Originally Posted By: krzyss
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
A Bit OT:
I feel a bit jealous about some being able to run dedicated summer tires like Michelin PSS, etc.
ALthough my ZHP handles so good on summer tires, I just can't justify paying for different tires in different seasons, and I want to be safe in rainy and light snow weather, too.
Guess my search for good UHP/HP All-seasons will continue.
Have Conti DWS right now, and 75% happy with them, but flatspotting when parked is making me wonder about something else for the future...
Very curious about General G Max 03
Do you know that most summer tires are very good in the wet? Even better than all seasons which must use hydrophilic compouds for winter traction.
There are dry only summer tires but you do not need to buy them (Kumho XS is one of dry focused summer tires - C&D called them diabolical in the wet).
Krzys
Hydrophilic compounds help with wet traction. Most tires (even summer tires) these days contain more and more silica, which is supposed to help with all-temperature flexibility, reduction of rolling resistance, and to prevent chunking. A side benefit is that the silica is inherently hydrophilic.
There's static properties to water. Of course water results in hydroplaning at a macro and micro level, but wettability of the compound helps where the rubber contacts the pavement. I know it sounds odd, but you can see this by getting a wet piece of paper to stick to a wet surface, while a similar weight sheet of plastic won't.
Here's an interesting pieces from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab:
Quote:
http://www.jhuapl.edu/ott/technologies/technology/articles/P03636.asp
We plan to use the commonly used sio2 filler but with different morphology for improving the overall rubber stiffness—i.e., lowering the rolling resistance—and, because of the hydrophilicity of silica, the wet traction will improve at the same time. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is well equipped to make these nano-sized silica structures (electro-spinning) and has a well-established sol-gel process for making them.
We've gone over this debate before in this forum.