Performance PK Competition of SUV Tire Selection Guide

Before making any purchases, you will ask yourself whether it is useful to buy it, what are the uses, and is it worth buying? The same goes for changing SUV tires, you need to ask yourself what your needs are before you can make the best choice. The purpose of changing tires

There are three types of commonly used SUV tires: HT, AT, and MT, which represent the three usage orientations of high-speed pavement, all-terrain, and mud respectively. Why so classified? Because the HT's sidewall and crown are thinner, the tread pattern is thinner, and the tire quality is softer, it is basically an oversized car tire, which is very suitable for driving on asphalt roads in cities and highways. On the other hand, AT tires are a moderate molecule. They are not noisy and wear out quickly on asphalt roads. They are not easy to be pierced by nails when walking on bad roads, and they are easy to climb sand slopes and mud roads. MT is at the other extreme. The noise, wear, stability and safety on the road are completely ignored. It only cares about whether it can pull several tons of body in the slippery quagmire.

With this basic concept, everyone will not be at a loss when choosing tires. If your SUV is simply a means of transportation in the city or a means of fast movement between cities, then HT is of course your inevitable choice. In this case, you just use the large displacement, large space and large volume of the SUV to show your difference. In essence, you are just driving a wagon with a raised platform, so the extra size Car tires are perfect for you. Many new luxury SUVs are now equipped with urban HT tires, precisely because they emphasize road performance.

If you are a little ambitious and like to drive your car to go wild sometimes, go with a team or go to the countryside alone to find some wild fun, but do not avoid the necessity of being commonly used in the city, AT is very suitable for your SUV . Of course, you will encounter bad road sections or even no roads when you walk around. HT tires may be killed by stone nails or something at any time at this time. Even if this is not the case, you may suffer from insufficient friction on bad roads. Difficulties, and AT can basically avoid these problems, as long as it is not used to do the drudgery of pioneering cattle, AT can meet all your wild requirements.

If you're serious about tossing your SUV (or off-road 4x4) with a mud bath every time you go out, then it must be fitted with MT tires. M refers to Mud, which is made for mud, why not let it play in the mud! The thick blocks of the MT tires threw the mud away like a propeller paddling water, and easily carried the car forward. If you put it on the asphalt, it would be a nightmare, it will roar and protest your injustice to it, and finally sink into the object of artificial destruction very quickly.

Maybe you don't quite understand the real difference between the three of them now, but that's okay. We have received strong support from BFGoodrich. With the help of the SUV tire testing method learned by BFGoodrich's race specialist from Australia, it is convenient to Intuitively let you know their respective characteristics. From this, you will also understand why it is wise to choose SUV tires according to the real situation you use.

Asphalt Test

Tranquility

Tranquility is a key part of tire performance. Most people don't want to turn their car into a tractor, so tires Tire noise while driving is the first thing you should consider. The test shows that the tire noise of HT, AT, and MT increases in turn, especially MT is 6 decibels higher than HT. This value is not only recognizable by human ears, but also the noise of MT is concentrated in the middle frequency, which is easier to detect than the middle and high frequency of AT. . In fact, the difference of 1.5 decibels between AT tires and HT tires is almost negligible, because it is difficult for the human ear to judge the volume change within 3 decibels. This shows that HT is the quietest on asphalt roads, AT is second but very close, and MT is not suitable for long-distance asphalt driving unless you are not afraid of tinnitus.

Braking

Braking performance is always the most important tire selection criterion, which is directly related to life safety. Tests have shown that all three tires have fairly good braking performance. In particular, the HT is worthy of the tires specially designed for use on asphalt roads. Even if the braking test is performed at the fastest speed, it can still completely stop in the shortest time, distance and maximum braking acceleration (without ABS). What is surprising is that the difference between AT and MT is almost zero, and the test value of MT is even better than that of AT. We infer that the rubber compound of the MT tire is more focused on the grip performance of the asphalt road than the durability, so there is no less performance data than the AT tire. However, the high teeth of the MT tire lead to "softness". After each braking, the body cannot keep a straight stop. During the braking process, the dynamics of the body is unstable. If there is ABS, this situation will be significantly improved). This result shows that the braking efficiency of HT, AT, and MT on the asphalt road is successively lower, and the MT is not suitable for long-distance asphalt road driving.

Handling test

We drove the Landwind X6 with three kinds of tires to conduct the pile-round test on the asphalt road and gravel road. The results show that the gravel road is indeed the world of AT tires, not only the speed The fastest, and most direct and responsive to the road surface and the driver's steering. The extreme difference of the asphalt road surprised us. Although the order of HT, AT and MT is also worse, the difference between them is very small. From then on, it can be concluded that BFGoodrich AT and MT tires also pay great attention to the asphalt road, and the road performance is not very good. A lot of difference.

Off-Road Test

Mud Removal

Whether it can shake off the mud as soon as possible after running over the dirt road is an important performance to show the off-road capability of a set of tires. If the mud can't be shaken off and fill up the tread pattern, the tires can't maintain their proper grip, and they will lose the ability to keep going. In the test, we found that in the dry mud, the mud removal performance of the three tires is almost the same. The MT tire is not easy to get rid of the dry mud because of the larger groove; and in the wet mud, the mud removal performance of the HT is only Clearly bad, with evenly distributed mud in the grooves and worse mud drainage at the edges. The mud removal of AT tires is obviously much better, and the MT tires have almost no wet mud adhesion. Sure enough, the mud is the main battlefield of MT tires. Grip

In the climbing test on a 40-degree mud slope, the HT was obviously unable to do what it wanted, the engine speed kept rising, and the wheels also turned faster, but the car could not go up, and finally the car could only stop at the half-slope and slide back to the bottom of the slope. The AT's performance is much more relaxed and comfortable. As long as the refueling is slowed down, the tires will slip slightly, and the body will actively climb up to the top of the slope. The performance of the MT is even more outstanding. The tires only occasionally slip, and they can go up to the top of the slope smoothly. The ease of the two can't be compared, which reflects its super grip on hard mud slopes.

Immediately after the tires run over the mud, perform a 40-degree concrete climb test. As a result, at the beginning of the uphill, the HT tires had almost no grip because the tread was covered with mud, and there was a situation of serious idling and returning to the bottom of the slope. But on the second try, the tires had shed some of the mud and held onto the road to climb up the top of the hill. The AT has good mud removal, and the sidewall mud has been thrown relatively cleanly, and it quickly grabs the ground, but the subsequent strength is not as good as the HT tire, and it completes the climb with a little slippage. The performance of the MT is actually better than that of the AT. It is better than the HT at the beginning of the climb, and even better than the AT or even better than the HT at the back. Tests have shown that MT tires perform well on both mud and concrete slopes. They are well compatible with the slow-speed grip of both types of road surfaces, which is truly admirable.