ALT-1 Tire Knowledge for Women
With the proper knowledge and understanding anyone, whether male or female, can maintain their vehicles tires to perform both safely and effectively. To restrict information or to "dumb down" anything involving tire safety because of gender not only does a disservice to that particular person's ability to gain knowledge but can also place that person in greater risk of injury or possibly death.
There are four key areas every driver should know about their tires in order to extend the life of the tire itself and maintain safe driving conditions throughout the life of the tire.
Tire pressure or inflation is one area that needs special attention since there can be confusion surrounding what pressures the vehicles tires need to be inflated to. If you were to look at the tire pressure written, or molded, into the side of the tire itself you would believe that you were to fill the tire to that pressure specification, when in fact the vehicles tires are to be filled to the pressures specified by the vehicles manufacture. This tire pressure can be found either within the owner's manual or typed to a sticker found on the driver side door jamb and sometimes can give different pressure for both the front and rear tires.
Tire rotation or moving the tires from one corner of the vehicle to another can extend the life of the tire up to three hundred percent longer. The steering tires located at the front of the vehicle are exposed to, what is known as, camber and caster. Camber is tilt of the wheel designed into the vehicle to aid in the cars ability to steer. Caster is the tires angle toward each other in order to aid the vehicle in moving in a straight line. Over long periods of time both camber and caster can accelerate the wear upon the vehicles tires. As a general rule of thumb if your vehicle has rear-wheel drive the right rear tire should go to the front left tire and the left rear tire should go to the right front tire, also the right front goes to the right rear and the left front goes to the left rear tire. If your vehicle is front-wheel drive the right front to the left rear, the left front to the right rear, right rear to right front, left rear to left front.
Tire tread is likely the most important safety aspect to the maintaining your vehicles tires. Tread is used to provide channels for water, snow and dirt to separate from the roads surface allowing the rubber surface of the tire to come in direct contact with the roads surface. Over time the tires rubber will wear and these channels will reduce in size. When this happens the material the tread is designed to separate can actually begin to lift the tires rubber surface away from the roads surface. The worse the wear to the tread the more lift, resulting in lower tire grip.
In most states tire tread is regulated by law to be at a specific depth if a tires tread is under the state limit the vehicles owner can be fined and have the vehicle impounded. In order to prevent this from happening there are two methods widely used to measure the tire for proper tread. The first is known as the penny method. With a penny in hand take the Lincoln side of the penny, upright, and place it within the tread. If the tread is below Lincoln's eyebrow the tire should be replaced. The second and more accurate way is to buy a tread measuring tool at a local auto-parts store.
Tire cost is not that much different then any item you may need to purchase, you get what you pay for. Although there are tires currently on the market that are both good quality and cheap the general rule is the higher the quality the higher the cost. Remember tires are an important part to safe driving, consider this when shopping for tires.
