So overall, the comparison between Goodyear Assurance MaxLife and Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S across various performance metrics reveals a distinct edge for the former. Why? Well, let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaway
So overall it all comes down to this. The Goodyear Assurance MaxLife is better at:
- Dry performance including braking, handling, and steering response.
- Wet grip and handling due to its efficient siping structure.
- Winter traction, especially on soft snow, thanks to its extensive siping.
- Noise reduction, aided by its closed-up shoulders.
- Wear resistance and longevity, outperforming with its innovative tread design.
- Fuel efficiency, benefiting from its lighter weight and specialized polymer additives (in its composition).
Whereas the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S has the upper hand in terms of:
- Hydroplaning resistance, with better interconnected grooves for water displacement.
- Impact comfort, providing a smoother driving experience through better vibration absorption.
Available Sizes
The Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S comes in 115 total sizes in 14 to 21 inches rims, having following specs.
- Speed ratings: H and V.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Weight range: 18 to 37 lbs.
- Tread depth: Either 10.5 or 11.5/32″
- UTQG: 700 A A.
- Treadwear warranty: 75k for H (speed rated) sizes, and 65k for V.
Review this tire in greater details: https://tiredriver.com/uniroyal-tiger-paw-touring-a-s-review/
The Goodyear Assurance MaxLife comes in 15 to 20 inches wheels, and all of those sizes have following specs.
- Speed ratings: H and V.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth range: 11 to 12/32″.
- Weight range: 20 to 36 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: 85k miles.
- UTQG rating: 820 A B.
Review this tire in greater details: https://tiredriver.com/goodyear-assurance-maxlife-review/
Dry Performance
When it comes to dry performance, there are three main things to talk about: dry grip, handling, and how the steering feels. I’ll go over each part, one at a time.
Linear Traction
The term “linear grip” refers to the measurement of a tire’s traction against the road surface when moving in a straight line, (like on highways). This concept is primarily used to gauge the tire’s effectiveness in braking.
Now comparing both tires here, the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife distinguishes itself with its exceptional braking capabilities, demonstrated by its consistently shorter stopping distances in tests.
I mean the tire not only leads here, but offers one of the best performances in its standard touring all season category.
This superior performance can be attributed to several key features:
- The tire’s minimal tread design enhances the contact area between the rubber and the road, leading to increased grip.
- Each rib of the tire is supported by robust foundational structures, contributing to a more stable and responsive driving experience.
- Its lighter construction reduces the tire’s overall momentum (inertia), making it more responsive and easier to halt.
On the flip side, the Uniroyal Tiger Paw lacks with its more voided up design, showcasing 4 feet shorter braking distances on my averaged 60 to 0 mph tests.
Dry Cornering
Cornering can be broken down into three distinct phases:
- Entry Phase: This initial stage involves preparing for the turn, typically requiring braking.
- Mid-Cornering: The core of the turn, where accurate steering input is essential.
- Exit Phase: The vehicle starts to straighten up and accelerate.
Now the Assurance MaxLife excels in all these phases thanks to its superior directional grip, steering feedback and on-center feel.
Now I’ve already covered directional grip above. As for other two, that’s the result of Goodyear’s lighter design, for the most part.
Basically its lighter weight and relatively shallower tread depth contribute to its performance during mid-cornering, offering a balanced response to understeering or oversteering.
In comparison, the Uniroyal Tiger Paw’s greater weight push down on its lugs more, causing them to bend more. So, they waste time into deforming/reshaping of the tread, and that time gets translated in to steering response delay.
Before you decide: Visit my main all-season tire page for a curated selection of the top tires and useful tips.
Wet Grip and Handling
Wet performance in tires largely hinges on their ability to efficiently expel water, a task achieved through the use of sipes and grooves.
Grooves are primarily responsible for water displacement, while sipes (small slits in the tread) play a vital role in handling residual moisture.
Here’s how sipes work: So as water particles come beneath the tread and the road, they get squeezed in to the siping slits by the weight pressure (of the tire itself). So these sipes hold up moisture, drying out road a little bit, and later expel it out, as the tire rolls over.
That’s why, with a better siping structure, the Assurance Maxlife takes the lead here.
On the other side, the Tiger Paw Touring A/S lacks, primarily due to two reasons.
- Firstly, its sipes don’t feature the multi-directional biting edges found in the MaxLife tires.
- Secondly, the sipes in the Uniroyal tire are not full-depth, which means their effectiveness diminishes as the tire wears, leading to a significant reduction in wet traction over time.
This decrease in traction results in more slippage (in the form of oversteering).
Moreover, the tire’s heavier structure is also causing issues here too, contributing to its greater momentum inertia.
In contrast, the Goodyear tire excels, especially in terms of steering response. I mean, I am really impressed by the tire’s mid-cornering feedback in particular.
Hydroplaning Performance
Hydroplaning is a phenomenon where a tire loses contact with the road due to its inability to displace water quickly, resulting in the tire “floating” on the water’s surface.
To counteract this floating or I should say, hydroplaning (same thing), tires are designed with wide grooves that effectively channel water away.
Now this is where, the Uniroyal tire comes out better. Why? Well this is because it interconnects its grooves more effectively.
I mean both tires offer 4 wide enough longitudinal channels, the ones on Tiger Paw Touring A/S are better linked with each other, taking out relatively greater amount of water at a given time.
On the other hand, the Goodyear MaxLife lacks in providing as much of the float speeds (as seen on tests). Though since the tire offers relatively greater tread depth, the overall difference in performance is not a lot.
Winter Traction
Assessing a tire’s winter performance requires examining key factors such as grip, handling, and adaptability across different terrains (ice, snow or a mixture of both).
While neither of the tires here have the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certification, the Goodyear Maxlife still manages to provide superior traction, particularly on soft snow.
This enhanced performance is largely due to its design, featuring extensive siping, multi-angled tread patterns, and in-groove notches. These features promote excellent snow-to-snow contact, crucial for effective adherence, resulting in more reliable braking and acceleration.
Conversely, the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S lags behind, particularly in lateral traction and steering responsiveness.
This shortfall is primarily attributed to its harder rubber compound, which tends to stiffen in cold temperatures.
Furthermore, the lack of interlocking biters, (a notable feature in the Goodyear), prevents the Uniroyal tire from achieving the same degree of snow-to-snow contact, diminishing its overall winter performance.
Noise Reduction
Tire noise primarily originates from factors such as rolling resistance, groove resonance, and tread pattern, with the key source being the movement of air particles around the tire.
Let me explain why.
So as the tire rotates, air gets pumped in and out of the tread (from all the voids, biters and siping). That’s why with more aggressive and open tread designs, tires tend to be noisier.
Now out of both tires here, the Maxlife takes the lead, thanks to its closed-up shoulders (from where most of air gets in/out).
On the flip side, the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring, though generally quiet, tends to produce noticeable cyclical noise, particularly when moving onto smoother surfaces, which is less prevalent in other tires.
Impact Comfort
The comfort level of a tire is largely influenced by its ability to absorb road irregularities, which depends on the rubber composition and tread design.
The Goodyear Assurance MaxLife, with its advanced tread compound, somewhat falls short in comfort due to its stiffer rubber mix, which less effectively dampens road vibrations.
In contrast, the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S offers more consistent ride comfort, where its softer rubber composition and thicker nylon cap plies (in its internal construction) provide better vibration absorption, resulting in a smoother driving experience.
Wear Resistance
The longevity of tire tread is crucial, largely dependent on two key factors:
- The rate at which the rubber material wears down.
- The duration it takes for the tread depth to diminish to 2/32 inches, the minimum legal limit in the U.S.
In this context, the Assurance MaxLife takes the lead, where in fact, its one of the longest lasting tire in its standard touring all-season category.
Though one can guess that from its impressive 85k miles warranty and its name alone.
On average the tire offers nearly 20k more miles throughout its tread life compared to Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S.
This superior performance of the Goodyear tire is attributed to its lighter weight and the innovative continuous lug/rib design, enhanced by additional rubber layers under each rib.
These features effectively reduce stress and heat during tire-road interaction, leading to reduced wear.
MPG Efficiency
Fuel efficiency in tires is determined by several factors, including:
- The tire’s overall weight, encompassing both its internal and external structures.
- Rolling resistance, reflecting how well the tire treads grip the road surface.
- Rubber composition, with specific polymers incorporated to improve fuel efficiency without compromising on grip.
Given these considerations, the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife scores higher in fuel economy, showcasing slightly better mpg readings on my conducted tests.
Its slightly lighter weight, enhanced rigidity, and specialized polymers that decrease rolling resistance all contribute to this tire’s enhanced fuel efficiency.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, determining which tire is superior isn’t as simple as it might seem, given their individual performance merits. Though Maxlife does seem to offer slightly better results in most of the areas.
The tire stands out in dry performance, offering superior braking, cornering, and steering feel due to its minimal tread design, robust structural support, and lighter construction.
And it also leads in wet conditions, thanks to its efficient siping structure, maintaining effectiveness even as the tire wears.
And although the Uniroyal Tiger Paw Touring A/S has an advantage in hydroplaning resistance due to better interconnected grooves, it falls short in the rest, showcasing lacking performance in winter traction, noise reduction, and impact comfort.
And yes, its not the champ in terms of fuel economy and tread longevity either.