jazz

Author: vivCoding

pages/blog/2025-01-17_tires.md

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+---
+layout: blog/post.liquid
+title: Tires
+date: 2025-01-17
+updated: 2025-01-17
+templateEngineOverride: md
+---
+
+Recently bought some tires for my car. I never was a car guy, but I was forced to learn the basics so I can get maximum control and benefit in deciding what goes on my car. Before comparing tires, I had to understand a little about the type of tires out there.
+
+I'm no expert, here's just my basic understanding
+
+## Types
+
+- All-season (AS) tires
+  - tires that are made for different weather conditions (hence all seasons lmao)
+  - typically have good performance in summer and rain, and offer some traction in winter
+  -
+- Performance tires
+  - aka summer tires
+  - made with a more rigid material
+- Winter tires
+  - tires made for the winter (wowzers who would've guessed)
+  - provides great traction on snow and ice
+  - made with a more softer material than other tires
+
+> Why can't you use winter tires in the summer? They offer great traction in snow/ice, which is very slippery. They must have great friction. So why not use them in other seasons as well?
+
+It's a dumb question, but to my newbie mind, I was confused about this. The reason is because the material is softer, so if you bring it to a dryer environment, it may wear down quicker. Also, because the material is softer, it actually can't provide very good traction on dryer roads (cannot grip it well, since it's soft). Because of this, you actually lose maneuverability and increase braking distance.
+
+There's more to that, but that's the general gist.
+
+## Car service terms
+
+Stuff I should've learned way before.
+
+- Tire rotation
+
+  - helps even wear among tires
+  - can be done in a variety of different patterns (X pattern, simple back/front swap, etc), best to look up car manual
+
+- Wheel balancing
+
+  - aka tire balancing
+  - ensure wheel is "balanced" when spinning (make sure it doesn't vibrate/jerk to one side)
+  - two factors can affect the balance: tire and wheel
+    - typically can only adjust the wheel though!
+  - involves adding/adjusting weights to the wheel
+  - different types of balancing
+    - Static
+    - Dynamic
+    - Force
+
+- Wheel alignment
+  - aka tire alignment
+  - Ensure wheels are aligned (duh)
+  - Types of angles (look at a picture, makes things easier)
+    - castor
+      - may want a little bit of a positive camber, depending on vehicle
+      - negative is towards front, positive is towards driver
+    - camber
+      - negative towards car, positive away from car
+    - toe
+      - negative is toe-out, positive is toe-in
+    - steering angle
+  - typically they align the back wheels first before aligning front (the back serves as a base)
+  - if cannot adjust wheel angles (e.g. wheels attached to back axle), may need studs (I think that's what they're called)
+
+<img alt="*insert cat furiously typing gif here*" src="/assets/images/blog/cat_typing_fast.gif" width=200 height=200/>
+
+<img alt="*insert cat furiously typing gif here*" src="https://tenor.com/view/install-cat-install-cat-mechanic-car-gif-10374861516634201437" width=200 height=350/>