions, and seasons are vital determinants of the type of tires you should buy. Tires are designed in different categories to fit diverse conditions, such as winter, off-road, and summer tires. Picking the most suitable one requires expertise, and TreadNation is the place to go.

When you buy through our dealership, you get top-tire benefits that include:

• Tires at cost, on all-season tires, making it budget-friendly
• Extensive knowledge of your vehicle tire needs
• Free tire rotation with seasonal or purchase changeover
• Tire storage if you have no place to put your tires for next season
• Discounts on oil changes, filter replacement, and everything else you need

Learn more about our expertise and benefits through our dealership in Canada.