tire wear rating #'s

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

the higher a tire's wear rating is, say 300, vs. 160 (current set of yoko avs intermed) the harder the rubber compound is? am i correct in this assumption?

can a high wear rating such as the high 200's mean less traction? i realize that once the tire is heated up even a high rating will soften up but a lower rating will heat up faster and be stickier by nature? please advise

thanx

masraum · 08-20-2003, 10:36 AM

It's not an exact standard, but in the most general sense, yes, if the number is higher then the rubber will be harder and will stick less. I believe those numbers strictly are supposed to be a wear indicator, so the other is not necessarily dependent on that number.

As I understand it this is not any type of hard and fast standard and can vary across manufacturers. I have also seen a company release a tire as a replacement to another tire with a higher number that supposedly sticks better.

Usually you are pretty safe assuming that a 450 will not stick as well as a 300 which will not stick as well as a 140 which will not stick as well as a 40.

sammyg2 · 08-20-2003, 11:03 AM

I think that DOT sets a minimum standard of a tread wear rating of 50 to be street legal, you can bet they won't last long but are very sticky.
Anything under 150 will usually be a very high performance tire, anything over 300 is a tire designed to last a long time and will usually not stick very well although tread wear design and construction have as much to do with traction as rubber content does.

IROC · IROC's Garage

Like Steve said, these numbers are pretty useless when comparing tires from different manufacturers. There is no "standard" that the tires are measured against when this number is molded into the side of the tire. It is most useful when comparing tires from a certain manufacturer. For instance, a 100 treadwear rated tire from Yokohama will most likely wear faster than a 200 treadwear rated tire from Yokohama.

"Stickiness" is a function of more things than simply the treadwear rating, also. A certain treadwear rating isn't necessarily indicative of how sticky the tire is....

Mike

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

my quiry has to do with my current avs intermeds yoko's and research im doing for new rubber. the yoko avs es100 have a 280 rating and the intermed have a 160. i really like the intermed's and im concerned the high rating will put me back into a tire i wont like. i had a previos set of coopers that were a 300 rating and they were like stones, no grip at all.

i have searched for threads on the avs es100's and they have not been too informative. can anyone comment on the tire?

thanks for confirming my thoughts mike, steve, and sammy.

ChrisBennet · ChrisBennet's Garage

Some of the newer tires with Silica in the compound stick well AND wear pretty well (for a performance tire at least).
-Chris

sammyg2 · 08-20-2003, 12:33 PM

Sometimes tire rack has comparison articles on certain tires, maybe that have one about those tires.

KTL · 08-20-2003, 01:08 PM

I have the ES100 and it's a solid performing tire. Breakaway is pretty progressive and they seem to have plenty of grip in the corners (street driving). Not too noisy either. They don't feel quite as sticky as my other Kumho Ecsta MX tires, but i'd have to attribute that to significantly different tread designs and tread depth (the MX is 2/32nds shallower than the ES100).

I'm pretty sure the ES100 is the replacement for the Intermediate. Both are tires from Yoko's AVS (Advanced Vehicle System) performance tire line. Although the treadwear between the two is noticeably different, I believe the ES100 is a comparable, if not better tire than the Intermediate. Hence the reason for the discontinuance of the Intermediate model. No reason to continue producing an old model tire like the Intermediate when it is outperformed by the newer tech. and pretty much equivalent cost ES100.

Mike and Chris also bring up a very good point about the rubber compound issue. Treadwear and grip are not necessarily 100% directly related.

Here's a good example. Look at the Bridgestone tires. The S-02 has a treadwear rating of 140. The S-03 has a 220 rating. Folks around here give nothing but high marks for the S-03's all around (especially in the wet) and if you read the reviews at Tire Rack, you'll find that even with the greater (on a rather small scale) tread life of the S-03, performance/grip doesn't suffer when compared to the S-02

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

CB's point is pertinant. The first thing I look for is the silica in the tread compound. I have found that tires w/ this ingrediant are outstanding performers, that includes performance summer, performance winter and skinny bicycle tires.

They both grip and wear well.