Americans use nearly 300 million tires every year. They help keep us on the road and in Michigan, they try to keep us going over potholes, snow and ice throughout the year. On the face of it tires are pretty simple, they’re made of rubber and filled with air. The most commonly referenced parts of a tire are the tread, sidewall, shoulder, and bead. The tread is the part of the tire that contacts the road. Treads come in different designs for different purposes, accounting for weather, noise and environment. Winter tread has larger gaps in it to compress snow and increase control. While your average every-day tire will have minimal gaps and a basic design to increase friction and reduce costs.
Lower than recommended PSI means more of your tire is contacting the road, increasing friction. However if tire pressure is low enough it can cause the tread of the tire to bend inward, creating a concave contact point. This means that the center part of the tire is no longer in contact with the road, reducing friction and increasing wear on the sides of the tire. Over inflation has the opposite effect, increasing wear to the center of the tire.
Cars manufactured after 2007 are required to have Tire Pressure Sensors. These automatically measure tire pressure and relay that information to the driver. But these can break, knowing how to keep track of your tire pressure independently, and having a gauge on hand can be helpful in a pinch.
Air pressure for tires is measured in PSI with a tire gauge, and for most passenger vehicles sits between 32 to 36 PSI. It is best measured when the tires are cool. If your car has a full sized spare, this will be the same PSI as your other tires. If you have a space-saver spare, or donut, those generally run closer to 60 PSI. Maintaining your spare, and the tools needed to mount it in the event of a flat, are essential to keeping your car on the road.
No matter how intensively tires are maintained, road hazards are apt to ruin your day. Whether it’s from road debris, poor road conditions, or just bad luck, you can get a flat nearly anywhere.
If that happens, you should pull off the road into a safe location and get to work resolving the situation. If you have roadside coverage you can contact them for assistance. Otherwise, you can call a tow company, like H&H Mobil. Or if you’re comfortable with it, and have the tools and know-how you can do it yourself.
Some tires can be repaired by a service shop. Small holes in the tread of an otherwise fit tire can be plugged or patched to make the tire roadworthy again. Larger holes, or damage to the sidewall of a tire should not be repaired as the sidewall flexes too much for any fix to last.
New tires can be a pain to purchase. A full set can be expensive, but their impact on your driving and safety are huge. Regardless, preventing problems is almost always cheaper than solving them.