Tyres are very essential to any vehicle. As without them you can not move. They come in four legs and a spare when ever you purchase a new car and ofcourse you can also go around and you see people who purchase in bulk and sell as distributors to individuals around the country.
While most people ask if wider tyres are better than narrower tyres. I do think that wider tyres are better than narrow ones because most tyres, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, which also provide a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface.
Tyres provide a footprint that is designed to match the weight of the vehicle with the bearing strength of the surface that it rolls over by providing a bearing pressure that will not deform the surface excessively.
In this post, we will be looking to answer the question why are wider tyres better than narrower tyres
For various reasons, drivers do change their tyres for ones which have a different width to the ones that came as standard. Regardless, there are limits to how much extra width you are allowed on a wheel rim.
Benefits of wider tyres
- Wider tyres generally give better lateral grip (even though the same weight of the car is spread over a wider area)
- Wider tyres often look more aggressive
- Wider tyres can give more grip when accelerating, meaning less likelihood of wheel-spin.
- Wider tyres tend to mean more effective braking performance as there is more rubber in contact with the road.
Disadvantages of wider tyres
- Wider tyres tend to be heavier and this creates more inertia to get moving, but it also affects the braking, meaning the brakes need to be stronger to arrest the wheels’ motion. This is especially a concern on large SUVs
- Wider tyres are proportionally more likely to pick up road debris such as a nail through the simple fact that they cover more road area
- Wider tyres on the front of the vehicle make the steering heavier due to more rubber in contact with the road and a heavier overall wheel weight
- Wider tyres on the front leads to a larger turning circle because the wheels cannot turn as far without the tyres contacting the inside of the wheel well
- Wider tyres are more expensive than narrow tyres (as long as we’re talking about standard-width narrow tyres, not specialist tyres for veteran and historic vehicles). This makes sense because :
- they contain more raw materials (rubber and metal)
- they are larger and heavier meaning they are more expensive to ship
- once over a certain size, they are produced in lower quantities, meaning fewer economies of scale in the manufacturing process
- very wide tyres are often specialist tyres for which the tyre company knows it can charge a premium
One thing to note is that high performance tyres are usually wider than average. Most passenger car tyres are between 175-205mm wide, while hyper-cars can run rear tyres above 335mm.
Should you get wider tyres in Nigeria?
If you want your car to look more aggressive, then a wider tyre is an easy way to achieve this. On your existing rims, it’s often possible to increase the width 20mm. If you want any more than this, then you will need to change the rims to accommodate the wider tyre.