I was looking at prices for these tires on tire rack and there was over a hundred dollar price drop from the 285/40YR18 to the 285/60VR18 RF

I know what the numbers all mean, and I know the R means radial, but what is the difference between Y and V ? and what does the extra RF mean?

my guess is hardness or compond and the RF means RoadForce ( as in requires Balancing or comes with balancing)

whatchoo guys think?

 

Y and v are the speed rating of the tire which is the maximum speed the tire should be used for link this should tell you everything you want to know.

 

Thanks, I get it now the Y's were so expensive because they are higher speed rated, but I can't even go over 93mph so V is plenty!

that's good I didnt feel like spending $250 per tire

still wonder what the RF is though

 

Just looked it up its the load rating for those tires

Passenger Tires

Since most passenger tires feature Standard or Standard Load Ranges, only Light Load, Reinforced and Extra Load tires are designated in The Tire Rack's descriptions.

Standard Euro-metric tires will have nothing branded on their sidewalls, Extra Load or Reinforced Euro-metric tires will be branded as such and identified by an "RF" or "XL" in their descriptions, as in 305/50R20 XL or 305/50R20 RF.


Standard Load P-metric tires will have nothing branded on their sidewalls or may be branded as "Standard Load," Light Load P-metric tires will be branded as "Light Load," and identified by an "LL" in their descriptions, as in P285/35R-19 LL. Additionally, Extra Load P-metric tires will be branded as "Extra Load," and identified by an "XL" in their descriptions, as in P235/75R-15 XL.
Only P-Metric sized tires with 45-series aspect ratios or lower may be manufactured in a Light Load configuration. Light Load tires are designed to carry less weight than Standard Load tires and have been developed for specific applications (typically when relatively large tire sizes are used as Original Equipment (O.E.) on relatively small cars or for Track & Competition DOT tires used for racing applications).

In all cases, when changing tire sizes or converting from Euro-metric sizes to P-metric sizes, it is important to confirm that the Load Index in the tire's Service Description of the new tire is equal to or greater than the Load Index of the original tire.

 

even better

 

you do realize that there is a big difference between a 40 series tire and a 60 series tire though