Do you like plunking down your hard-earned money on a new set of tires? Unless you’re a true enthusiast, probably not. If you want to extend the life of your tires, improve your car’s ride, and have a safer drive, follow these four quick tips.
Take the easiest step to extend tire life: Maintain the correct air pressure. The wrong air pressure can cause sluggish handling, increase stopping distance, increase wear and tear and heighten the risk of a blowout. Tire pressure changes:
Check tire pressure monthly
This isn’t just about money, either. Proper tire pressure is important for safety. A National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Crash Causation Survey found tire issues in one out of 11 crashes. (Source: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811617.pdf [PDF]) Correct air pressure improves fuel efficiency. Underinflated tires mean you’re getting fewer miles to the gallon and paying more for gas than you need to. You can improve your gas mileage by up to 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. (See more gas mileage tips at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/drive.shtml.) The right tire pressure is an easy "win." Go check!
In most cars, only one or two wheels “drive” the car at a time. That can cause uneven tire wear. For example, on front-wheel drive vehicles, front tires wear faster. On rear-wheel drive vehicles, it’s the back tires. Even all-wheel drive vehicles can see uneven wear, as most shift the drive from one wheel to another. A technician rotates your tires by moving them to different wheel positions on the vehicle. That gives tires on drive wheels a rest and evens out wear. Rotation makes tires last longer.
Do it every 5,000 miles.
Schedule a Tire Rotation
Tire rotation is a great time to get your wheels balanced, as well. Every tire and wheel has a heavy spot in it. None is perfect, even when brand new. The difference is tiny, measured in one-quarter to one-half ounces. But that small difference can cause vibration and uneven tire wear. Your mechanic can balance each wheel using a specialized machine and small weights. As the tire wears, he may need to move or change that weight. It’s a fast, easy process that costs a lot less than a new tire! Make sure you get your tires’ balance checked and adjusted during rotation.
Get wheels balanced
Schedule a Wheel Balance
Misalignment may make your tires toed-in (“pigeon-toed”) or toed-out (“duck-footed”).
Toed-in and toed-out misalignment
If your car actively pulls or drifts right or left, or the steering wheel vibrates or shakes, your car may have an alignment problem.
But your car or truck could be driving fine and still be out of alignment. When you bump up against a parking lot barrier, hit a pothole, or hit the curb, something has to give, and it’s often your alignment. The smallest misalignment can reduce fuel efficiency, and increase tread wear. Your mechanic can adjust your car’s alignment. Take your car in for a check every six months. Or whenever you think something is wrong. A little maintenance can help save a lot of money. Follow these easy, inexpensive tire maintenance tips and you can increase tire life. You’ll also improve gas mileage, extend the life of your car, and make your drive a safer one. You can start right now: Check your tire pressure. See? That wasn’t hard, and you just saved yourself some money.
Schedule a Free Visual Alignment Check
When you invest in a set of new tires for your car, you can make them last longer if you’re smart about how you drive.
Proper maintenance also extends tire life. You can save money on tire replacement over your car’s lifespan and increase your safety on the road with the following driving and tire care tips.
Stay On Top of Tire Pressure
The number one way to extend the life of your tires is to regularly check your tire pressure. Tires naturally lose a little bit of air over time, so topping them up every so often is necessary. If you drive consistently on tires that are low on air, you stress your tires to the point of no return; the structure of the tire breaks down from the lack of air support. Your fuel economy also suffers.
Check your pressure every couple of weeks. Air pressure can also decrease when the weather gets cold, so if you have fluctuating temperatures in the fall and spring, you will need to check it a little more often.
Newer cars monitor your tire pressure for you, but you should still check for minor pressure issues by hand. Since tire pressure monitoring measures significant pressure loss, you should never ignore a low tire pressure warning.
Get Your Tires Rotated
Unfortunately, many car owners forget or ignore the importance of tire rotations. Tires wear out unevenly on most vehicles, especially cars that rely on front wheel or rear wheel drive. Tires on the drive train portion of the car will wear out faster. To help balance this wear, rotating your tires helps to spread the load to all four of your tires at once.
Even if you have four wheel drive, rotating your tires is still a good idea. Four wheel drive vehicles still alternate drive ends. The only way to really ensure even wear on all your tires is to regularly rotate them. Your owner’s manual will let you know how often your tires need to be rotated, but a good rule of thumb is around every 5,000 miles.
Be Aware of Road Hazards
Most drivers know the dangers of driving over sharp objects like shattered glass or nails, but other road hazards can also shorten the life of your tires. For example, large potholes, uneven pavement, and large curbs can throw off your tire alignment if you hit them with too much speed.
Your alignment is what keeps the full width of the tire evenly in contact with the road. When you back into a curb or hit a pothole, your tire can list slightly to the left or right, meeting the road at a slight diagonal. One portion of the tire will experience much greater friction, and your tire’s lifespan will shorten considerably.
If you notice your car pulling to the left or right while driving on a straight stretch of road, it’s usually because your alignment is off. It’s simple for a local tire shop to test and fix your alignment when you get your tires rotated.
Inspect Your Tires for Damage
Tire damage often goes unnoticed by car owners. It’s not until the tire fails that you notice a puncture, leak, or crack. By proactively recognizing damage, you can get your tire repaired before it fails. Every few weeks, visually inspect your tires to check for:
You should have the tire checked, but usually, a bulging sidewall cannot be repaired. Fortunately, however, if you notice the bulge before it fails, you protect yourself from the danger of tire failure.
Noticing damage before tire failure and repairing it when it can be repaired is a key component of extending the life of all your tires.
Keep Your Tires Clean
Finally, you can work to keep your tires free from rough debris.
Obviously, tires are tough and stand up to the friction of the road. But you should take the time to periodically clear sand and gravel from your tires to reduce the wear on the tire surface.
For more information on extending your tire life through good maintenance, driving habits, and repairs, contact us at Evans Tire & Service Centers.
Seasonal change of summer tires. How does the majority of car owners act after “changing shoes” for winter wheels? They pick up summer tires from a tire shop and take them to the garage. They find a suitable place there and throw tires for 5-6 months. Sometimes without clearing them of dirt and sand. At the same time, everyone dreams that the wheels serve for many seasons. Financial crisis, and a new thing is expensive. But with this type of storage, you can forget about multi-season operation. To extend the life of tires, you must follow the rule - how to store summer tires in winter.
Thus, it is possible to save personal finances.
After you have removed the summer wheels from the car, they must be thoroughly washed. Be sure to wash with shampoo or regular soap. This will help wash off the greasy, destructive film from petroleum products. During the washing process, the tread should be inspected for stuck stones, nails or screws. Then, reduce the pressure to 1.5 bar. Next, the tires must be dried.
After drying, clean tires are recommended to be treated with a silicone compound. This will moisten the surface of the rubber and the material will not dry out. You can put a marking on each wheel, for example, PP (right front).
Marking will help you navigate when "changing shoes" for summer tires. The fact is that from time to time, it is necessary to do an interaxle rearrangement of the wheels. So the tread wears out more evenly.
After cosmetic procedures, each wheel can be packed in a separate storage case or in a perforated plastic bag.
If there are no air holes in the bag, then the mouths of the bags should be left half open. Alternatively, do the perforation yourself.
Summer tires are prepared and now you need to choose a place where to store them. According to the tire storage standards (GOST 24779-81), the temperature should be from -24°C to + 35°C. Ideal: from + 1°C to +5°C, humidity 80%. This way the tires don't dry out. Ideal for these conditions:
If the room has frequent temperature changes, high humidity or vice versa dryness, the aging process of rubber is accelerated.
Not all owners have warm places for storage. In this case, you will have to equip a point in a brick or wooden garage. An iron garage is not recommended. Also, you can place tires on the loggia.
But be sure to cover them with a thick cape.
Tires should not be exposed to: direct sunlight, organic solvents, mineral oils and lubricants, fuels, acids and alkalis. Do not load tires with foreign objects (tools) and use them as a support for a workbench or table.
Do not install the storage rack near: stoves, radiators and running electric motors. In the latter case, ozone is produced, which is contraindicated for rubber if its release is more than 0.08 ppm.
Tires should not be placed on exposed concrete, asphalt or steel surfaces. A pallet or rack must be used. Under these conditions, tires from Bridgestone, Dunlop, Goodyear and Michelin can last up to 10 years.
If the rubber remains on the rims, it can be stored in two ways: horizontally (in stacks) or suspended. Tires without a rim, with a profile of 215 mm or more, should be stored vertically (standing up). Narrower tires, up to 205mm, can be stacked up to a maximum height of 2m.
Once a month, it is recommended to turn and turn the tires to change the fulcrum. This will prevent the wheels from deforming under their own weight. Hanging tires without discs is prohibited.
By following simple rules for storing summer wheels, you will be able to prevent their rapid aging. And at the same time, an increased resource of tires will save a personal budget, postponing the purchase of new wheels.
According to manufacturers, car tires should last up to 10 years, but this is the maximum period. The recommended service life of tires is no more than 5-6 years - in practice, after such a time, it is necessary to change the rubber, since it loses its consumer properties. This is very important, as is seasonal replacement, as worn tires greatly increase the risk of an accident, especially on wet or icy roads. Where you can confidently drive at a speed of 70–80 km/h on new tires, it is easy to lose control on worn tires already at 55–60 km/h.
Therefore, every motorist needs to know about the service life of tires so that the operation of the car is not only comfortable, but also safe.
The specified service life of 5–6 years is rather arbitrary. More important is not the date of issue of rubber, but the degree of daily wear and mileage .
The main factor influencing the tire life is the type of vehicle , which determines its load capacity. We are talking about what the maximum load a car can carry and whether its tires can withstand, which can be understood by their load capacity index.
Overloading the machine by 20% reduces the service life by 30%, so the vehicle must not be allowed to carry loads that exceed its carrying capacity.
In addition to the type of car, the list of factors that affect the life of tires of any type includes:
The same applies to low-profile tires, which, when driving over bumps, absorb shocks less and negatively affect the disk and the suspension as a whole. It is necessary to control the optimal pressure in the tires of your car during all seasons.
Regarding the correct rearrangement of tires, we prepared a separate and detailed material, which you can read at the link.
Based on the list of influencing factors, we can conclude that reduces the life of tires:
Critical tire wear can be determined by special indicators that are carried out during tire production. These are transverse protrusions (lintels), reaching a height of 1.6 mm.
When the indicators become visible, the tire has begun to wear out.
Indicator location is indicated on the sidewall of the tire using the symbols in the shape of a triangle or the letters TWI meaning Tread Wear Indicator (i.e. "tread wear indicator").
Critical tire wear is indicated by:
Summer and winter, passenger and truck tires have their own minimum residual tread depth, which is determined by wear indicators. You can measure this value with a special depth gauge: if it is below the set limit, then the rubber needs to be replaced.
Measuring is difficult due to uneven wear. In this case, it is necessary to determine the suitability of rubber in the area where wear is most pronounced . When the tread edge wears out on one side, we can talk about a violation of the camber angle . In this case, you need to contact the service station.
Tires also have numbers that wear out as they wear, which also helps to determine its degree.
Learn more about the types of wear and what it can threaten to learn in the article.
The average load capacity of passenger cars is 2 tons , and the tire mileage is about 45 thousand km.
Depending on the driving style, the characteristics of the car itself and the season, you can drive on passenger tires from 40 to 70 thousand km .
Summer tires tend to last longer than winter tires because the operating conditions are less severe. All that summer tires can face on the road is high temperatures, hot or wet asphalt. The last to be determined is the safe value of the residual tread depth - for summer tires it is 1.6 mm . With a shallower groove depth, water drainage becomes impossible. Although the behavior of the tire on the road becomes unsafe already at a tread depth of about 3 mm.
Summer tires are more rigid than soft and elastic winter tires. The peculiarity of the composition and less difficult operating conditions explain the longer service life: an average of 5-6 years with careful driving on a flat roadway.
Winter tires have much less time and almost always fail due to tread wear, because the tread of a new tire is 7-8 mm, and the working height remains only 3-4 mm.
In the case of studded tires, very few metal elements are retained with such wear, so it can no longer provide proper road safety.
Friction (not studded) tires with similar wear also lose most of their performance.
In reality, winter tires have an average mileage of not exceeding 30,000 km .
Some motorists decide to re-roll "bald" tires in the summer, but this is dangerous, because the grip on the heated road surface will be very low.
So, the service life of winter tires differs depending on their type:
You can find detailed recommendations on choosing winter tires for your car here.
Residual tread depth for winter passenger tires is 4 mm . The value was chosen taking into account the fact that to ensure safe driving on winter roads: snowy, icy, covered with wet snow. In the latter case, a phenomenon akin to aquaplaning occurs - slashplaning, i.e. sliding on snow slush (slush), which occurs at speeds above 50 km / h. The wheels seem to "float" over the road at high speed.
The tread must have sufficient height to ensure that the slush is quickly removed from the contact area with the road. This is due to the fact that the thickness of the layer of wet snow can be several centimeters. Grooves that are too shallow just won't do the job.
It has also been proven that directional tread tires resist slashplaning better.
The direction of rotation is usually indicated by an arrow and the word Rotation.
Light truck tires are designed for light trucks, pickups, buses and light commercial vehicles that have load capacity from 2 to 4 tons . The average mileage of tires used on them is 60 thousand km . This is due to the fact that such tires belong to the category of commercial tires with a reinforced structure.
To prolong the life of your light truck tires, we recommend checking the pressure at least once a week, preferably every morning before driving. Measurements must be made on cold tires , i.e. not less than 3 hours after the end of the trip.
The choice of the correct size of tires depending on the season also helps to increase the resource: appropriate wide models are more suitable for summer, and winter and narrower ones are better in winter.
Trucks have the largest load capacity - more than 4 tons .
Accordingly, their rubber has the greatest resource, which is 65–70 thousand km . In this case, the residual tread depth is 1 mm .
Increased wear resistance is due to the fact that truck tires are primarily designed for intensive use, often daily throughout the year. The decisive role in the service life of such tires is played by:
The issue of service life for such tires is also important because it affects the cost per kilometer (CPC), which is important for assessing the effectiveness of rubber, optimizing fleet costs and determining the profitability of freight transportation. Recall that the indicator is calculated according to the following formula:
UPC = (Tire cost + Maintenance costs - Carcass price) ÷ Mileage (km).
From the formula it becomes clear: the greater the mileage of the tires, the lower the UCR, which means that the freight transportation is more profitable. Therefore, companies conducting such activities seek to increase the resource of tires. This is possible by following the basic recommendations that are suitable for all tires:
When choosing truck tires, you need to take into account the operating conditions of the truck and the category of goods transported, depending on what they buy:
It also matters the type of axle where the tires will be installed: trailer tires cannot be placed on the steering axle due to the incorrect operation model and the load calculated by the manufacturer. These actions can not only significantly reduce the life of the tires, but also be dangerous for driving on the roads.
It is equally important to follow the recommendations for driving, in particular, do not drive at high speed with a heavily loaded car, move smoothly, do not accelerate too quickly.
For agricultural machinery, tire life is just as important as for trucks.
The cost of operating rubber here reaches 20% of the total cost of per car. And during the service life of equipment , rubber has to be renewed 3-4 times .
Due to the operation in difficult field conditions, tires for agricultural and special equipment have an increased resource.
High wear resistance is provided by a multi-layer construction (6–24 layers) of the sole and sidewalls, reinforced reinforcement, a special tread compound and stiffeners.
But even with a special design, tires for agricultural machinery usually last less than for passenger cars - sometimes is less than 5 seasons , which is explained by difficult operating conditions. To extend the service life, you must follow a number of rules:
When driving, pay attention to whether the vehicle is pulling to one side. If this happens, then a swap is required.
