MASTERING TIRE TECH
Not everyone comes to the table with the inherent knowledge of what does and doesn’t make a good tire. Often when shopping for new tires for your truck or SUV, price is the one and only determining factor. But we’re here to tell you that price should be far from the first consideration when you’re looking for new tires. Setting aside the fact that cheaper tires frequently wear out tens of thousands of miles faster than quality tires, meaning in the long run you’ll be buying two or three times as many sets of tires over the life of your vehicle, there’s a safety factory to consider. In many cases, cheaper tires are just way worse. We’ve driven bargain-price tires that made our vehicle super squirmy just driving down the road in a straight line. And that’s not to say anything of cornering grip, longer stopping distances during panic braking, loaded resistance to failure, and more. So, when it comes time to reshod your mechanical pony, cheaper isn’t always the way to go.
We recently picked up a GMC Yukon XL and were thoroughly underwhelmed with the factory-spec tires it was wearing. In addition to some severe chunking of the tread rubber, they offered less than stellar grip for on-ramps and
