Quote:
Originally Posted by trickyazn
treadwear does tend to show how soft they are.. (in comparative to tires in their own line up)
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It should give you an idea, but tread ratings are graded by driving the tires 7,200 miles down a circle loop. Worse yet, these tests are conducted by the tire manufacturer themselves! Driving in a huge circle for 7,200 miles does not really simulate the stop and go traffic in real world settings. It also does not take aggressive vs passive driving into considertation. Lastly, a higher tread rated tire will likely sell better than a competing tire will a lower tread rating. This gives manufacturers a reason to fib or be very very optimistic with their product.
Now I'm not saying tread ratings do nothing, I'm just saying that there is a high probability of unreliable ratings and therefore they should be taken with a heavy heavy bucket full of salt.