Smoothen Out Your Cars Run by Balancing Your Tires

Keep in mind that properly inflated tires will prolong the life of the wheels. Good quality ones can last you up to ten years, but only if they are properly inflated and frequently rotated. Aside from inflation and rotation, keeping the balance of your tires is another important task that you need to do as a car owner. If you bought your car brand new, you can rest assured that they are properly inflated and balanced. However, for previously owned cars, you may not have an idea about how old the tires are, and whether they are balanced or not.

The good news is that when you buy an entire set of new tires, you can have them balanced when installed on the rims. This is a must-do procedure because it is your safety which is at risk if you fail to balance out your tires.

Factors to Consider when Balancing Your Tires

To delve a bit deeper into the importance of balancing out your tires, here are a few factors to take into consideration:

The vibration of the tires.

Remember that tires and rims are manufactured based on rigid standards. Despite this, small imperfections may still exist which can lead to weight differences, which later on result to unwanted vibrations. So how much vibration can your tires set actually do with? If your car is travelling at a speed of 60 miles per hour, this makes for about four revolutions per second. Each revolution creates a vibration so an hour’s worth of travel equates to more than 14,000 revolutions for each tire.

Based on the number of hours that you are driving per week, just imagine how many revolutions the tires would be subject to! Add to this the fact that you can have a flat tire once your car goes through potholes, nails, gravel or some other nasty road debris. Your tires can be more capable of eliminating these road hazards by constantly rotating them and balancing them out.

The frequency by which you are balancing out your car tires.

There’s no one solid rule to follow when it comes to how often you should balance out your tires. But a good rule of thumb to follow is to rotate them every 6,000 miles. Make this a bit more frequent if you are always navigating through rough road conditions, or during winter when the tires are subject to being in contact with wet, slippery pavements.

As a driver, it is entirely your responsibility to ensure that your car is 100% road-worthy before you get behind the wheel. Taking care of your car tires is part of this responsibility, so always remember to balance them out regularly and ensure that they are properly inflated to prolong the life of your tires.

Why Winter Tires Are Necessary – General Info

Winter tires, otherwise known as snow tires, are especially designed to be used in icy and cold conditions. They are a replacement of the tire chains used on snowy terrain. In most countries that have winter conditions, using winter tires when there is snow on the roads is absolutely necessary and controlled by the law. If you are not using special winter tires in such conditions, you can be charged with a fine of over $500. This is more than the actual cost of the tires, so you may want to go and buy some if you don’t have any, instead of using regular all-season or summer tires. By not using winter tires in snowy conditions, you also drastically increase the chance of having an accident due to the reduced traction and stability of the vehicle. Get the facts about tire Auburn see this.

Winter tires are so special because of the type of rubber they are made of. They include more natural silica and rubber. These materials don’t get as hard and stiff as the synthetic ones that are used in other types of tires. This enables winter tires to maintain their performance in very low temperatures. On the surface of the winter tire, that comes in contact with the road, there are significantly more treads than on other types of tires. This enables the tire to perform better on snowy, icy and wet terrain, as the treads help the water escape from under the tire. Winter tires drastically reduce the risks of experiencing hydroplaning. Hydroplaning occurs on very wet surfaces, when the layer of water between the tire and the road is too big and the excess water can’t be pushed away by the treads. In such situations, the car actually floats on a few millimeters of water. This causes a total loss of control over the vehicle and in almost every case leads to an accident. This is one of the main reasons why winter tires are really necessary in this kind of conditions, and using them can even save your life.

In Scandinavian countries, there is a special type of winter tires. The tires used in these regions have metal studs scattered on the surface of the tire. The studs combined with the wide treads, ensure maximum traction and control over the vehicle in icy, snowy and wet conditions. However, this kind of tires is used only in Scandinavia because of the extreme weather conditions in the region. In other countries, tires with metal studs are prohibited because of the damage they do to the roads.

Tips For Maintaining Your Motorcycle Tires

Have you checked your motorcycle tires lately? If you haven’t, then you might want to do so in order to make sure they are in good condition. Failure to keep your tires in good condition could put you and others at risk. Here are some tips that will help you keep your tires maintained.

Why It’s Important To Have Good Tires

There are many different reasons why having well maintained motorcycle tires is important. One of the first reasons is that having good tires give you good traction on different types of road surfaces. Proper tread helps make good traction possible and can keep you from skidding out. Proper tread is also very important in wet riding conditions.

Without the right amount of tread depth in your tires, water has no where to flow so you might experience hydroplaning more often which can be very dangerous especially on two wheels. If you feel yourself sliding or slipping from side to side while riding on wet roads, then you know your tires lack sufficient tread depth and you should consider purchasing new ones.

Not only does having an adequate amount of tread help keep you safe, but it also helps keep others on the road safe as well. If you’re bike skids out of control, who knows what the result might be and who knows who else might be hurt as a result of your negligence.

Maintenance Tips:

Proper Tire Inflation

One thing you can do to help extend the life of your tires is always keep the proper amount of air in them. Proper inflation can help reduce wear and tear and can give you maximum amount of usage out of your motorcycle tires. Tires that are under-inflated tend to heat up more and therefore are more susceptible to a blow out. When your motorcycle tires are running to hot, they are more likely to break down and wear out quickly.

Maintain Proper Tread Depth

Another tip for maintaining your motorcycle tires is to keep constant watch on the amount of tread that is left on them. If the gap in the tread of your tires is 2mm deep or less, then it’s definitely time to think about getting some new tires. Be sure to check the tread depths on all areas of the tire surface and don’t just check the depth in one spot such as the edge of the tire. Use a tire gauge to check the pressure in your motorcycle tires on a regular basis.

If you ride primarily on highways and freeways where there is little cornering, then most of the tread wear is going to occur in the middle of the tire so you’ll want to check the depth there. If you ride on curvy roads, then tread wear will be distributed evenly over the surface of the motorcycle tire. Checking the surface of the entire tire regardless of what types of roads you typically ride on will help you properly identify the condition of your tires.