Changing just one tyre

ontheroad1970

I'm sure I read somewhere that on a dry road, more worn tyres will stop the car more quickly due to friction.  Not that that is a regular phenomenon in the UK

400ixl

Ebe_Scrooge said:

400ixl said:

One misconception to correct is that you best tyres should always be on the rear axle, regardless of front or rear wheel drive. More so on front wheel drive.

On the front you have both steering and acceleration / deceleration control to adjust to any lack of grip. On the rear you have deceleration.

This is a long proven fact, unfortunately too many people don't know it.

There is a good reason for the argument of having the best tyres on the rear, and that's simply because they're likely to have the most amount of grip.  If the front wheels lose grip then you'll get understeer, which most average drivers can cope with.  If the rear wheels lose grip then there's the risk of oversteer, which is much more difficult to control, unless you've been trained or had lots of practice at it.

So yes, your argument that the front wheel provide both power and steering (in FWD cars) is very valid.  I'm just pointing out that there's also a valid argument for putting the best tyres on the back.

I was advocating the better tyres should be on the rear, reading it back it doesn't read as clearly as it should as I missed some punctuation. My bad.

regardless of which wheels are driven the best grip always goes on the rear, for reasons you say.

Ebe_Scrooge

ontheroad1970 said:

I'm sure I read somewhere that on a dry road, more worn tyres will stop the car more quickly due to friction.  Not that that is a regular phenomenon in the UK

That could very well be true.  If you think of Formula 1 cars, they use slick tyres (no tread at all) when it's dry, and use treaded tyres in the wet.  But if they start a race on slicks and it begins to rain, they'll make a pit-stop and change the tyres.  Then if it dries out later on, they'll switch back to slicks.

Obviously in an ordinary family car you're not going to carry a spare set of wheels with you, and stop and change all four wheels every time the weather changes from wet to dry.  So ordinary road-going tyres are necessarily a compromise to suit all road/weather conditions.

I guess the only thing that's slightly akin to the F1 scenario is when people switch between summer and winter tyres.

400ixl

The big part of F1 tyre performance is heat which is why they have inters and wets. The wets have a compound which allows the tread blocks to move around more which generates heat, this is similar to winter tyres on normal road cars.

The other element is the tread pattern which allows the tyres to lift more water which allows for more of the rubber to actually stay in contact with the tarmac and resist aquaplaning which is the biggest risk.