How are Alltoura tyres developed and tested?
4th December 2023
The primary benefit of all-season tyres is that they can adapt to different temperatures and weather conditions, making them a convenient and safe option to use from season to season. Due to this, all-season tyre development involves stringent testing in the wet, dry, ice and snow to ensure they meet the required standards. Our Alltoura 4-Seasons range is no exception.
What goes into the development of an all-season tyre?
There are special considerations to be made when designing an all-season tread pattern, as each tyre element must work optimally to handle the varying conditions. We have two all-season passenger car tyres in the Davanti range: the Alltoura 4-Seasons – suitable for smaller passenger cars – and the Alltoura H/T 4-Seasons, for SUVs and larger passenger vehicles. After many years in development and various rounds of testing, the Alltoura tread pattern has evolved to ensure no area of performance was compromised.
One of the initial patterns designed for Alltoura 4-Seasons had sipes, which performed excellently in winter but resulted in the tyre being too winter-biased.The aquaplaning performance wasn’t strong enough due to a lack of circumferential grooving, so this was then altered on the final pattern now seen in the marketplace.
Alltoura H/T 4-Seasons also went through various changes before we were satisfied with the end product. The pitch of the blocks was completely changed, and more negativity was added to the centre rib section for more mechanical traction. Increasing the amount of siping also equated to much better winter performance, and tying the blocks meant there was no sacrifice to the dry steering, allowing us to maintain summer performance.
You can find out more about how our tyres have evolved and see visual examples in the video below.
How Alltoura 4-Seasons is tested
Both products have been tested to the highest standards at some of the world’s toughest proving grounds, including Applus+ IDIADA in Spain and UTAC in Finland.
In Finland, both Alltoura tyres took on the harsh, unpredictable wilds of the Arctic Circle and were tested for the same six snow and ice disciplines; snow braking, ice handling, ice braking, snow handling, ice acceleration and snow acceleration.
After excelling in all snow and ice testing disciplines, both Alltoura and Alltoura H/T earned 3PMSF certification. This allows the tyres to be driven on in countries where it is a legal requirement to drive on winter tyres when the temperature falls below 7 degrees Celsius.
From the sub-zero temperatures of the Arctic to the soaring, relentless heat of Applus+ IDIADA in Spain, it was then time to test the tyres under a series of wet and dry conditions. Again, both tyres were put through their paces with the same six tests; dry stability, wet handling, aquaplaning resistance, wet braking, dry braking and dry steering.
Alltoura and Alltoura H/T have both earned their place among leading benchmark tyres, having proved to be just as good as their competitors.
For more information, visit our Alltoura product pages, or contact your local Davanti dealer.
