Speaking of tires, one cause of traffic accidents that is related to these wheels is underinflation. Up to half of the cars driving around out there have at least one tire that’s underinflated. The reason for this is the way that tires lose their air. The interaction between the wheel and the valve causes a loss of air that is usually too slow for most people to notice. After all, your tire looks the same as it loses air because it is losing little by little so you are acclimating yourself to its barely noticeable smaller size everyday. Another thing that causes a hardly noticeable loss of air is changes of temperature with the season. These temperature changes can cause a drop in the tire’s pressure.
If a tire has a lower pressure, the sidewall becomes more flexible, and that’s a bad thing. A flexible sidewall builds up heat, and that makes a tire wear out faster and can cause a blow out. The lowered pressure in the tire also reduces traction and makes it more difficult for the driver to control their brakes and their steering. Here are some ideas to keep yourself from getting suckered by an underinflated tire.
- Inflation isn’t skin deep. You can’t tell the pressure of your tire just by looking at it. Some newer types of tires might even look like they’re underinflated even when they aren’t.
- Tire gauges are cheap, and you should get one and use it to check th pressure in all of your tires at least once a month.
- Instead of setting your tire to the pressure that’s on the wheel itself set it to the one that the maker of your car recommends. You can usually find this number on the inside of your glove compartment or on the doorjamb.
- Make sure your tires are cold when you measure the pressure if you want to get an accurate count. After you go a mile or two, the tires heat up and make the reading less accurate.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.