Tire and Wheel Editing and Proofreading Services

A customer's original tire has a load index of 100 and a speed rating of V. The replacement tire recommended at checkout is the same physical size, fits the wheel perfectly, and carries a load index of 94 and a speed rating of H. Nothing about the installation will look wrong, and the car will drive normally under most conditions, right up until it is loaded near capacity on a hot day at highway speed, which is exactly the condition the original rating existed to cover and the replacement no longer does.

We edit what tire and wheel retailers produce to specify what a replacement actually matches — tire specification and load/speed rating disclosures, fitment and size compatibility documentation, replacement recommendation and downgrade warnings, installation and torque specification sheets, and the correspondence responding to a customer's question about whether a specific tire is an appropriate match. Our editors work on the numbers that determine whether a tire is a genuine equivalent or simply the same size.

The matched load and speed rating is what determines whether a replacement tire is actually equivalent, and its failure is a recommendation based on size alone when size is only one of the specifications that determines whether a tire is safe for a specific vehicle. Same size fits perfectly is true and does not address whether the replacement can carry the same weight or sustain the same speed as the tire it is replacing. We work through these so a replacement's load index and speed rating are stated explicitly alongside the original tire's ratings, since a customer comparing two tires by size alone has no way to see a downgrade that is only visible in numbers neither party is required to mention; so any downgrade in load index or speed rating is flagged as a downgrade specifically, rather than presented as an equivalent replacement, given that a customer needs to know when a recommended tire will not do everything the original did, particularly for a vehicle that is regularly loaded near its capacity; so the vehicle manufacturer's minimum rating requirements are checked against the specific replacement, because these exist for a reason tied to the vehicle's actual weight and performance and a tire that meets a lower standard than the manufacturer specifies is a specific, checkable mismatch; so seasonal and specialty tires are disclosed with their actual limitations, given that a winter tire recommended for year-round use or a summer tire sold to a customer in a cold climate carries a specific, known limitation that a general recommendation obscures; so installation details that affect the rating's validity — proper inflation, load range for a given application — are stated specifically, rather than assumed; and so a customer's specific question about whether a tire is a genuine match receives a comparison against the actual numbers, not a general assurance that it is a suitable replacement. Recommendations written this way mean a customer knows exactly what they are trading away, if anything, in a replacement tire.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including product specifications, fitment data and customer information. We are editors rather than tire engineers, fitment specialists or safety regulators, and we offer no view on tire specifications, ratings or safety determinations. What we can do is make sure the numbers that actually matter are the ones being compared.