Find Out Exactly What to Look For When Buying Used Tires Online

There is a difference between buying a cheap tire and a good tire at a discounted price. The only thing keeping you on the road is your tire, so why would you settle for something that could potentially harm you or worse. You need to make the choice between safety and price. I think we all know what the decision should be. Let’s take a look what you should be looking for in a cheap tire.

Before you start looking you have known what you are looking for. Go out to your car and write down the tire specs. On my Mustang GT I needed 245/45/17 size tires. I also wanted a Z rated tire and one that had at least an A rating. This is part of the UTQG standard that the Department Of Transportation uses to recognize the quality based on tread wear, traction and temperature. If you are going to buy a cheap tire then you need to know what these mean and what you should be looking for.

First of all each one is rated for speed. The Z rating, I was looking for indicates that it is rated for speeds up to and over 149 miles per hour. This should be sufficient for any kind of driving you plan on doing. There are other ratings that each have a specific maximum speed indicated. One thing to remember is that the higher the speed rating the better your vehicle should handle at lower speeds. Here is a list of the ratings and their speeds.

L 75 mph
M 81 mph
N 87 mph
P 93 mph
Q 99 mph
R 106 mph
S 112 mph
T 118 mph
U 124 mph
H 130 mph
V 149 mph
W 168 mph
Y 186 mph
Z over 149 mph

As an example: if yours was a "205/45ZR17 88W" the "Z" indicates that this is rated over 149 mph and the "W" indicates that it has a maximum of 168 mph. The number "88" is the designated load capacity. Each tire has a specific load rating and all you really need to know is that you should keep the load rating the same or increase it. If you choose to get a cheap tire that is less than the recommended load capacity for that vehicle you run the risk of serious mechanical failure
On my Mustang I needed 245/45/17, this is the specific size of the tire including height, width and rim size. It is best to use the same size unless you know that you can fit a different size without having to change the rims and making sure that you have clearance in the wheel wells. You must also take into consideration that going to a different size may also affect the handling and the braking of the car. Today's cars are a lot different than the cars our parents drove. The braking systems are computerized and rely on the proper size tires to function correctly.

The UTQG is one of the most important things to look for if you are going to buy a cheap tire. This is the standard at which each tire is rated. The one I was looking at had a rating of "540 A A". The higher the number the better the treadwear will be. The first "A" determines the traction you can expect and the second "A" determines the temperature the tire can safely operate within. Ideally you will want one that has at least an "A" rating for traction and preferable an "AA" rating.

One last thing to look for if you buy a cheap tire that you have access to is to find the week and year it was manufactured. Each one produced after 2000 will have the week and the year stamped right on it. It will be the last four numbers preceded by the letters "DOT". For example: DOT BFURF7UU 2309. This was produced during the 23rd week in the year 2009. This will tell you how long it has been sitting on the shelf and you can also check if there were any recalls for that particular tire produced at that particular time.

I found out the hard way when I went looking for used tires online. Don't make the same mistakes I made. Visit my website at ourtires.net For more information on how you can get the best price for the best tire.
Read Also: The Benefits of Buying Used Tires