Mistakes Car Owners Often Make With Their Tires

Mistakes with maintaining the tires of your vehicle can have a major impact on the performance and safety of your vehicle. While the tires are an extremely important part of the vehicle, car owners will often fail to utilize some of the best practices for ensuring they are getting the best performance from their car's tires.

Failing To Carry A Full Spare For The Car

At some point during the time that you own your car, you are likely to experience a significant tire failure that could leave you stranded until it is replaced. While there are temporary spares that individuals will often keep in their vehicle, these tires may have a significantly shorter lifespan, and they may have a low maximum speed. In order to avoid these issues, you can opt to keep a full spare in your car. Individuals that live in rural areas may be particularly benefited by this as they may have to drive further than the maximum distance for their temporary spare to get a replacement tire for their vehicle.

Not Checking The Air Pressure In the Tires At Regular Intervals

The air pressure in your tires will fluctuate over the course of time, and this can lead to them needing to have air added or removed. This issue is especially common when the temperature has undergone a dramatic change as the volume of the air in the tire can increase or decreased based on the temperature. During the hotter months, you may notice that your tires can become overinflated while they may tend to underinflate during the winter months. Checking the air pressure in the tires at regular intervals can provide you with a chance to correct these air pressure imbalances before they have a chance to damage the tires or otherwise impact their performance.

Using Tires That Are Excessively Worn

As you use the tires, the treading on them will start to wear down, and this can drastically reduce the amount of traction that they provide. In addition to making the tire more likely to develop a leak, this issue can also impact the overall handling of the vehicle. For example, a car with worn tires will be far more likely to hydroplane or to need a substantially longer stopping distance. While replacing the tires can be a fairly large expense, it can be one of the most important steps for reducing the chance of being involved in an accident due to losing control of the vehicle.

Contact a tire shop in your area to learn more about tires.