Here are six of the top tips for buying and safely running tires on your car, truck, or whatever vehicle you call your own. Tire safety is a serious matter that most of us drivers probably don’t give enough attention. But whether you’re driving on today’s high-speed freeways, or just rambling down a rural road, you don’t want to face tire troubles. From a dangerous tire blowout to an annoying flat, you don’t need or want the grief. As someone who spent many years working with car and truck tires, I guarantee a little care regularly will go a long ways in making sure you don’t face an unwelcome tire surprise in the future. Enjoy, and learn, from my experiences!
1. Get the Correct Sized Tires. I’ll bet you thought I was going to get right into serious issues like tire inflation and tread depth and all that stuff first, didn’t you? In fact, the biggest favor you can do yourself and your car or truck regarding safety and performance is to get the correct size tires and correct profile tires for your vehicle. There’s really no rocket science involved here, no mysterious or hard-to-find sources to consult. Check your vehicle’s owner’s manual and it will tell you what size tires are recommended for your cherished car or truck. It may give you a range of sizes; if so, try for something in the middle of the range — not too wide, not to narrow.
And if you don’t have an owner’s manual, or another good automotive manual for your model vehicle, consult with your vehicle’s dealership and ask them to explain 1) tire sizes and 2) tire profiles (wide/narrow) to you, as well as get their recommendation for what best fits your vehicle and your type of driving.
Why are tire size and profile so important to the safe, effective performance of your vehicle? One important word: stability. When your vehicle manufacturer made that car or truck, they made it to operate safely in a wide variety of road and weather conditions. And it was designed to operate safely based on the shape of the vehicle, i.e., over-all length, height, and width. If you “flaw” that design by using tires that are not big enough or too big, too narrow, too wide, etc., your destabilizing the design. It may or may not cause you trouble — but why take the chance just to save a few bucks on a cheaper but not-quite-suitable tire?
2. Check Tire Inflation Regularly. Yes, now we come to where the rubber (or probably polyester/steel/other-high-tech composite tire material) hits the road. That’s literally true: If you have under-inflated tires, they grip the road differently than properly inflated tires. Likewise, an over-inflated tire probably won’t grip quite as much of the road as one that’s inflated exactly right. Don’t fall for all those “old wives” (maybe “old guys”?) tales about tire inflation. Most of them have nothing to do with modern tire and modern driving realities. The only way to be sure about how to inflate your tires is to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for your vehicle. Most cars and trucks have that information on a small sticker or medallion fixed to the inside of the door on the driver’s side of the car. You may also find this information from the owner’s manual. And if you have no plate/tag listing correct inflation, and you have no owner’s manual — check with your car’s local dealership and/or perhaps a good informational website.
3. Run Tires With Adequate Tread Depth. The old saw used to determine this is to place a U.S. penny coin into the tread in the center of your tire. If the top of Abraham Lincoln’s head is showing above the tread — you need to get new tires, because that isn’t a safe amount of tread on the tire. That’s probably a pretty good guide as rules-of-thumb go. Here’s another good one: Give your tires and yourself a break by using a bit more currency. Namely, use a U.S. quarter coin and George Washington’s image’s head for a guide instead of the penny. According to recent testing from the researchers at The Tire Rack (one of our fine online merchant partners!), the quarter shows you 4/32 of an inch remaining tread; the penny only 2/32 of an inch. In most states, according to the Tire Rack guys, 4/32 of an inch in MUCH safer — and the penny measure of 2/32 is the minimum legal tread in most states.
Why take a chance running tires with skimpy tread depth when you can buy new tires a bit sooner and be a lot safer? Up to you, of course.
4. Buy Tires in Sets of 4 or at Least Axle Pairs. There is enough difference in manufacturing between tire makers, i.e., size and tread depth variations, that you really need to replace all the tires at once to get them to safely match — or at least two front tires or two rear tires at a time. This gets back to issues of stability, too. If one tire is slightly different in height or width from the others, it can produce uneven performance, possibly even unsafe performance. Obviously, if you need a replacement tire and are stuck getting just one because of circumstances or just plain lack of money, you have little to say about this. But try to always buy your tires in sets for the safest, best performance.
5. Make Sure You Have a Good Spare Tire. In these days of cell phones and auto clubs, suddenly finding a flat or unusable spare when you need a tire on a rainy road in the middle of the night MAY be less traumatic than it was just a few years ago. But trust me, it’s still no fun at all. In case your cell phone has no reception, your towing insurance and/or auto club is unavailable, at least give yourself the option of getting out of an emergency in the least messy fashion by checking your spare tire once in awhile. Make sure it’s 1) the right size (those annoying little doughnut spare tires ARE ONLY FOR DIRE EMERGENCIES; DO NOT CONTINUE DRIVING ON THEM ANY FARTHER THAN YOU MUST!!), 2) properly inflated, and, 3) is actually on a rim that fits your car. Yes, I know it came with the vehicle. In a perfect world, or at least a world where we all own new or slightly used cars, the spare will fit the car. I, on the other hand, distinctly remember years back owning a very old Chevy clunker given to me by a friend (or relative?) — and the spare tire was on a Ford rim.
Don’t ask me how I happen to remember that. It wasn’t a happy day.
6. Visually Check Your Tires Often; Replace Them Regularly. Yeah, I know, that’s a pretty general tip, so you’re asking, “What the heck does that mean?” It means that the best over-all “tip” for tire safety and performance is to stay in tune with your tires. (Sort of Zen-like, isn’t it?) By that I mean, don’t forget the tires are there; glance at them regularly and make sure there are no unexpected bulges, torn treads, uneven tread wear, etc. You’ll never need to change a tire in the rain on a lonely road, or find yourself with a blowout skidding into oncoming traffic, if you take a quick look at all four tires once every couple of weeks (or more often if you wish). And whether or not you drive enough to wear the tread off your tires — I personally recommend getting new tires every 2-3 years even with low-mileage usage. Why replace the tires if the tread is fine and they haven’t been used much?
Because most of us live in climates where weather, i.e., up-and-down temperature changes, storms, road conditions, etc., generally take a toll on the material your tires are made of. That’s normally not a big issue with today’s modern tires. But why let it become an issue and have a sidewall weaken or bulge just because of weathering. It probably is quite rare — but you only need it to happen once.
Oh, and visually inspect to make sure you have a good set of wheels, i.e., rims, something without bangs or dings along the edges which could cause a tire to come unmounted while on the road — not a good thing!
Hope all six of those tire tips help. Most of them, like everything regarding your car or truck, involve just paying attention and common-sense maintenance.
Good fortune and happy motoring to you!