Bill Gardiner, Motoring TV contributor – http://www.motoringtv.com/
Bill Gardiner, the resident mechanic on TSN’s Motoring TV show, has quite the resume.
After graduating at the top of his class in the late ’70s with an automotive mechanic license, he started up his own automotive repair shop and eventually took on the job of automotive columnist for The Toronto Star’s Wheels section. He held the columnist job, which saw him write the popular Trouble Shooter column, from 1986 to 1997.
So when it comes to looking for an expert to talk about the importance of winter tires, Gardiner is a logical choice. Read on to learn more about what Gardiner had to say about winter tires…and about why be insists that an absorbent towel is critical this time of year.
Carpages.ca: Winter tires are highly recommended during this time of year, and now legislation is offering a new incentive for consumers who use them. Can you tell us more about that?
Gardiner: Winter tires can deal with slush, with freezing rain, with slick roads, low temperatures and just provide you that superior performance that you need for safe winter driving. The Ontario government quite recently has mandated the insurance companies to give motorists a five per cent discount if they’ve got two sets of tires. So if they’re switching to winter tires each year, they’re going to get a five per cent discount. Approximately 50 per cent of the insurance providers were already doing that for their clients, but the other 50 per cent are going to have to fall in line. It sends a really clear message to motorists just how important a safety issue this is.
Carpages.ca: There are people who might say, ‘My all-seasons work just fine.’ Can you explain some of the benefits of winter tires over all-seasons?
Gardiner: [A]ll-season tires perform pretty well down to roughly between five and seven degrees Celsius….Below that, the rubber in an all-season tire is just not gripping enough. It’s not flexible enough at low temperatures to provide the grip you need. All-season tires also don’t have enough void ratio, they’re not aggressive enough on the tread to clear snow and slush from the tread area, and they don’t have enough sipes in them – those are the little zig-zag kind of cuts in the tread rubber that allow water to evacuate the tread contact patch. A winter tire has all those features. It’s flexible below seven degrees Celsius, it’s got a very aggressive tread for slush and snow, [and] it’s got lots of sipes to get that water out of the contact patch so that you can get proper grip.
Carpages.ca: Now that you’ve explained the superiority of winter tires over all-season tires during the winter season, how about some tips on how Canadian motorists can go about finding the right set of winter tires for their vehicles?
Gardiner: If you go to goodyear.ca and look into the Ultra Grip family of winter tires. You’re going to get lots of information there. You can put the parameters for your car – the make, model and year. Anybody that’s done the switch is already sold….You do have some people who are stuck on the one set…and run their all-seasons all year….We all know that when the weather gets really rough that the vehicle is so much safer on winter tires.
Carpages.ca: Are there circumstances where it’s okay to go with a pair of winter tires and a pair of all-season tires rather than with a set of four winter tires?
Gardiner: The tire industry has said for many years that if you’re only going to replace two that the two best tires…should go on the rear axle of the vehicle. Of course, with the front wheel drive vehicle people are thinking, ‘Well, I want to put them on the drive wheels so I get the traction to move through the snow.’ But the situation is that if you have a big discrepancy between traction available between the front axle and the rear – [and] if you go into an off ramp or a corner with a little bit too much speed and you try to brake and turn the car at the same time – the car will want to swing out on you if you’ve got poor tires on the rears. So in other words if you had brand new or winter tires on the front and all seasons on the rear, the car could be a real handful in that situation. That’s why they recommend to put four winter tires on and then the vehicle’s just a lot more stable, predictable and drivable in the winter.
Carpages.ca: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Gardiner: When I see other people talking about winter car safety, one thing that I never hear anybody mention is the fact that…you really need a really good absorbent towel or cloth close to the driver…because every once and a while you’ll get a situation where the windows will fog on you even though the car is up to temperature. A perfect example is if you get in and out of the vehicle and your clothing is wet and the heat is on in the vehicle, sometimes just that moisture from your clothing can cause the side windows to fog up. You need to have a cloth nearby that you can grab quickly so that you can see safely.
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