Tires (for cars!)

[Cuddly]

Hi

I changed my tires today.
My summertires are awful, old, missmatched and wobbly, so now that I'm back on my wintertires I think I'll be using them for the whole year, from now on. They're not the pin-type-tires that damage the roads or anything, they just have deeper markings than the regular whole-year or summer tires.

I bought these winter tires last year. They were expensive and left a serious dent in my wallet. Now, today, I found out that these tires were all the same. The markings all go in the same direction, on all 4 tires, meaning that the two wheels on the left side have the tiremarkings running in the opposite direction. They're not particularly directional markings, but the tires do have arrows indicating the spin-direction, next to the name and size etc., written on (all?) tires.
So I was wondering if some of you knew anything about this stuff. I used to think it mattered that the wheels had parallel tiremarkings (on the left/right sides), but these ones do not. They're literally 4 exact copies, not 2 and then 2 mirrors.

Other than that, the tires are awesome nonwobbly smooth riding wonderwheels. It's like a completely different car!

[Virge]

HUH?

I use the same tires year round. But then we usually have snowfall from October into at least mid April and often mid May.

Different tires for the left and right sides of cars? I've heard of them but never seen them & winter climate here is comparable to north Sweden and west Russia (-10 to -20 F / -23 to -29 C) Tires here can go anywhere on a car of truck so they can be rotated at regular intervals to prevent uneven wear that causes the wobbling you complain about. Unbalanced and unrotated tires cause structural damage to the car that can lead to disasters while driving --- like entire wheels tearing lose while the car is moving.

Get your tires balanced by an auto shop or tire company for safest travel and the least wear on your car. The bad thing about having tires strictly for one side of the car is that they would be impossible to properly rotate (as I was taught to do it) by changing the front right with the back left and the front left with the back right. Without balancing your tires your car will wobble and gradually wobble more as it wears the tires down unevenly.

For you next tire purchase see if you can get tires that aren't made for one specific side of the car... if you can find them in Denmark.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

They now have all weather tires which have the deep treads for dealing with snow, slush, rain. I would invest in those and carry chains for the blizzards and unexpected cross country drives to escape cities full of zombies.... also makes for a good weapon against zombies when you run out of gas....

In the 21st century there were summer and winter tires, but that ended in the 1970's as too many people stuck with just using winter tires being too fat and lazy to jack up their car one weekend to change the tires.

Further more tires need to be balanced, cars need alignments done, especially your car which was running on a set of unmatched tires that were in bad shape.

I would get my beast's tires rotated once a year at the same time I would have the guys check the discs and pads (brakes) and check balance and alignment. the beast was jacked up, alternating between two wheel and 4 wheel drive. I did take her off road often enough and used her to haul heavy loads and pull a rather sizable trailer.

I kept with off roading/all terrain tires rated for snow (we have the mountains and it snows up there). They were rated for both 'normal' driving and snow. I still carried chains because the passes in the sierra nevadas can get sudden snow storms which can cripple even the best snow tire. That and I constantly worry about the coming Zombie Apocalypse most so since the CDC told us to prepare.

http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm - Shit must be real...

[Cuddly]

In Denmark we still use winter tires. I even think there's a law about it.
It doesn't even snow that much in Denmark, which is probably why we just have the deeper furrows, without studs or chains. Chains remind me of skeeing hoidays... Oh how I miss skeeing.

But about left/right tires, what's the purpose of the arrows then and why aren't the markings symmetrical? Also, my car is from 1996.

[Virge]

In Denmark we still use winter tires. I even think there's a law about it.
It doesn't even snow that much in Denmark, which is probably why we just have the deeper furrows, without studs or chains. Chains remind me of skeeing hoidays... Oh how I miss skeeing.

But about left/right tires, what's the purpose of the arrows then and why aren't the markings symmetrical? Also, my car is from 1996.

I checked the automobile forum I'm a member in and read up on left right tires. 100% of the opinions are they are stupid and would make it impossible to properly rotate tires diagonally on a car.

If you have been running your car on unbalanced tires and having wobbly or pulling to one side -- you need to speak to a mechanic and have him check for any damage to shock absorbers, struts or anything else connected to wheel assemblies --- especially on the front end. It will be better for you to know now and be able to get the work done to prevent a disaster than have a disaster and deal with it instead.