Winter tired?

You should be — they make a world of difference

December and January have produced some of the nicest spring days in recent memory.

It has been an exceptionally mild couple of months, but as the season has shown us, big snowfalls are lurking just behind the next cold front. In addition, February and March have historically given the GTA its largest snowfalls.

If you do any amount of driving in the winter months then installing winter tires on your vehicle is a must. Today’s winter tires work even when there isn’t snow on the ground. Winter tires contain cold rubber compounds that improve performance once the temperature drops below five degrees Celsius. They also include channeling tread patterns to move snow away from the tire actively, as well as having a greater quantity of tread sipes that help with wet weather performance.

We installed a set of Blizzak DM-V1’s on a 2010 Ford F-150 and headed north where there was snow to see if we could notice any difference.

Bridgestone’s Blizzak winter tires have been consistent top performers in the winter tire segment and have a lot of technology built in to them. Sipes on tires refer to the diagonal slits cut into the rubber, which gives the tires better traction. Blizzak tires have what they call 3D zig-zag sipes that provide multiple biting edges, and thanks to the varying angles throughout, the tire tread maintained their stiffness and helped prevent sliding even with an empty bed.

Many winter tires use a silica filler in its rubber compound to help with wet grip performance but is often distributed unevenly. The rubber used in winter tires are softer than both performance and all-season tires but when it gets colder, rubber with uneven distribution of silica tends to get hard. Using nano protech polymers, the DM-V1’s silica is distributed evenly, keeping the tire soft and in return more of the tire surface is in contact with the road, which results in better grip.

Finally, tiny bubbles aren’t just good in champaign, they’re also good in winter tires. Our set of Blizzak’s have what Bridgestone calls Multi-Cell Tubes. Tube multi-cell is a rubber compound that has tiny bubbles throughout it and on the surface, acts like a sponge. When you drive over snow and ice a thin layer of water is formed — this is what creates the slippage. These bubbles wick that water away giving your vehicle straight contact with the snow or ice, resulting in better grip.

The factory tires on the F-150 and the Blizzak winter tires were like night and day. In a country like Canada when you’re buying a car, a winter tire package should be included in your budget.