Tyres can be an expensive purchase and getting the best life out of your tyres will not only reduce the cost of motoring and save you a significant amount of money. Make the most of your tyres by minimising the wear they are subject to as much as you possibly can.

The wear & tear of tyres is a natural process regardless of the type of tyres is inevitable whatever type of motoring you are doing, whether it is the rough terrain of Scotland’s highland tracks or busy roads of London.

Here are five ways to stop early tyre wear becoming a problem for you.

Moderate Your Speed

Driving at a moderate speed – observing the designated speed limit on any given road – is a good way of minimising excessive wear & tear and maintaining the condition of your tyres.

Driving too fast can in many cases cause excessive abrasion of the rubber on your tyre especially on tight twisty roads where the outside edges of the tyres are subject to increased stress wear.

Driving at excessive speeds will also often lead to excessive braking which puts even greater stress on the tyres as well as the brake pads and discs & suspension.

Drive on Good Roads

Avoid going off-road or driving on unmaintained, gravel or unofficial roads. These roads can be really tough on your tyres with uneven surfaces and potholes a constant threat of causing damage to the wall of your tyre.

These roads can also be very harsh on your vehicle’s suspension, the undertray of the car & your exhaust. So reduce the potential of mechanical damage and tyre wear by avoiding these roads if you possibly can. If not then drive cautiously to help minimise wear & tear.

If possible stick to roads that are maintained by National Highways (Formerly, Highways England, and before that, the Highways Agency) as much as you can, only switching to minor roads for the shortest possible journey, such as, for example, to reach your out-of-the-way holiday cottage destination.

Buying the Right Tyres

The first thing you need to do is to check the tyre specifications as recommended by the manufacturers. This information can be found in the car owner’s handbook and make sure that those “bargain tyres” are right for your car.

If you fit the wrong type of tyres to your vehicle they can cause a myriad of potential issues, they are not, and can cause expensive repairs. It is important that the tyre size, tyre type and the speed rating is correct for your vehicle, dependent upon the type of motoring you do, for example if you do a high mileage on motorways than it is vital that you select the tyre with the most suitable speed rating or risk reducing performance & wear if you fit the wrong type of rated tyre.

Selecting the correct tyres will help protect against a variety of potential issues with the chassis and the wheels: These problems can be very costly to fix which will nearly always cost you much more than the money you “saved” buying those bargain tyres !

While you should, of course, look around for the cheapest tyres that offer you the best value for money you can find, there is a caveat there: find the cheapest best quality tyres that you can find.

High quality premium tyres traditionally cost more than budget tyres, but the extra money is often clawed back in time because premium quality tyres will often last a lot longer than cheaper budget equivalents, making them the better choice for both practical and economic reasons.

If this information has helped you to decide to invest in a new set of high quality tyres to keep you driving safely and well? If you are considering buying new tyres in Stirling, you can book online at Fife Autocentre. We stock brands across all sectors from budget to premium to suit all budgets, all the brands we stock manufacture tyres to the latest international specifications so whatever type of motoring you do we can help you get the best choice.

Balancing and Alignment

To get the best out of your tyre life it is really important that you ensure that your tyres are always properly balanced and aligned.

Alignment of your tyres refers to the way they sit on the axle, we use the latest in laser guided machinery to check that precisely positioned on the axle to roll forward, parallel to one another, without pulling apart or pushing towards one another.

Wheel balancing involves ensuring that each wheel (and thus tyre) is balanced evenly to spread the load evenly across the tyre. In short, that the load of the vehicle is spread evenly between the four tyres. This helps the tyres to wear evenly – any tyre carrying more weight than the rest will inevitably wear faster than the others – so that they all last well.

Tyre rotation can help with this too. As the act of driving means that more wear is often seen on the front tyres, which lead, and on the outside edges of tyres, because of the pressures of going around corners, moving the back tyres to the front means that the tyres will wear evenly and steadily throughout their useful lifespan.

Inflation

Modern vehicles are often fitted with tyre pressure monitoring sensors that will alert you when the pressure in a particular tyre deviates from the accepted level. Modern tyres are designed to work within a narrow tolerance to reduce wear & tear and for safety.

Your tyres are the only part of your vehicle that is in constant contact with the road surface and so they should be given a great deal of care & attention as a result.