In our series on winterizing your car, truck or SUV for the McHenry winter of ’21-’22, this post is all about traction. But it’s not all about winter. 

We are not only on the cusp of winter, we are even closer to that moment in relation to Halloween. And with Halloween, traction may prove critical with all those little ghouls out and about in McHenry this coming Sunday.

Traction is important when you want to get your car, truck or SUV going. It’s also critical while you’re driving down the street. It’s probably most critical, however, when you want to stop.

Traction is based on the ability of your tires to grip the road, so to speak. Imagine if you had no tread on your tires – your tires were bald as Uncle Augie’s head. What kind of traction could you expect with tires such as those?

In other words, you want tread on your tires. There is a certain point when the tread has worn away on your tires to the extent where you need to replace them. Not only have they lost their edge in terms of traction, there is a legal requirement for the amount of tread required on your tires.

Tires are required to have a minimum of 1/16-inch (2/32-inch by code – not sure why the government requires that this depth be read in 32nds) of tread. 

You can check your tires tread using a penny. The penny test involves sticking a penny into the tread of your tire with the top of Abraham Lincoln’s head going in first. If the top of Lincoln’s hair extends below the level of the treads, it’s time to replace your tires.

Here, we’re talking about the minimum amount of tire tread required. But do you want to go through the winter with the minimum of tire tread? There is a solution that doesn’t require scrapping the tires on your car.

Snow Tires make piles of sense in a McHenry winter

Snow tires are designed for, well, snow. The treads are specifically designed to give you traction in the winter. The thing with snow tires, and the reason we don’t usually drive them year round, is that they make a little more noise on a road without snow. The additional grip they offer is not required in the summer months.

In the winter, however, they do wonders providing that additional grip on the road you’re looking for. Since you don’t want to use them in the summer, the solution is to change out your tires for winter.

You can purchase a set of snow tires and have them mounted on your car in time for winter – in time for Halloween, in fact. Then, many auto repair shops will store your all-season tires over the winter. You can put them back on in the spring.