Have you checked the forecast lately? Winter is quickly approaching, which means it’s time to prepare your vehicle to handle the slippery conditions that characterize an Illinois winter. Shopping for winter tires near Shorewood IL is a great start and will lead you to Thomas Nissan of Joliet. We’re a full-service automotive center dedicated to handling all your automotive needs, especially when snow is in the forecast.
At Thomas Nissan, we are proud to help Shorewood drivers winterize their vehicles for the coming months. We’ll ensure your car, truck, or SUV is ready for Shorewood’s snowy conditions and frigid temperatures by conducting a thorough inspection, accessing the heater, defroster, exhaust system, battery, lights, and other critical components. But our work doesn’t stop there.
Investing in reliable winter tires is one of the most critical steps to prepare your vehicle for winter in Illinois. As one of Illinois’ leading tire centers, the Thomas Nissan team is here to help. But what makes winter tires essential to navigating your weekday commute into Aurora, running errands in Joliet, or heading into Chicago for a weekend in the city? You’ve got questions, and we’ve got answers!
Our work starts now as we dive into the importance of winter tires and how they’re different from all-season or all-terrain tires. From there, we’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions about winter tires and explain why it’s never a bad time to shop for a set of high-quality winter tires. Are you ready? Let’s get started so you’re one step closer to enjoying Shorewood’s upcoming winter wonderland.
Many people believe that their vehicles can handle even the most severe winter conditions as long as they have all-wheel drive and a set of all-season or all-terrain tires. Unfortunately, this isn’t entirely true. While all-wheel drive is advantageous, it can’t effectively work if you don’t have the right set of tires providing maximum grip or traction. Despite the name, all-season tires can’t do this because they aren’t made to withstand frigid conditions.
The rubber in an all-season tire becomes rigid and inflexible as temperatures plummet. As a result, all-season tires lose traction or their grip on the road, which is essential to your safety as conditions become slippery. This is where winter tires play a critical role because they’re made from a unique rubber compound that maintains flexibility as temperatures fall. Instead of stiffening, the rubber in a winter tire optimizes its grip on the road to maintain traction.
Along with the unique rubber compound, a winter tire looks different from the outside. For example, winter tires feature unique tread patterns and a deeper tread. This design allows the tread to minimize buildup, channeling snow, water, and slush away from the tread to enhance traction. Additionally, winter tires feature more biting edges or siping. These sipes optimize traction on ice, making winter tires a necessity when navigating ice-covered roads.
Because of their unique rubber compound and design, winter tires are a must-have for Shorewood drivers. When paired with all-wheel drive, they can make a dramatic difference in your time behind the wheel throughout the winter. For example, instead of spinning four all-season tires with minimal traction, the all-wheel drive system spins four tires specifically designed to maximize traction. As a result, the all-wheel drive system is more effective and gives you more control behind the wheel.
When do you need to swap your all-season tires for winter tires? How do you maintain your winter tires? What’s the best way to store your winter tires in the off-season? Here are all the facts you need to get the most out of your winter tires.
The only way to know when to switch from all-season to winter tires is by watching the weather. Once you notice that the temperature in Shorewood is consistently around 40 degrees, it’s time to make the switch. This gives you plenty of time to swap your tires before you notice a dramatic loss in traction or control in your all-season or all-terrain tires.
Monitoring the air pressure in your tires is essential year-round, but even more so in the winter. Colder temperatures can dramatically decrease the pressure in your tires, which can create hazardous driving conditions. By monitoring the pressure via the tire pressure monitoring system or with a traditional tire gauge, you can optimize your safety by ensuring your winter tires are properly inflated and ready for the road.
Shorewood winters typically last from late November to March, so you’ll spend about three to four months driving on winter tires. During this time, you’ll oversee routine tire maintenance just as you would with your all-season or all-terrain tires. For example, you’ll have your winter tires rotated with regular oil changes, make the necessary repairs if you have a flat, or have them balanced or aligned as needed.
Once temperatures stay above freezing, you can swap your winter tires. During the off-season, we recommend storing your winter tires in a cool, dry environment away from direct sunlight or extreme heat. Ideally, the tires should be covered and kept in a garage where they’re out of the way and protected from the elements.
Tires are your vehicle’s only point of contact with the road. However, we often forget about their significance until the unthinkable happens, and we’re navigating our commute into Chicago or Aurora in the middle of a snowstorm, or we’re stuck on the side of the road in Juliet with a flat. But what if we gave our tires more thought? What would that look like?
Taking a proactive approach to your tires starts with knowing that it’s never a bad time to shop for winter tires. Thomas Nissan of Joliet is here to help with all your automotive needs, especially finding and investing in quality winter tires. Rather than waiting until the last minute when temperatures quickly fall toward freezing or snow is in the forecast, we can help you have peace of mind year-round. For many, that peace of mind is priceless and comes from knowing they already have a set of winter tires within reach and a team that can quickly install them.