Choose the Right Tires

Selecting the perfect tires for your automobile is an extremely important, and often overlooked, decision. Your car's tires are what holds your car to the road and can affect your vehicle's performance and even its fuel economy. Most important, poor and worn down tires are a major safety hazard for you and your family. No matter how great and expensive a car you own, if it doesn't have quality tires, all that horsepower and luxury will certainly be in vain.

Steps

  1. Know when to replace your tires. Look for signs of serious tire wear. Obviously, if you have a flat tire or can visibly see parts of your tire falling apart, it is time for a new tire. Smaller signs, like a simple worn down tread, are less obvious but just as important. The most common method for detecting whether you need new tires requires just a penny. If you place the penny into your tires tread and can still see any part of Lincoln's head, your tires are too worn down and should be replaced. Many new tires are equipped with colored bars within the tread that will show themselves when the tires are too worn down, so this is even more blatant. Most of the time, though, you can feel when a car tire is in bad shape while driving.
  2. Keep your tires well-maintained. By rotating your tires counter-clockwise every 5,000 to 10,000 miles (8,046 to 16,093 kilometers), you will ensure that none of your tires, specifically, garner too much wear. Consistently maintaining the correct level of inflation in your tires is also extremely important for all your tires' health.
  3. Figure out the size of your tires. Those seemingly random letters and numbers on the top of your tires do actually have a significance. A common label may read, "P200/70R16," where "P" indicates that the tire is a passenger tire, "200" is the width of the tire in millimeters, "70" is the tire's aspect ratio (height to width ratio), "R" indicates a radial tire, and, finally, "16" is the diameter of the wheel in inches. If you are replacing just one tire on your vehicle, making sure the new tire's measurements and style match up with the other tires is absolutely mandatory.
  4. Think about the most demanding aspect of your regular driving routine. If you drive in bad weather conditions throughout the year, look for all-weather, year-round tires. If you drive a lot every day, week after week, look for long-lasting tires that won't wear out quickly. You can also choose to equip your vehicle with a different set of tires based on the season. Some folks do have a set of summer tires for their vehicle and a separate winter-weather set of tires, too.
  5. Compare tread life between the tires you are thinking about purchasing. The best indicator of tire quality is tread life. This indicates the durability and stability of varying tires' treads. While each tire company comes up with a fancy new sort of tread, many are rather similar in quality, so durability may be what you want to be looking at. A tire's speed rating is also important, especially if you live in a state with a higher speed limit. Some tires are equipped to go faster than others, so make sure you have a tire with a high speed rating if you plan on consistently driving your vehicle over 75 to 80 miles per hour (120 to 129 kilometers per hour).

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