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The sidewall of a tire includes lots of important information. Some of it is obvious and other parts of it require some research. Consider the UTQG rating, which stands for Uniform Tire Quality Grade. Tire Expert Near Me>>

What are UTQG ratings?

This system is an American creation and is a way to help consumers make more informed tire-buying decisions. Each tire manufacturer has its own tire grade for tread wear, traction and temperature. These numbers makes up the UTQG rating. The system is a three-digit number and two sets of letters. For example, 500 AA A.

If you’re shopping online for all-season tires, for example, and you came across the Cooper ZEON RS3S, you’d see the UTQG rating ‘500 AA A,’ like this:

Tread wear (the durability rating)

This portion of the rating is the set of number, such as 500. This number designation is designed to give you a picture of the durability or life you can expect from your tire. The higher the tread wear number, the longer the tread wear will last. In this case, a higher number is better than a lower number.

This rating is based off a 100-tread wear control tire. If the tire being tested gets a 500-tread wear rating, that means it’s expected to take five times as long to wear out as the control tire. The tread wear grade designation is defined when the tire is run a 640 kilometer course for 11,520 km, with tread depths being measured every 1,280 to give a projected tread life.

Traction (the safety rating)

The second two letters in this example refer to traction. Stopping power in wet conditions. The highest traction grade is AA, followed by A, B, and C. Tires with an ‘AA’ traction rating should stop at a much shorter distance than a tire with a ‘C’ rating. Notice how this UHP Cooper ZEON has a stopping rating of AA.

Temperature (the heat resistance rating)

Heat is a major cause of tire damage and blowouts. Due to the stress of the continued torque and contact with the road and other surfaces, energy is continually converted to heat. The hotter the local weather, the hotter tires get from nature, which is addition to the heat produced by the use of the tire. The temperature rating, tells you how well a tire is able to resist heat build-up. That heat resistance is graded with an A, B, or C, with ‘A’ being the highest and ‘C’ being the lowest.

The UTQG Rating System Is A Bit Flawed

The system is great concerning knowing the durability, traction, and temperature allowances of a tire, but remember the manufacturers provide the grades over their own tires. So it’s more of an internal comparison of tire to tire with a company. It can have some disadvantages when aiming to compare one company’s tires versus another’s. It is a great resource to aide you make more informed decisions when you’re comparing summer, all-season, winter or all-weather tires, but remember it is somewhat a subjective rating system. Tire dealer near me>>