If you are out of petrol, and you’re stranded at the roadside waiting for the RAC (or AAA), you’re probably not thinking about whether you have the right tyre pressure – more likely you’ll be worried about having bought a wrong fuel! But tyre pressure is immensely important to safety – and not in any crazy way, just in something that’s really very simple: a major contributor to your vehicle’s safety does not depend on what’s under the bonnet, or how you ride its brakes. In fact, it might not even be part of the car at all. The real star of vehicle safety is something very mundane, very low tech, and yet it’s also very easy to get wrong. I’m talking, of course, about tyre pressure. Regularly checking that your tyres are at the right pressure will help your car run smoothly, and it will improve the car’s overall safety. In this blog post, we’ll look at why tyre pressure plays such a vital role in vehicle safety, and why it should form part of an ongoing maintenance routine.
The Importance of Correct Tire Pressure
The inside each of your tires is called tire pressure. It is measured in pounds per square inch (PSI here in the US). Your vehicle should have a recommended tire pressure, which you can usually find in your owner’s manual or on a sticker in the driver’s side door. Making sure each tire is at the recommended pressure is important for several reasons.
Contact with the Road Only: Tyres are the only part of your vehicle that directly contacts the road surface. Inflated tyres are parallel to the road surface, giving the maximum surface area (tread) in contact with the road at all times, providing for adequate grip and handling.
Proper pressure means better wear. Your tyres will wear evenly, lasting longer and improving your handling. If you don’t maintain the pressure, one part of the tyre will wear the tyre, creating handling problems. You’ll also be at an increased risk of having your tyre explode. Even Tire Wear: Correct pressure means better wear. Your tyres won’t wear out unevenly, will last longer and keep your handling stable. But if you don’t maintain your pressure, one section will wear down faster than the rest. This can cause handling problems and make driving your car less safe because you’re at greater risk of having your tyre blow out.
Fuel Efficiency: Your tyres gain more girth (ie, they bulge out more as shown in Figure. With more bulk, your tyres have to roll up and over any and churning inside your engine reduces your fuel efficiency, requiring you to fill up more often than you normally would.
Braking Performance: Properly inflated tyres provide good braking performance. Either low or excessively high tyre pressure can adversely affect your vehicle’s ability to stop quickly, particularly in an emergency.
The Dangers of Under-Inflated Tires
Driving with under-inflated tires is a common issue that can have serious safety implications:
Gre in excess friction and heat buildup. This friction from the road combined with heat can weaken the tire, resulting in higher chances for a blowout — especially when driving at higher speeds.
Poor Steering and Stability: Driving on underinflated tyres squirms and dives, putting you out of control, especially during sharp turns or sudden manoeuvres, which is extremely dangerous in the rain or snow.
Increased Stopping Distances: Low tyre pressure will decrease your tyres’ road grip, increasing your stopping distances, which in an emergency could be the difference between stopping and causing a collision.
Prem Wear: A major concern with under-inflation is that it accelerates uneven tire wear, with the most significant wear occurring on the outer edges of the tyre tread. When a tyre is worn out of balance, unevenly worn areas are more susceptible to rapid tread wear, splits, separations, and even catastrophic tyre failures.
The Risks of Over-Inflated Tires
While under-inflation is more common, over-inflating your tires can also compromise safety:
Less Traction: Because over-inflated tyres bulge in the centre of the tread, they have less flat contact on the road. There’s less rubber touching the road, so less traction. The bulge will propel your car forward when you’re countering a skidding action, making the skid worse, especially on wet or ice-coated roads.
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Higher Likelihood of Blowouts: If your tyres get over-inflated, they’ll be more prone to blowouts, just like under-inflated tyres. The excess air pressure can make the tyre swell above its specified limit, inviting damage from pebbles and ejecta in the road surface or from potholes.
Uneven rimwear: tires with too little air will wear out in the centre of the t affected.
How to Maintain Correct Tire Pressure
Since the tire pressure has a big impact on, it is suggested that tire pressure check should be a regular part of car maintenance. This essay gives tips on how to make certain that the tire is always well-inflated.
According to some experts, tire pressure should be checked four times a year. Usually, it will be cool early in the morning or late at night. The most important thing is that the tire pressure gauges should be the right type for the tire valves. Overinflated and low pressure could leave serious car accidents. Unlike car maintenance, ordinary people can perform this check easily and quickly by carefully using their own sum up, since tire pressure has a direct influence on your safety and your car’s safety, it is necessary to have tire pressure checks regularly. One check in a month will guarantee the safety of yourself and your family.
Check for tire pressure every few weeks: Tyre pressure changes with temperature and also from normal driving your tyre pressure at least once a month to see that it is at the correct pressure for your car. It’s also a good idea to check your tyre pressure before setting off on a long trip. Make sure that your tyres are cold when you check pressures. The heat that the tyres get up to after you’ve been driving can give an incorrect reading.
With a Good Tire Gauge: If you want an exact reading and the correct air levels, replace your old, warped tire gauge with a quality one. You can take a chance with the built-in one at your gas station, but after constant use and abuse, they do get a little unreliable.
Match Pressure to Load: If you’re sporting extra weight in your vehicle, whether it’s passengers or cargo, you may need to increase your tire pressure to match that load, and it’s easy to find circumstantial directives to do that in your vehicle’s manual.
Check That Spare: Make sure to take a look inside at your spare when checking your regular tires and make sure your spare still has air in it. The last thing you need is a flat tyre and see that your spare one is flat too.
Temperature Fluctuations: Tire pressure can drop about 1 PSI for each 10-degree fall in temperature. In cool weather, you may have to check and adjust your tire pressure more often.
The Role of Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS)
Most cars nowadays have an on-board Tire Pressure Monitoring System that will light up a ‘Tyre Pressure Warning’ indicator when the pressure in the tyre drops too low. But this message should not be blindly accepted; most of these systems take action only when pressure drops by 25 per cent or more, so your tyre may already be under-inflated before this light comes on.
Note: TPMS should be regarded not as a replacement for but as a complement to proper manual checking of tyre pressure, and should be used in conjunction with this sort of checking at regular intervals to confirm that tyre pressure actually is within the manufacturer’s recommended range.
Conclusion: Prioritize Tire Pressure for Safety
Correct tire pressure is arguably the easiest thing you can do to increase the safety and performance of your car. It reduces the stress on the tires, providing better road gripping capacity which in turn improves handling. In addition, it helps to give you better fuel economy, longer tire lifespan and better safety. So, you are reducing your risks of having an accident if you simply check (and maintain) your tire pressure. Make it a habit to check your tire pressure regularly because you can run into bad trouble if you drive on tires that are significantly under-inflated, or over-inflated. It costs little time to maintain your tires correctly, helping you to increase your comfort, control and reduce your chances of accidents.
