Following the tragic accident at Passara where a buss plunged 200 feet the Sri Lanka Police has taken a keen interest to check for vehicles with worn tires. Both the accident and the police action have led to an interest in replacing tires. How ever it is important to note that not every tier is equal. Here is my advice from almost 20 years of tire hunting experience for 4 vehicles.

Every Tier is Different

Tires are manufactured for the respective climates. In countries like United State and Canada some will swap tires seasonally. In my understanding here in Sri Lanka we use all weather tires.

Tier properties vary from brand-to-brand and from product-to-product even within the same brand. The material, structure and the threads are what contribute to the driving quality of a tire. Some tiers roll the road better and quieter than others.

I moved from Yokohama tiers to Dunlop as I couldn't find stocks for either Yokohama or Michelin. I could only find 2 Michelins and 3 Yokohamas. Trust me, I know this for a fact.

How I choose a tire

Vehicle tiers endure a lot of stress. Even at still they carry a weight close to 2 metric tons. Then we push then to their limits doing rapid acceleration and rapid deceleration when break. On top of all that we have poor road conditions and pot holes. When push comes to shove your survivability depends on the tiers more so than how good your vehicle is.

This makes me very cautious when I choose a tier.

I do some research. I will contact importers and check with them the available tier models and their country of origin. I ignore any tiers originating from India, China and Taiwan. Call me paranoid but I don't trust their rubber. Then I go online and try to find performance data for the remainder. The property I am interested in is the noise output.

I use Yokohama tire noise (dB) levels as a point of reference. I know for a fact it has a decent ride and low noise levels. In my last purchase, out of the brands with stocks, I only could find data for Pirelli and Dunlop. Both had a driving experience lower than Yokohama. Pirelli was the worst of the two. Driving noise was more like Michelin ~= Yokohama < Dunlop < Pirelli. As a result I decided to buy 4 Dunlops.

Driving from the tier store back to home I felt what the data suggested. The driving experience was noticeably worst than my older Yokohama tiers. The Yokohama sets were only semi worn out. You can feel and hear a considerably higher levels of a hum in the tiers. I wish I used them longer as they still had threads and wait for restock of Michelin or Yokohama. But the feeling came to fade over time, but I still feel the hum.

Conclusion

Changing tiers on times is important. Some thing equally important is getting a good set of tiers. This is especially true if you are concerned about driving pleasure and if you drive a lot. We in Sri Lankan need to start tier hunting months before we might need them as they are not always in stock. Brand wise I can only personally recommend Michelin and Yokohama for a good driving experience. Dunlop is a decent choice. It is a little cheap but not as smooth. Pirelli is a reliable tier but its known for being noisy.