Okanagan tire company independently tests its products for winter driving

VERNON – A well-known Okanagan based automotive company claims it’s the first Canadian tire retailer to independently test tires in winter conditions.

Kal Tire says it hired an independent testing company to rate 19 of its most popular tires for ten conditions including braking, cornering, hydroplaning and road noise.

“We wanted to give drivers greater and more relevant information about how tires really perform in everyday winter conditions in Canada, and we also wanted to be able to show people how 3-season (all-season), all-weather and winter tires compare in their performance,” says Kal Tire spokesperson,Carey Hull, in a news release. “Between the range of tests conducted, the calibre of the drivers and the technology used to capture the data, this is an incredibly sophisticated and comprehensive tire testing program.”

The key findings:
Winter tires, on average, stopped 14.68 metres sooner on ice compared to 3-seasons
-Winter tires stopped in 30.1 m
-All-weather tires stopped in 35.5 m
-3-season tires stopped in 44.8 m

All-weather tires, on average, stop 77 cm sooner on wet pavement (from 70 km/hour) and 33 cm sooner on dry pavement (from 90 km/hour) compared to 3-season tires.

Winter tires are nearly three times better at holding corners on ice than 3-seasons.

Studless winter tires aren’t noisy. On average, all-weather and 3-season tires emitted the same amount of road noise, and winter tires were 1.6 per cent quieter than all-weather and 3-season tires.

On slush straight-line tests, professional drivers rated:
-Winter tires an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars
-All-weather tires an average of 4.3 out of 5 stars
-3-season tires an average of 2.4 out of 5 stars

Comprehensive results are available at Kal Tire outlets and on-line at kaltire.com/testing.

The company says it will release test results on a further 57 passenger and truck tires in the spring.