How well do you know about the types of tyres available? Drivers living in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres have a strong understanding of tyre types. Afterall, they need to replace winter tyres to prepare for snow in winter area.

Unlike people who stay near the equator like Hong Kong, drivers have no idea what these types of tyres actually meant to them. I have got customers, even tyre retailers, get confused with all-season for rainy season.

Whether you are passenger drivers, light truck drivers, or heavy truck drivers, you should read more below to find out and understand more about these tyre types to get what suits you the most.

Summer Tyres

In general, summer tyre isn’t just for summer period. According to various tyre manufacturers like Michelin, Continental, Gooyear etc, it’s advised to start using summer tyres when the region temperature rises above 7 degree C. That includes Spring and Autumn season.

Therefore, places like Guangdong including Hong Kong, Taiwan, South East Asia like Thailand and Singapore usually just install summer tyres. (The winter in Hong Kong these days remain around 7-8 degree C and above.)

Summer tyre has the best performance (dry and wet grip, fuel efficiency, control, noise level etc) level out of all the tyre types. It’s designed for warm temperature condition. Therefore, summer tyre is not suitable for regions that will drop below 7 degree C. Summer tyre rubber elasticity decreases when temperature gets cold, resulting in loss in performance.

Example of summer tyres model and tyre tread:

Summer tyre tread usually have less sipes compared to winter/all-season/all-weather tyres.

Winter Tyres

Drivers start to replace their summer tyres to winter tyres when temperature starts to drop below 7 degree C and their regions will have heavy snow during the winter season.

Winter tyre is also called snow tyre, specially designed for vehicles that drive on the snow. Winter tyre have two categories – studless winter tyres, and studded winter tyres

Studded Tyres

According to Michelin, Bridgestone explained, studded tyre have small metal pins embedded in the tread for better traction on icy surfaces. Because of the metal pins, the tyre can damage the cleared road. Hence, using studded tyres are legal binding in most places.

Non-studded / Studless Tyres

It’s usually used in winter snowing season instead of studded tyre. It got more sipes, deeper tread depth for better traction on snowy road.

You won’t find winter tyres in hot climate regions. It’s not suitable to use winter tyres in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yet, there are few cases where Hong Kong consumers get winter tyres when they purchase parallel imported vehicles from Japan.

It’s strongly advised to replace these winter tyres as they consume more fuel and worse wet grip than summer tyres in Hong Kong.

All-season Tyres

Many Hong Kong drives mistake all season tyres are more suitable for rainy weather compared to summer tyres. Depending on the season, temperature, and road condition, places like Hong Kong, Singapore install summer tyres actually have better wet grip than all season tyres.

All season tyres have more sipes than summer tyres to accommodate mild snow. Unlike all-weather tyres, all season tyres are actually self-validated. It has “M+S” (Mud + Snow) imprinted on the sidewall, but it does not have 3PMSF (3 Peak Mountain with Snow Flake) logo. In other words, it does not have third party test to verify its snow (and mud) ability.

Interestingly, some particular brands state the tyre model with “M+S” but its tread pattern look just like summer tyre.

Example of all season tyre models:

Northen Guangdong estate in China may snow in winter. With North Bound Travel for Hong Kong drivers go up to China for leisure, drivers can consider all-season tyres over summer tyre if they often go to China for self-driving trip especially during winter season.

Another special thing about all season tyre is its UTQG treadwear is normally higher value than summer tyre. Normally at least Treadwear 450 or above. On the flipside, it is usually noisier than summer tyres.

All-weather Tyres

The true all season tyre. These tyres have 3PMSF logo (drive on snow), and may also have Ice Grip Symbol (tire passed international ice performance tests) depending on the tire model. Not all-weather tyres can drive on ice afterall.

Some truck tyres, 4×4 tyres models in Hong Kong are all-weather tyres.

Conclusions

It’s important to know the types of tyres and how to differentiate among all of them even if you stay in hot climate region like the equator area. Some of you may rent vehicle while travelling to oversea during winter. It is important to find out if the vehicle is installed with all-season / all-weather / winter tyres.

Besides, more Hong Kong drivers applied for North Bound Travel permit to drive to China for trip. it’s of paramount importance to learn the types of tyres and get prepared to change your summer tyres to winter / all season / all weather tyres if you are travelling Northen Guangdong estate like Shaoguan and Qingyuan during winter.

Hong Kong market normally sell summer tyres in general. However, some particular stores start to sell different all-season tyre models. It’s vital to understand your needs and driving habit. Installing a wrong type of tyre could lead to dangerous consequences.

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