Collin: ”No, then the tire is not at all explode”
It is not the first time I hear that Däckskiftarna trying to trick people new winter tires for the old is ”deadly”.
Sometimes, customers have bought new, in good faith, sometimes they have gone to a regular tire center and received the (good) council to continue driving on the old tires a year or two.
Däckskiftarna is a chain with pop-up stations where you can quickly and easily, without an appointment, can add on to winter tyres and back to summer tyres in the springtime.
They set up their däckbytar-tent at various shopping centres around Sweden. But sometimes the content is not to add on to the tires the customer has with them in the skuffen. Sometimes they are a little well säljssugna.
In Aftonbladet and Viafrees monitoring program 200 seconds says a däckskiftare to a customer that they are minimal cracks in the tire, where the expression \
So what is it? True or false?
”No, the tire won’t explode!”
If we start with the sajpningarna, which can resemble narrow cracks in the tire, they are a requirement for a without studs winter tires to gain traction on ice and snow. They are when the tyre is new, and they must be so deeply cut that they are still there until the tyre should be discarded. At approximately 3 mm tread depth. In the good decks are the left all the way down to just over 1 mm tread depth.
grains of sand in a sajpning is no danger. The tire will not explode! It is thrown out again when the car gets momentum, and the worst that can happen is that the car behind gets a small stone chip in the windshield.
Cracks in the tire is usually the so-called torrsprickor. They often occur on the sidewalls. Not so often in the tread (not in the däckmönstret). Torrsprickor may be rarely the first five, six years. And they are not dangerous as long as they are superficial.
Deeper torrsprickor in the sidewall can be dangerous if it enters water, and the däckkonstruktionen takes damage. It consists of steel and can rust. Torrsprickor in winter tyres can be if they go all the way down the carcass to drop into the water which can then freeze to ice and then cause so-called däckseparation, to the rubber drop from the frame. And then, return the tyre to explode.
But there was definitely no such cracks as däckskiftaren pointed to, and warned.
does not Wear as fast as summer tyres
So what do you think of? When is it time to change to new winter tyres?
Lagkravet is that the tread depth shall be at least 3 mm.
But here there is a problem. A winter tyre does not wear as fast as summer tyres. A winter tires can look like new after ten, fifteen years! And thus be fully legal.
But is it any good? Not at all! Despite the fact that every stud is still (if it is a studded, of course), and the pattern looks as new can the grip be bad (on all road conditions; ice, snow and asphalt). For in winter tires is a large part of natural rubber.
In the summer has long gone over to 100% synthetic rubber (type of plastic).
But the plastic gets too stiff in the cold and grip poorly.
Referred to the Aftonbladet däcktest
Therefore still used natural rubber in winter tyres ‘ däckblandning, and natural rubber is aging not-so-good. Vinterdäcket starts to solidify after a few seasons and is as bakelite after eight, ten years. (The aging process is slowed down if the deck is washed clean from the saltslask, kept cool and in the dark, but can not prevent.)
the EU has a regulation that says that summer tires do not get worn down below 1.6 mm tread depth. It is, to say the least generous. So worn is the tire often worthless, in particular, to cope with aquaplaning. When we would introduce a special law on winter tyres in Sweden planned administration to the same mönsterdjupsgräns would also apply to winter tires. Even worse!
I remember the conversation I had with then trafiksäkerhetschefen at the Swedish national road administration Claes Tingvall, when he told me about the bill. He intended to legislate on the same minimum approved tyre tread depth in the summer season. I was referring to our däcktester and explained that the 1.6 mm was completely unacceptable. While Tingvall said that the EU would never agree to a different tread depth.
But the EU had no observations at 3 mm, And so it was.
▪▪ Change before the tire is worn to 3 mm, so says the law.
▪▪ Change before the tire become older than perhaps five to eight years, the rubber becomes too hard. The week of manufacture is stamped in the sidewall with four digits. Week and year.
▪▪ My own tips, after years of vinterdäcktester: if you Change winter tires already at a five mm. If you can afford it. And want the best grip. But not for a däckskiftare says to \