All season or winter tires?

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:15:09 GMT

What tire fits your driving style best?

In Minnesota we see all four seasons, although it feels like three of those are winter lately. When choosing new tires for your vehicle it is best to plan for the weather.

For most passenger cars and mid-size suv's, tire options are broken into 3 categories. All season, All weather, and Winter.

An all season tire offers good traction through the warmer months as well as exceptional tread wear at 60,000-80,000 miles. This tread wear is accomplished by having a tighter tread pattern and very hard rubber compound. The trade off for the extended tread wear is a significant drop in cold weather/winter performance. This type of tire is the standard option for most of the country as they offer good traction in most weather conditions.

A winter tire offers the greatest traction in winter that a tire can offer. wide tread voids, ample siping, and a very soft rubber compound allow these tires to gain and hold traction through snow and ice. If winter driving is a daunting task then this is the tire for you. The downsides of this type of tire are worth mentioning. Due to the soft rubber compound the tread wear is significantly lower and very dependent on temperature. Because of this no tread wear guarantee is available. To avoid this trouble most customers purchase and swap between summer and winter tires with each season. This comes with the extra cost of a second set of tires as well as the annual labor to swap them.

All weather tires are the happy medium and the choice for my family. a harder rubber compound with siping and larger tread voids for better traction. These tires boast a 50,000-65,000 mile tread wear rating while maintaining robust winter traction. no need to swap tires with the seasons or store a second set in your garage. These are a fairly new addition in the world of tires but an obvious choice in the colder climates of the world. This is the type of tire i put on all of my vehicles as well as my families vehicles.

How to know when spark plugs need replacing

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:32:36 GMT

Am I causing damage to my vehicle by not changing my spark plugs?

When should I have my spark plugs replaced and what damage can be caused if they are not changed? This is a question that we are asked frequently so a post seemed fitting.

Spark plugs are used to ignite the air fuel ratio inside of the cylinder firing the cylinder. Each of these combustion events causes wear to the spark plug electrode. In the past spark plug electrodes were made of a copper or nickel compound. These soft metals made good conductors for the spark to travel through, but would wear heavily with each spark. Because of this spark plugs were replaced around 30,000 miles.

Nowadays spark plugs are constructed with a platinum or iridium electrode. These electrodes wear at a significantly slower rate with replacement suggested around 100,000. Due to the exotic materials these spark plugs come at a significantly higher cost but are worth it due to the quality improvement and savings from the longer service interval.

But what happens if the spark plugs are neglected past the 100,000 mile service interval? as the electrode and ground strap wear the gap between them becomes larger. The further gap the spark has to travel the more likely a misfire becomes. This is even more notable in turbocharged applications. The extra strain from the large gap can cause damage to the ignition coils as well.

When a misfire occurs the air fuel mixture that should have burned on the combustion stroke is sent straight to the catalytic converter. The catalytic converter does its best to burn off this raw fuel but is not designed to handle that quantity of hydrocarbon and overheats damaging the catalyst sub straight. In a short amount of time this will cause failure of the catalytic converter.

This is the worst case scenario and one of the most difficult conversations we have with our customers. A very expensive repair that could have been avoided with proper maintenance. To avoid a situation like this we suggest customers follow the oem maintenance schedule and suggest repairs as those intervals come up.

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All season or winter tires?

What tire fits your driving style best?

How to know when spark plugs need replacing

Am I causing damage to my vehicle by not changing my spark plugs?