It’s officially Summer, and one question our customers are asking us is “What’s the difference between Summer tires and All-season tires?”.

A valid question considering more new cars are forgoing all-season tires and come with brand new Summer tires, especially on sport or touring vehicle models. While there are some big differences between the two, its the subtle differences you may not notice that actually count the most. We’ll get into it nice and easy here on out.

Want the TLDR?

The down n’ dirty of it is that all-season tires perform better in the shoulder months of the Spring and Fall, while high-performance summer tires will track best in the *surprise surprise* Summer. When it comes to longevity, you can put money on the all-seasons for outlasting the summers kilometer for kilometer.

ALL-SEASON TIRES

The first visible difference you will notice between all-season and summer tires is the tread pattern. This is the pattern of grooves, blocks, and siping that make up the contact patch of a tire.

On most all-season tires, a uni-directional tread pattern is present. This design is suitable to efficiently redirect liquids such as rainwater when driving while maintaining a relatively quiet level of road noise.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUMMER TIRES

Most high-performance summer tires exhibit an aggressive arrowhead or otherwise directional pattern on the tires to maximize grip when cornering and to disperse liquids at high speeds. This makes for better traction in wet or hydroplane scenarios at the expense of road noise as directionally-aggressive patterns will produce more sound off the ground.

ALL-SEASON TIRES

Rubber compounds used in All-Season Tires are engineered to provide longer tread life than Summer Tires, which have shallower tread depths. They tend to provide ride comfort, handling, and other performance attributes suitable for most drivers.

With a moderate rubber compound, All-Season tires perform well in warm weather, but they may offer less grip than Summer Tires, sacrificing some steering, braking, and cornering capabilities. This trade off is necessary for all-season tires to be able to provide acceptable performance in light winter conditions and provide longer tread life.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUMMER TIRES

Summer Tire rubber compounds are soft, built for agility around corners, and for flat-out speed. The tread compounds of summer tires are softer, designed to remain more flexible, allowing for better traction and grip. Summer tires may have shallower tread depths that allow for more stability when pushed closer to their limits. The softer, shallower rubber compound does result in considerably faster wear over time than All-Season Tires.

ALL-SEASON TIRES

All-Season tires are made and priced for “everyman” vehicles. This means they’re more often than not available in your required tire size whether you drive a Hyundai Elantra with 15″ tires or want to lug 31″ tires on your Truck.
Price-wise the all-seasons are typically lower in cost than Summer performance tires in part due to the rubber compounds used.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUMMER TIRES

High-Performance Summer tires can be made to fit most sizes and styles of vehicles, but are mostly for sport applications. This results in a low-profile sidewall to the tire, maximizing grip and rigidity through corners. Something like the picture above wouldn’t fly on a Jeep or SUV!
Price-wise these types of tires are more expensive than comparable All-Season tires. This is because of the added R/D and softer rubber compound used to develop the tire.

OVER INFLATION

A clear indicator of an overinflated tire is an excessively worn centre portion of the tread . Wear in this area of the tire is a direct result of the tire riding on the centre portion of the tread making that area support the entire weight of the car and ultimately causing the tire to wear unevenly and prematurely.

UNDER INFLATION

Low tire pressures or consistently under inflated tires are the main cause of this type of treadwear. When the tire is under inflated, the outer edges of the tire are forced to support the entire weight of the vehicle, which causes these areas to wear quickly. Correcting the tire pressure to the recommended inflation pressure will cure this issue.

FEATHERING

Feathering is a treadwear condition in which the edges of the tire tread ribs develop a slightly rounded edge as well as a sharp edge. The most common cause of this type of treadwear is an incorrect toe-in setting (front tires are pointing inwards at the front of the vehicle), which can be corrected with an alignment.

ONE-SIDED WEAR

One-sided wear occurs when one or more inner or outer ribs wear unevenly or faster than the rest of the tire, which indicates that a wheel alignment is required. This indicates that there is excessive camber in the suspension causing the top of the tire to lean too far inward or outwards putting high load levels on these areas of the tread.