How many tires do I need?
Since tires affect the personality and performance of your vehicle, all four tires should be as identical as possible or handling problems may arise. If your tires don't match, it is possible that one end of your vehicle won't respond as quickly or completely as the other, making it more difficult to control.
What is the right size for my vehicle?
A tire's first requirement is that it must be able to carry the weight of your vehicle. No matter how good a tire you select, if its capabilities are "overworked" just carrying the load, it will have little reserve capacity to help your vehicle respond to quick emergency. So when you are in the selection process, make certain that your new tire's size is designed to carry the weight of your vehicle! Don't undersize.
Do I need summer tires, winter tires, all-season tires?
Do you drive your car only in sunshine, or also through rain and snow? Do you drive your light truck on the road, off the road, or are you the one responsible for clearing the land to build the roads? To successfully meet each of these driving conditions requires a different type of tire. Ask yourself these questions to determine which performance category you should choose from: What is the worst driving condition I will encounter? What are the typical driving conditions I will encounter? Balance the requirements of your driving conditions.
Why is it that the price of fuel for our vehicle seems relatively inexpensive while the cost of its tires seems high?
(Of course you already know that the we try to keep your tire costs as low as possible!) If we keep track of our total costs we will find that typical total fuel costs for just 10 to 20 thousand miles of driving actually exceed our tire costs. And believe us, we've found that the quality and performance of our tires has a lot more to do with our driving satisfaction than our fuel does.
When should I replace my tires?
Find out if your tires pass the "Penny Test."
Place a penny into several tread grooves across the tire. If part of Lincoln's head is always covered by the tread, you have more than 2/32" of tread depth remaining.