Tire care and why its Important

There are a number of checklists for tires, but they really don't explain why to check items, its more like a parent saying “Do it!”. We're going to do that, if you have questions, concerns or comments you can always contact us.

Maintaining your tire pressure and checking tire pressure at least once per month:

A lot of people laughed at the President when he said this to help improve fuel economy of vehicles. Here's a secret, its true, and the savings are not small. If you can lower the amount of money you spend on fuel by up to 12%, wouldn't it make sense to take the minute or so to take the cap off the valve stem and put a tire pressure guage on the tire? Keeping your tires properly inflated helps minimize the risk of failures such as tread separation and side-wall breaks. The last thing anyone needs is a tire to fail when traveling down the road at 75 miles per hour.
Why a month? Normally a tire will lose 1 psi of pressure every month due to natural leaking of air or nitrogen through tire membranes. Also for every loss of 8 degrees of ambient temperature you will lose 1 psi of pressure. As seasons change from summer to fall and fall to winter, it is important to be vigilant about checking tire pressure. Before any long trip (over 250 miles) check tire pressure before even hitting the road to help save money.

Inspect tires regularly for wear and damage:

This can be done while checking tire pressure. Most issues are caused by underinflation and can be rectified by properly inflating the tires. If the tire is damaged, consider replacing the tires . Here is what you will want to look for:

Uneven tread wear. This could be something as simple as being under or overinflated to having a problem with steering, suspension, or alignment.
Cracks or bulges in the sidewalls or tread tread. This normally indicates a failure of the side wall constructions and needs to be replaced immediately.
"Chunks" of tread missing from the tire. This is tread separation and the tire needs to be replaced immediately.
If a puncture is found, do not use an external plug, they don't hold consistently and further compromise the integrity of the thread. When the puncture is repaired from the inside, the tire, rim, and valve stem can be inspected and repaired or replaced. If you use a sealant to repair the tire, it is only meant to be a temporary way for you to move your vehicle to safety.
Rotation and balancing:
This will help with normal tire wear. By rotating the tires according to vehicle manufacturer's guidelines it will even the wear. A good rule of thumb is to rotate tires every 6,000 miles if there is no vehicle manufacturer guideline. Maintaining tires in balance not only saves on tire wear, improves the ride, spares wear suspension and steering helping extend the life of the vehicle.

Overloading and overheating:

Overloading the tires is the second leading cause of tire failure. If the truck is hauling a load of 2,000 lbs, trouble is brewing if the tires are only rated for 1500 pounds. When calculating the load, makes sure to include the tongue weight of any thing that is towed.
Overheating can occur when tires are overloaded, it can also occur with aggressive driving: sudden braking, high speeds, and hard cornering. Road conditions vary, if the driving style changes to meet the road conditions, overheating is minimized.
Selecting tires for your vehicle:
All-season tires are so good that snow tires are never needed is a great myth out there. The depends on location, for places where snow is removed often or not so consistent, then all-season tires are probably the better investment, but if the location is a rural area or a place with a lot of snow, then getting snow-tires is a better investment because they will have about 25% more traction than all-season tires.
Replacing tires in pairs or complete sets:
Besides the fact that its going to cost more per to replace tires individually, it can also upset the handling of the vehicle and also affect ABS if only one tire is replaced. If the budget only allows two new tires, when installed place on the rear axle to help maintain maximum traction and reduce the chance of oversteering on front wheel drive vehicles.

Rules for replacing tires:
Extreme uneven tread wear, also while this is being done have the steering and suspension checked also.
Cracks or bulges in the sidewalls and tread.
"Chunks" of tread missing from the tire.
The tire was punctured and cannot be repaired satisfactorily.
Any portion of the thread is worn to the indicator bars, these are small metal strips that will appear once the tread is down to 20% of the new tread depth, or 1/16th of an inch deep whichever is greater.