Tire Concerns: Wet traction and road noise in All Season Radials
by Shawn
(Tacoma, WA, USA)
I'm getting ready to purchase new 225/55-17 tires for my 1993 Cadillac Seville (base model) that weighs 3625 lbs and has 4-wheel discs & 4-wheel ABS.
I live in an area where we get a higher than usual amount of rain, sometimes very heavy. So I'm looking for a decent tire that will handle well on wet highways since I live near and drive on so many.
I also want a tire that will grip well from a standing start and not break loose too easily. But everytime I find a tire I think will be good, I encounter reviews that claim the tires I'm thinking about are really loud.
Maybe I can't have both wet-weather traction AND a quiet tire, I'm not sure. This is the reason for my question.
Would a tire with bigger blocks and bigger gaps between them have less wet traction and/or more noise than smaller blocks and smaller gaps? One thing I notice in reviews are how many opinions are like night and day! One tire might have half the people saying they get better traction than any tire they ever owned, but the other half of reviews might say they got the worst traction! I'm losing my mind!
Here are the tires I've pretty much narrowed down my choices to. I'd prefer a performance All-Season but would settle for a nice Touring tire. Any advise on quietest and best wet traction would be appreciated.
BF Goodrich Traction T/A
General Exclaim UHP
Bridgestone Potenza G019 Grid
Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS
Goodyear Eagle F1
Goodyear Eagle LS2
Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S
Riken Raptor HR
Riken Raptor ZR
Yokaham Avid Envigor
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Editorial Comment:
To be completely frank, I don't have first hand knowledge of all the tires you've listed, so telling you what I think would be best would be prejudicial.
I will, however, give you some of the things that I would take into account if I were in your position. This may help you make a choice.
First, you seem to have two issues in mind. Wet road traction, and tire noise.
To begin with, it would be helpful for you to decide which of these is the most important, because, you may have to sacrifice one to maximize the other. If you go for an all season tire, you will be getting something which will less than optimum in all categories in order to give you a little bit of everything.
Problems with traction on wet roads is often the result of aquaplaning in which a tire literally "floats" on top of a thin layer of water which does not escape from below the tire.
A tire designed to minimize aquaplaning typically has a tread pattern which seems for form a "V" when you look at it. The tread openings allow the water to be expelled to the sides of the tire as opposed to being "trapped" inside the tread area. Look for this kind of tread design for maximum wet road traction.
Tires with large tread blocks and wide openings between them tend to be noisy because of the harmonics caused by the air movement. Some creative designs are able to minimize this by varying the size of the openings around the tire, but generally speaking the smaller the openings between the tread blocks the lower the noise.
The best traction is given by a tire with the most amount of tread in contact with the road. So, slicks, provide the very best traction and quietest ride, but you would have the worst case of aquaplaning with slicks, which is why they are not commonly used in consumer tires.
Now you have some of the theory to understand the basics of what you face. Add into this your preference of how you feel about the looks of the tire and your budget and you're ready to make a choice.
As with all choices, you're not likely to get everything, so before you start, decide what things are most important to you and let your priorities guide you.
TG