Bit of a story, A couple Fridays ago I had to use my brakes. 2010 Prius. I was going about 40mph as I was already slowing down for a stop light, using regen braking only and timing my stop to be nice and smooth. All the sudden a car comes into my lane from the next lane over going a much slower speed because they were stopping/slowing for a lane that had more stopped traffic. I put that pedal to the floor for almost 2 whole seconds before they got back in their lane. I have no idea how much I slowed down to. It's weird how my brain seems to have recorded it compared to my dashcams. I swore he went fully into my lane and even though I slammed the heck out of my brakes I was still getting closer and closer to him and got pretty dang close. Dashcams show him get about a quarter in and I maintained a 3-5ft gap while hard on the brakes, did not close the distance like I remembered. Between my music and horn I'm not sure how much ABS kicked in, if at all. It seems only after letting off my brakes, does my rear cam pick up some tire squeal. It all happened so fast but I feel like there was a strange sliding feeling. Like I should be stopping faster but are my pads not grabbing my rotors hard enough or something? Hopefully my ABS is still functioning. Maybe it was functioning perfectly and I didn't notice at all. This is only the 2nd time I can think of where I had to brake hard like that. There was a sudden hood dip when I braked, but it wasn't very large. But the main question is why do tires squeal? Does a better tire squeal more? What if they barely squeal? I remember when I went to see V8 SuperCar racing, they locked up a few times and it was this super loud mid/low tone squeal. My squeals always seem to be high pitch and half the loudness of those V8 cars.
Even with the best ABS, tires will often lock for a short time as they alternate. Surface type, tire tread health. street debris, street lane markings, and a gazillion other variables can contribute.
First find an empty parking ,ot (or highway) get to 65 mph and slam your brake...see how your abs responds. Also note with practice you will find you can steer around while abs is engaged. Post 2 answers your question ... friction. Yes, tires with a thread rating of 80 will squeal less than tires with a 400 thread rating. And so many other variables including tire temperature. Try practicing your ABS braking...good luck.
First we have to clarify what "better" means. Summer tires typically squeal less than all-seasons, have better traction in temperatures above freezing, and emit a lower frequency squeal when they do. But an all-season will be safer across a wider range of temperatures and road conditions. Which is better? It depends: are you driving the car only in summer? Are you looking for maximum dry traction? Do you use a separate set of winter tires? What combination of available traction, fuel economy, driving noise, tire longevity, and tire price are you willing to live with? Only you can answer that. As far as the actual mechanism of squealing, when tires slide they repeatedly slip (slide) and stick; this happens very quickly, hundreds of times per second, and the frequency of the noise is related to the cycles per second of slipping-sticking. The sticky tires on the V8 SuperCars have a higher coefficient of static friction than your all-seasons and no tread blocks; it takes more force to overcome the maximum static friction the tire can produce and lock it up, so when those tires slip the time between slipping and sticking is longer, and the frequency of the noise is lower. Tire manufacturers aren't as concerned with squeal as they are with tire noise otherwise, since most drivers experience squeal only rarely and briefly. But Maxxis did publish a paper comparing squeal of 11 different tires under dry braking, wet braking, and dry cornering last year. You can download it here.
What is it that makes tires squeal? Driving a car with marginally adequate horsepower. What is it that makes tires smoke? Driving a car with 'enough' horsepower.
