What Effects Tyre Traction
If you had to say what the most important part of your vehicle was, what would you say? Perhaps you would think of the engine, which is essential. You might then think about the steering wheel, perhaps the brakes, and the driver’s seat. But would you have thought about the tyres?
Most people would readily agree that having wheels on the car is important, and this means that the tyres are essential. But would you have realised just how important the car tyre traction is? The key to this lies in understanding how tyre traction works.
In simple terms, the rubber of your car tyre is to your wheel what your shoe is to your foot. When you walk, you transfer the movement energy to the floor via the sole of the shoe. In a similar way, the engine creates movement. This motion is transferred through the gearbox to the axle of the car. This turning motion, or torque, is applied to the wheels of the car. So far, so good. But it is the tyre that creates the forward motion, in that the rubber surface meets the road. It presses into the road surface, creating friction, and this creates forward motion. Without the friction, the car wheels would spin, and the vehicle would not go anywhere.
Because the key to movement is friction, it is easy to understand why high powered sports cars like Formula One vehicles use smooth tyres. This gives the maximum contact between the surface and the racetrack surface, allowing them to achieve extremely high speeds.
But if it is all about surface contact and friction, why are road car tyres not all smooth? Would that not give more control and power? It all comes down to what effects tyre traction. If the lanes and motorways that we drove on were to all be perfectly clear, dry and smooth, then having no grip might be okay. But, as we all know, this is not the case. There are loose stones, pot holes, oil slicks, leaves, rubbish and other materials on the surface and this causes a problem. The friction only works on a dry and smooth surface. Introduce a broken surface and the rubber is more likely to spin and push the wet or loose material away, creating a wheel spin, rather than moving the vehicle forward.
As a result, grip is added with lines and grooves that run in two directions. The grooves running lengthwise around the circle of the wheel allow water to move through and prevent the wheel sitting on a cushion of trapped water. The lines running sideways across the tyre, from left to right, allow it to sink into mud and loose materials to create grip, rather like the way that two cogs in a machine lock together to create movement. Therefore, it is the flat surfaces on the rubber that create the friction and the movement, but the grooves and shapes that make up the grip pattern are what allows the tyre to make good contact with the changing conditions on the roads as well as ensuring good braking. For this reason, tyre tread is an important part of your car’s MOT test each year.
Tyre Traction Codes
Tyre traction codes are used to distinguish between some extreme types of traction. For example, the snowflake symbol indicates a tyre with a grip for winter weather, whereas the letters M+S indicate ‘mud and snow’, a manufacturer statement that they designed the tyre for wet and muddy conditions. However, unlike the USA, which has a set of regulated tread symbols known as UTQG markings, there is no regulated system in the UK for this detail about a tyre.
If you are concerned about the tread of your tyres, contact our experts at Fast Tyre Services. We can help you to see if you have the right type of grip, or if you need a replacement to improve your traction.