A Comprehensive Guide for a Tyre Care Before a Road Trip

Naturally, however, people tend to make weekend trips to hill stations or beach resorts nearby. Before beginning a journey, individuals usually inspect the oil, and water inputs in their vehicles, but they often forget about the main thing the tyres.

Before driving off, make sure that you inspect the vehicle carefully and pay attention to these suggestions on how to go about it.

Visual check

If your tyres Wrexham have cracks on the sides, do not go on long trips with them. These are not big issues during dry weather, but they turn into a life threat when it is wet, as water can seep into the cracks and weaken the tyres, making them unsafe. Tyres with severe or uneven wear should be replaced.

But before doing so, find out what’s causing the uneven wear. It may be through worn-out suspension parts, which, if repaired, would give your tyres a longer lifespan. If you have any bulges or bubbles on the side of your tyre, this would mean failure, and you have to replace it.

Such tyres cannot be repaired. Driving such tyres with worn-out treads, exposed steel wires, bulges, or damaged sidewalls is dangerous. This is the case when one is driving at high speed or for a long distance. Tyres with uneven treads, other than being an uncomfortable ride for the motorist, are vulnerable to blowouts.

Tyre pressures

Some people believe it is quite sensible to lower their tyre pressure to gain better contact with the tyre on the road when it’s slippery or to offset air expansion in tyres from long drives. It causes more friction and makes the tyres overheat.

This surplus heat is not such a problem in the rain but can be destructive to the tyres in dry weather. On the other hand, an increase in tyre pressure itself reduces the contact area with the road, and you can thus lose grip.

Having that smaller contact patch means that it also takes longer for your car to stop in a wet emergency. If you’re going to go fast for a long time, always overinflate the tyres by 5 psi over the recommended tyre pressure.

Always check or adjust tyre pressure when the tyres are cold. “Cold” refers to the ambient temperature, not after you have been driving; the driving heats the tyres and raises the pressure within them.

Drive cautiously

A great deal of tyre trouble can also be saved by driving with care. If you happen to be negotiating a thoroughfare full of potholes, do not rush. Rather, waste no time in reducing speed, even if you lose precious seconds, or else you might land with a flat tyre in your vehicle.

Try not to hit the edges of the potholes. If you hit a pothole at a good speed, stop and inspect for damage. Also, avoid driving through potholes filled with water because you never know how deep they are.

Always carry a spare tyre if space and money allow

If you could afford an extra, then a good idea would be to keep an extra spare wheel and tyre. Many new cars come with a space-saver tyre, but often it makes sense to pick up an extra one from the service centre. In more recent times, you have the option of a full-sized tyre that can be swapped with your space-saver tyre.

If you are a guy who travels a lot of miles up and down, we recommend you have a second tip-up tyre for daily running and not just during the monsoons. Carry a spare tube for tube-type tyres.

Carry a spare valve for tubeless tyres. Highway shops charge a much higher price for the same, which may not even be the correct fit for your machine if, in any condition, the tube or the valve cannot be repaired.

Always keep the spare tube/valve in an airtight polythene pack to protect the tube/valve from ozone and oxidation.

Blowouts

A tyre blowout at high speed is a death sentence. With improved roads and faster cars but less rigorous driver training, hundreds lose their lives every year when their tyres burst without warning.

How to prevent a blowout

The first step in dealing with a tyre blowout would be to prevent one – use high-quality Continental Tyres Wrexham. Underinflation is the most common cause of tyre blowouts. And surely, most vehicles do not have tyre pressure monitoring systems. And even those who do have it sometimes find these pressure monitoring systems unreliable.

If your car does not have monitoring of tyre pressure, then a minimum should be once or twice a month. Tyres do go down a bit just from the expansion and contraction caused by regular driving. Tyres that are underinflated raise the chances of blowouts and lead to poor fuel efficiency in your vehicle.