All Season vs Highway Tires

Have you ever tried to play basketball while wearing cowboy boots? Or maybe done some heavy outdoor construction work wearing a pair of ballet slippers? Of course you haven’t, but that little analogy should give you an idea of how important the right tire is for the right kind of conditions and vehicle. The right tire for one kind of driving might be all wrong for different conditions, and a tire that’s great for one vehicle might be a terrible choice for another.

First off, though, let’s go back a few decades. Before 1977, drivers would have to switch over to heavy, clunky, noisy “snow tires” or “mud grips” when winter came around, then switch back when things warmed up again. Goodyear saw the problem and answered the need with the first all-season tire designs. Since then, all-season tires have become the biggest-selling tire category of all, and all-season tires are used as Original Equipment on just about every sedan, minivan, or crossover you can think of.

All-season tires are designed to be a good compilation of long wear, low noise, comfortable ride quality, responsive handling and braking, and dependable year-round traction, on wet or dry pavement, or in light snow. An all-season tire might also be capable of going off the road from time to time, at least on gravel or in very light mud.

Highway tires, on the other hand, are designed primarily for pavement. They deliver a smooth, comfortable ride with low noise, great handling, and excellent straight-line stability and road manners on the interstate, but they aren’t built for anything but tarmac. What they do offer over all-season tires is enhanced handling and cornering ability, with increased grip on wet or dry pavement, and a center rib that boosts steering response as well as straight-line stability on the highway. Highway tires might not deliver the responsiveness and cornering ability of ultra-high-performance tires, but they are usually a bit better than all-season tires can offer.

The difference between highway and all-season tires

We can break this down into bullet points.

ALL-SEASON TIRES:

• Long wear, with tread life warranties as high as 90,000 miles
• Tread pattern is designed for traction in wet weather or in light snow and slush
• Rubbed compound designed for low noise, even wear, and good braking and cornering performance
• Some all-season tires are M+S rated for mud/snow traction

HIGHWAY TIRES:

• Lower noise and improved ride quality (great choice for luxury sedans, and SUVs)
• Pavement only
• Tread life warranties comparable to all-season tires
• Lower profile casing
• Winter traction might not be as good

Highway vs all-season tires fuel economy

Here’s one where highway tires have the edge. Highway tires are designed for lower rolling resistance, meaning it takes less energy to get the vehicle moving and less energy to keep it going down the highway, hence lower fuel consumption. That said, the most up-to-date all-season tires can deliver low rolling resistance as well, but it’s not as integral to the tire’s design and mission as it is with a highway tire.

ADVANTAGE: Highway tires

Highway vs all-season tires in rain

This is more or less a tossup. All-season tires have circumferential grooves, lateral grooves, slotted shoulders, and a dense pattern of sipes to augment traction in wet weather, but so do most highway tires. Upper-tier highway and all-season tires also use a rubber formulation that’s enriched with silica to boost traction in wet or dry conditions.

ADVANTAGE: Tossup

Highway vs all-season tires in snow

This is one where all-season tires get the edge. Like we mentioned, all-season tires are designed for year-round traction with a tread pattern that’s capable in light snow and slush (although probably not in heavier winter weather). That’s not the design of highway tires – they’re likely to lose their composure when there’s more snow on the road.

ADVANTAGE: All-season tires

Highway vs all-season tires tread life

This is one where the playing field is fairly even. Tread life for all-season and highway tires both can range anywhere from 50,000 miles to 80,000 miles, with treadwear warranties to back that up.

ADVANTAGE: Tossup

When to use each

This all comes down to your expectations for a tire, really. All-season tires are a good jack of all trades/master of none, with year-round traction that only falls short in deeper snow and heavier winter conditions. Highway tires are designed for improved ride comfort and low noise with sharp handling properties and less of an emphasis on year-round traction.

Which one should you choose?

Again, that comes down to what you drive, what your weather conditions are like, how you drive, and what you’ll use your vehicle for. If you’ve got a daily driver sedan, minivan, or crossover that’s used for grocery getting, kid-chauffeuring, etc., then all-season tires are probably going to be a good choice. If handling, ride quality, low noise, and road manners are a priority (maybe at the expense of year-round grip), then highway tires might be the way to go.

Whatever you choose, you can bet that SimpleTire will have a great deal on a set of highway tires or all-season tires for whatever you drive!