Need new winter tires? Try Green Diamond Tires
One of the winter chores for many in the Northern states is putting on snow tires before the weather gets really bad. Now you can put on snow tires from Green Diamond Tire that are environmentally friendly, stud free, and great in bad weather.
Snow tires with studs are bad for the roads. Besides being noisy, the studs can dig grooves in the road when you stop. Water can get in the grooves and turn into ice, making a bad situation worse.
Enter Green Diamond Tire(GDT) who licensed the production process from patent holder New Industries Ltd, of Reykjavík, Iceland. These tires don’t have studs, they have something better, “diamond-hard silicium carbide granules embedded evenly throughout the tire’s tread.” The silicium carbide grips the road and provides better handling and safety than most stud tires.
These tires are remolded from used tires. Remolding old tires keeps them out of the landfill and for each recycled tire, three to seven gallons of oil are saved. The remolding process is not like the old retreads that would leave large chunks of tire treads on roads and highways.
These tires are carefully chosen for their quality. Only the “premium casings” are used as a base. Then they are bead cleaned and brushed. From there the casings are buffed and new tread is applied and the silicium carbide granules are added evenly to the tread. The tires are then balanced and placed in presses for the “mold-in process”. The final step is inspection of the resulting tire.
The Swedish Road and Transport Institute (VTI) tested snow tires from GDT, Cooper, Bridgestone, Goodyear, and Michelin. Of the tires tested, GDT got the highest ranking in steering and braking tests.
Testing was done on wet ice in a climate controlled refrigerated room using the apparatus shown. Tires were tested under locked and ABS braking conditions. Both braking coefficient and slip angle (steering) were measured.
According to Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT), Toyo and Goodyear have tires that use a similar concept. Toyo uses crushed walnuts in the rubber of their G-02 snow tires while Goodyear uses “an ice traction tread compound (enhanced with silica and specialized polymers)”in its Ultra Grip tires.”
The Toyo tires were not tested by VTI but the Ultra Grip 5 tire from Goodyear was tested. The GDT tire performed better in the tests. Neither tire from Toyo or Goodyear is made from recycled tires.
The test results, combined with the environmental savings would point to Green Diamond Tire as the brand to look for. On the other hand, if you don’t feel comfortable with a “remolded” tire, there are the Toyo G-02 and the Goodyear Ultra Grip stud free tires. Regardless of which you choose, remember that stud free tires are quieter and less damaging than studded winter tires.
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