The Scoop on Spare Tires

Tires are pretty durable, but look on the side of any busy freeway and you’ll see a car or two jacked up with a flat tire, the wheel hub and bearing assembly exposed for all to see. This happens often enough that car manufacturers include a spare tire to get you to the nearest tire station to purchase a new tire. There are even manufacturers warnings about how many  miles you can drive on a spare, but we’ve all seen people who have left a spare on for longer than they should. What harm can this do and how is a spare tire different than a regular tire?

 Spare tires are typically more compact than a regular tire to save room in the trunk. If you had a full-sized spare most smaller vehicles would have no trunk space left, so car manufacturers make them smaller and narrower than regular tires to fit in small spaces. Spare tires are also lighter than regular tires because they are made with less reinforcing materials like steel and polyester. This means spare tires are not as durable and have a greater chance of being punctured or damaged by debris in the road.

The reduced durability and small size also take a heavy toll on the vehicle’s handling. A spare can pop from slamming on the breaks, and it would be very difficult to maneuver around debris on the road with a spare on one tire.

 The greatest issue with leaving a spare on your vehicle is the wear on your differential. A differential transmits engine power to the wheels from the transmission, but it also enables your left and right tires to move at different speeds. This is important so the car can turn corners – when turning, the inside tires rotate slower than the outside tires. When driving straight, the differential is largely unused in this capacity and is not worn down. However, when you have a smaller spare on one tire, it must turn much faster than a full sized tire to keep up. This means the differential must work constantly to allow the tires to rotate at different speeds, as if you were constantly turning a corner. This puts a lot of stress and wear on the differential that is abnormal and can cause the grease lubricating the differential to wear away. 

Getting a new tire is much less expensive than replacing your differential, so it’s always best to get to a tire store right away to secure a new tire. There are many tire shops that will put a warranty of up to 60,000 miles on their tires, so if one goes flat within the warranty period they will replace it for free. So next time, if you get a flat and have a spare on your car, don’t delay in replacing it with a new tire.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Essential Vehicle Maintenance: Tires

If you want to upkeep anything in your vehicle, the objects that keep your car rolling, and off the ground, should be at the top of that list. Tires are often overlooked because a car with bald tires can still drive, and replacing all four tires can be expensive. When your fuel pump or fuel pump assembly goes out, you have no choice whether or not you want to replace it because your car will not drive - bald tires can get you down the street and back, and the dangers always occur when it's too late. Nevertheless, keeping track of the condition of your tires, and keeping them properly inflated, can mean literally life or death for the people in the vehicle. Here are a few tips to make sure your tires will keep you and your passengers safe on the road.

The main cause of tire failure (when your tire goes flat or blows out) is the friction caused from moving contact with the road. This causes the tread on the tires to wear away. When the tread becomes too shallow, the tire is worn out and should be replaced. Bald tires give you little traction on the road, especially when the road is wet or icy. This means the difference in you maintaining control of your vehicle, and not maintaining control, is dependent on proper tread on your tires. One trick to check if you have proper tire tread is to place a penny, with Lincoln’s head down, between the tread of your tires. If Lincoln’s head isn’t completely covered by the treads on your tires, they need to be replaced.

 

 Underinflation is very detrimental to your tires, and your fuel economy. Not having enough tire pressure causes excessive wear on the tires, and gives you less control of your vehicle on paved roads. You should check your tire pressure regularly. To check your tire pressure, make sure your tires are cool (so when the vehicle has been sitting for awhile.) If you need to go somewhere else to fill up your tires with air, check the tire pressure before you leave and fill up appropriately. You can find out the appropriate tire pressure for your vehicle by looking in your owner’s manual, the driver’s side door panel, the glove box door, or the fuel door.  Remove the cap from the valve on one tire. Firmly press the tire guage onto the valve. Add air to achieve the recommended tire pressure. If you overfill a tire, release air by pushing on the metal stem in the center of the valve with a fingernail or the tip of a pen. Recheck the tire pressure, and then replace the valve cap. Repeat for your other tires, including the spare.

 Another important factor in maintaining your tires is your vehicles alignment. When you are driving, does your car pull to one side, or shake? A bad jolt from hitting a curb or pothole can throw off your alignment. Have a tire dealer check your alignment regularly to make sure your vehicle is aligned properly. If the alignment is off it will cause your tire to wear irregularly, which can lead to tire blowouts.

You should also rotate your tires periodically, typically every 5,000 miles. Naturally your front and back, left and right tires wear differently on the road. By rotating your tires from front to back, left to right, you can ensure your tires wear evenly and lengthen the life of your tires.

I find inspecting the tires while filling up at the gas station is convenient. While the vehicle is filling up, you can check your tires for wear, visually check for proper inflation, and inspect for any debris that is caught in your tire tread and can damage your tires. This way you will always be on top of properly maintaining your tires.

See You Later, Flat Tires!

You’re driving on a hot summer day with your windows down and CD radio player on full-blast. All of a sudden you start to feel something seems a little off and realize one of your tires is losing air. Whether you decide to fix the tire yourself on the side of the road or give AAA a call, even the best Navigation Unit isn’t going to get you to your destination on time. Bridgestone is hoping to end these situations all-together with their air-free tire concepts shown here.

The color-choice of green would probably be customizable, but in concept form it alludes to the fact that the materials used are 100% recyclable. Its recyclable “thermoplastic” internal spokes are what gives these tires all of their strength and flexibility. The outer rubber on the tire offers a more traditional tread surface required for use on our sometimes rough roads. One criticism has been the possibility of noise due to wind resistance in commercial use. However, if commercialized these tires are expected to be sealed by a thin sidewall of rubber for these reasons. Each tire also only has a weight capacity of up to 330 pounds, but innovations to this technology will undoubtedly be made in the future.

Benefits obviously include the recyclability factor, but they are also safer and less wasteful because they eliminate the risk of punctures. Check out these tires in action on YouTube! (And by “in action”, I mean a girl riding a small scooter equipped with these tires five feet across a stage).

What Can Happen if Your Tires Are Going Bald

There are millions of cars on the road and millions of drivers, most of which know what to do to keep a car safe. Keeping parts like the steering rack and the steering gearbox in good shape is something everyone makes sure to check out but what about the small parts? Well not really the small parts but the tires…they are ignored waaaay too often when it comes to car repair.

Tires are the contact patch on the road and are the only way that a vehicle can move around. If any driver were to stop and look around a bit at the tires on other cars around them they may think twice about getting on the road. It can be seen that one in five cars has tires that are beyond what would be considered bald and one in ten is to the point where failure is a serious concern. When a tire is new the rubber is stiff and has good grip in the road, as a tire loses tread it beings to soften due to less rubber in the wheel. Softer tired walls mean slower reaction time. Slower reaction time can be the least of the worries with balding tires. While a bald spot on a man may be cause for a comb-over, on a tire it is a serious situation. The tread on a tire has been specifically designed to help grip the road just like the tread on a shoe.

When tires are bald the grip they can provide is compromised and the stopping power is also reduced. The tread is designed to take advantage of the friction between the spaces in the tread and when it is missing the tires are useless. Bald tires also run the risk of bursting due to the reduced amount of material on them. The Tires are extremely important and should never be over looked, so next time you head out to your car take a min to check out the tires. 

How to Choose the Proper Tire Size

Tires like people come in all shapes and sizes, from monster trucks to lawn mowers they all take some sort of tire. There can be so many choices when buying tires it can be confusing. Tires are not like a wheel hub assembly or wheel bearing assembly there are tons that can fit on the same car. Some tires are able to fit under a car but are too large to allow the car to turn and others are too small making all the gauges in the car inaccurate. Not to mention tires that are too small will lower the performance of the car.

There are numbers that are listed on the side of a tire that will indicate the diameter and thickness. These numbers are listed in a very specific order which as an example would be something like a 205/40/85R. This code can be broken down by section the 205 is the width of the tire. The 40 refers to the height of the sidewall and the 85R will refer to the compound of the tire and the speed rating.

The width of the tire will decide the contact patch on the road, this is the area where the tire is actually resting on the road. This is also the only area where the horsepower of the car is actually transferred to the pavement. The height of the sidewall will dictated the comfort of the ride since the sidewall is the area that absorbs the small bumps in the road. The sidewall also protects the rims from dents due to large impacts. The speed rating literally dictates the speed at which the tires will begin to fall apart. Exceeding the speed rating of any tire is dangerous and potentially fatal due to the chance of failure and the resulting accident. The compound rating will tell the stickiness of the rubber used, while a stickier tire will give more grip it will wear out much faster than other tires.

Selecting the correct tire is essential to the ride and handling quality of the car and is best left to the professionals. If you are going to buy your own tired be sure to study up on the suggested tires for your individual ride. 

Why are Good Tires so Important?

Tires are the shoes of the automobile and the wheels are the legs, having great legs is important but ask any woman shoes can change the world. On average a person will spend more on shoes for their feet than on tires for the car they drive. The C/V axles, the ABS control module, the control arms…literally every system in the car relies on the tires to keep everything in check. Ever seen one of those worlds wildest police videos what happens when the cops shoot out the tires? Does anyone ever get far without tires? No, they have to book it on foot.

In the day to day grind we all see thousands of cars, one day take a min and look at the average tire on a car. More than a third of the people out there are riding around on tires that are bald or dry-rotted. Worn out tires are a huge safety risk in many ways, not only will there be less traction but they are more likely to suffer a blow-out. When a tire is referred to as bald it means that all the tread is worn off to a point where the grip will begin to lack and the side walls of the tire begin to suffer too. With low grip a car will slide during steering even at low speed and the braking distance will be come much greater. Metal bands run throughout tires and serve as a basic structure for the unit but they are also held together by the rubber. The less rubber the less structurally stable that the tire will be, at which point the small cracks that develop in the tire can quickly expand causing the loss of air pressure internally.

Dry rot is the next major issue that may people are completely oblivious to, this is the drying of the rubber in the unit. Rubber in a tire is just like the rubber in a seal, if it is not lubricated it will begin to crumble. When the rubber falls apart it will lead to holes and loss of stability, not to mention loss of grip. The physical characteristics of rubber change once dry rot happens and the only solution is to replace the units. Tires that are in bad condition can make your driving experience as dangerous as driving drunk. You may get away with it but in the end you are endangering yourself and everyone around you, When is the last time you checked your tires?