Tires: tire width effecting traction, white hawk, technology triangle

Question
My Toyoto Tercel (97) is a White Hawk version, basically a Tercel with a decal and wider tires. I have always felt that the car doesn't hold traction as well as my old Tercel (86) with narrower tires. Could it be that wider tires, while giving more tire to touch the road, means a reduction in pounds per square inch for the tire that is touching the road and therefore with less weight (downward pressure) less traction? And the slightest water on the road will make my car plane in an instant. So on water you not only have the lesser downward pressure per square inch of a wider tire but more square inches in which to plane up. I thought the wider tires would help traction but my experience is the opposite. what gives? thanks.

Answer
Joe,

There are so many things that affect traction, that it is difficult to isolate a single issue without getting into all the details.

I've read and re-read your question a number of times, and it is unclear to me if by "plane" you mean "hydroplane" or not.  Hydroplaning doesn't become a factor until there is significant water depth, and speeds above 40 mph.  I'm thinking hydroplaning is not the issue and it is strictly wet traction.  I'm going to assume that is the case.

Wet traction is affected by many things, but tread width is not a dominating factor.  Tread compound is though.

You should be aware of 2 things:

1)  Tires with low rolling resistance generally have wet traction issues.  The technology triangle is rolling resistance / traction, especially wet traction / treadwear.  You can't get good properties for one item without sacrificing one of the other items (or both!).

2)  As tread rubber ages, it gets gets harder and loses grip.  Some tread compounds are more susceptible than others.

So if we make a list of what might be different between the 2 vehicles:

* - 1986 (2nd generation) vs 1997 (5th generation) - with about a 25% increase in horsepower.

* - Tire Brand ?

* - Tire Size

* - OE vs replacement market?  (OE tires generally have lower RR

Well, we could go on, but you get the idea.