All car tyres wear – they are, after all, consumable items. However, some car tyres wear faster than others. Let’s take a look at eight aspects that affect car tyre life.
1. Wheel Alignment
When your car’s wheel alignment is correct, the tyres can run true on the road. This means that a balance exists between the car tyre’s drag and the amount of compliance in the car’s suspension. Incorrect alignment spells increased wear, and can affect your rear wheels as well as the front ones.
2. Speed
Continuous high-speed driving accelerates car tyre wear. If you doubt this, just take a look at Formula One – pit stops aren’t to give the driver a rest while the tyres are changed!
3. Driving Style
If you drive sympathetically, your car tyres will last longer. Drive aggressively and you’ll pay for it through having to replace your car tyres sooner. An aggressive driving style will raise car tyre flexing and running temperature, and increase tread wear.
4. Car Tyre Placement
On a rear-wheel drive car, the front tyres must cope with steering and braking while the rear tyres offer traction as well as grip. On a front-wheel-drive car, the front tyres have still more to do, consequently wearing faster.
5. Vehicle Weight
Heavier vehicles wear our car tyres faster than lighter ones. There are, of course, heavier duty car tyres to compensate for this to some extent. However, the basic principle remains.
6. Car Tyre Type
Car tyres are constructed to meet particular needs. A performance tyre will give superior grip but will wear out sooner, as it has a softer rubber compound. Conversely, a harder, long life tyre will offer a longer life, at the cost of lesser grip and increased noise. There are tyre types that offer a compromise between the various demands on car tyres.
7. Tyre Pressure
An underinflated car tyre flexes more, runs hotter and wears faster than a correctly inflated one. Underinflation also increases fuel consumption, by creating additional tyre drag. Overinflation is nearly as bad, causing strange wear patterns and reducing grip.
8. The Passage of Time
This is the one aspect affecting tyre life that can’t be avoided. Ultra violet light causes rubber to degrade, as do chemical spills on the road. The usual giveaway is the appearance of cracked sidewalls…themselves indicative of a car tyre that is old. A car that is garaged will receive better car tyre life than a car that lives outside.
As is now clear, the factors affecting car tyre life – and performance – are many and varied. Mechanical sympathy and assiduous car maintenance positively affect tyre life. Conversely, it isn’t really surprising that bad habits can affect tyre life negatively.
Article Resource
Merityre.co.uk are one of the leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.
Monday 19 November 2012
Changing a Car Tyre the Professional Way
Back in the mists of time, motorists used to change their own tyres – by hand. No doubt there are diehard enthusiasts who still do this but for us mere mortals, there are car tyre bays. Here’s how a car tyre is changed – by machine.
To be attended to on a tyre machine, the car wheel with the tyre to be replaced must be taken off. Enter the trolley jack and powered wheel nut wrench. Almost without exception a key or adaptor to cope with the locking wheel nut is needed now. Soon enough, the errant car tyre will be detached from the car, complete with wheel.
Now the fun begins! We’re contemplating separating a big, tough rubber ring from the big, heavy metal wheel it’s been embracing, probably for many miles. The tyre fitter can unscrew the tyre valve and let the air out, but he can’t make any impression on the car tyre/wheel combination without mechanical assistance. This is why the tyre machine has powerful, compressed air-powered jaws, better known as the bead breaker. With the deflated car tyre placed correctly, all the fitter need do is press on a pedal. The jaws seize the tyre and separate the bead from the wheel rim.
The failed car tyre now has to go up in the world. More accurately, it has to lie flat on the tyre machine, with the wheel clamped firmly in place. More compressed air is used to let the machine seize the wheel firmly. Then, the fitter will place the hooked head of the tyre machine by the car tyre’s bead. Lifting the broken bead carefully over the wheel rim with a tyre lever, the fitter will flip it over the machine’s head. Another press of a pedal releases compressed air, causing the wheel to rotate. The tyre machine’s head peels the upper bead of the car tyre up and off the wheel rim. Repeat the process for the lower bead and that’s it – the old car tyre is off.
Now for a spot of wheel preparation. The old tyre valve’s inner fitting is sawn off and the valve is drawn out. The old balance weights will be peeled off or unclipped and, in some instances, the fitter will use a hand wire brush to clean corrosion off the wheel rim. Then, after having replaced the tyre valve, the fitter will apply a special compound to the wheel rim and the new car tyre. This stuff is a lubricant that will make fitting the new tyre easier. However, where there has been an air leak between the old tyre and the wheel, the fitter will brush on a special sealant.
The tyre machine comes into play again now. Once cleaned, lubed (or sealed) and re-valved, the wheel is ready to accept the new car tyre. The machine is simply used in reverse order, the push the new tyre over the wheel rim, bead by bead. Using a compressed air line, the fitter will then inflate the new car tyre. Sometimes, the tyre/wheel will need encouragement to seal but the tyre will eventually seat itself – sometimes with a loud bang – when air pressure builds up. Throughout the car tyre-fitting process, the tyre machine has done most of the heavy work, while the tyre fitter carried out the intelligent tasks.
So, are we finished? Not quite – the wheel and car tyre combination need to be balanced. There’s another machine for this. Having placed the wheel on the tyre-balancing machine and clamped it on firmly, the fitter will close a safety guard and start the machine. The machine spins the wheel up to a given speed, which is usually about 200 revolutions per minute. Now it’s the balancing machine’s turn to be clever. Using its sensors and electronics, the machine will tell the fitter how heavy the balance weights need to be and exactly where they must go. Using the machine’s recommendations, wheel weights will be fitted and the newly balanced wheel taken up to speed again. Fine-tuning can be done but it’s rarely needed.
What used to be done manually, and could lead to sore hands and backache has been done quickly and efficiently. Should you watch from the comfort of the waiting area, you’ll know exactly what the fitter was doing at each stage of the tyre change…and why!
Article Resource
Merityre.co.uk are one of the leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.
To be attended to on a tyre machine, the car wheel with the tyre to be replaced must be taken off. Enter the trolley jack and powered wheel nut wrench. Almost without exception a key or adaptor to cope with the locking wheel nut is needed now. Soon enough, the errant car tyre will be detached from the car, complete with wheel.
Now the fun begins! We’re contemplating separating a big, tough rubber ring from the big, heavy metal wheel it’s been embracing, probably for many miles. The tyre fitter can unscrew the tyre valve and let the air out, but he can’t make any impression on the car tyre/wheel combination without mechanical assistance. This is why the tyre machine has powerful, compressed air-powered jaws, better known as the bead breaker. With the deflated car tyre placed correctly, all the fitter need do is press on a pedal. The jaws seize the tyre and separate the bead from the wheel rim.
The failed car tyre now has to go up in the world. More accurately, it has to lie flat on the tyre machine, with the wheel clamped firmly in place. More compressed air is used to let the machine seize the wheel firmly. Then, the fitter will place the hooked head of the tyre machine by the car tyre’s bead. Lifting the broken bead carefully over the wheel rim with a tyre lever, the fitter will flip it over the machine’s head. Another press of a pedal releases compressed air, causing the wheel to rotate. The tyre machine’s head peels the upper bead of the car tyre up and off the wheel rim. Repeat the process for the lower bead and that’s it – the old car tyre is off.
Now for a spot of wheel preparation. The old tyre valve’s inner fitting is sawn off and the valve is drawn out. The old balance weights will be peeled off or unclipped and, in some instances, the fitter will use a hand wire brush to clean corrosion off the wheel rim. Then, after having replaced the tyre valve, the fitter will apply a special compound to the wheel rim and the new car tyre. This stuff is a lubricant that will make fitting the new tyre easier. However, where there has been an air leak between the old tyre and the wheel, the fitter will brush on a special sealant.
The tyre machine comes into play again now. Once cleaned, lubed (or sealed) and re-valved, the wheel is ready to accept the new car tyre. The machine is simply used in reverse order, the push the new tyre over the wheel rim, bead by bead. Using a compressed air line, the fitter will then inflate the new car tyre. Sometimes, the tyre/wheel will need encouragement to seal but the tyre will eventually seat itself – sometimes with a loud bang – when air pressure builds up. Throughout the car tyre-fitting process, the tyre machine has done most of the heavy work, while the tyre fitter carried out the intelligent tasks.
So, are we finished? Not quite – the wheel and car tyre combination need to be balanced. There’s another machine for this. Having placed the wheel on the tyre-balancing machine and clamped it on firmly, the fitter will close a safety guard and start the machine. The machine spins the wheel up to a given speed, which is usually about 200 revolutions per minute. Now it’s the balancing machine’s turn to be clever. Using its sensors and electronics, the machine will tell the fitter how heavy the balance weights need to be and exactly where they must go. Using the machine’s recommendations, wheel weights will be fitted and the newly balanced wheel taken up to speed again. Fine-tuning can be done but it’s rarely needed.
What used to be done manually, and could lead to sore hands and backache has been done quickly and efficiently. Should you watch from the comfort of the waiting area, you’ll know exactly what the fitter was doing at each stage of the tyre change…and why!
Article Resource
Merityre.co.uk are one of the leading UK independent suppliers of car tyres. Why not visit their website for an online tyre quote or contact your nearest fitting centre.
Monday 12 November 2012
Merityre News!!
Building will shortly commence at MERITYRE SPECIALISTS LTD, West Way, Walworth Business Park, Andover, to extend the existing retail tyre depot. Two new bays should be operational early in the New Year, adding an extra 50% to the current space available for fitting tyres, batteries exhausts and brakes.
The existing Merityre building was constructed in 1988, as a purpose built warehouse and Head Office for Merityre, which currently has a further 21 Tyre and Exhaust Branches in the South of England. The retail fitting bays were part of the original design, but were limited in size due to Test Valley Borough Council planning restrictions at that time.
Now that Andover is seeing the expansion of its housing stock at both Augusta Park and Picket Twenty, the increase in business at Merityre has prompted this expansion, to improve customer facilities and reduce waiting times during busy periods. Merityre is open for business 7 days a week, from 8.30am – 6.00pm Monday to Friday, 8.30 – 5.00pm Saturdays and 9.30am – 12 noon on Sunday mornings. Local branch manager Paul Kinnaird, and his assistant Craig Denness, are looking forward to these new facilities and remain committed to providing a top class service on Tyres, Exhausts, Brakes and associated products in 2013!
The existing Merityre building was constructed in 1988, as a purpose built warehouse and Head Office for Merityre, which currently has a further 21 Tyre and Exhaust Branches in the South of England. The retail fitting bays were part of the original design, but were limited in size due to Test Valley Borough Council planning restrictions at that time.
Now that Andover is seeing the expansion of its housing stock at both Augusta Park and Picket Twenty, the increase in business at Merityre has prompted this expansion, to improve customer facilities and reduce waiting times during busy periods. Merityre is open for business 7 days a week, from 8.30am – 6.00pm Monday to Friday, 8.30 – 5.00pm Saturdays and 9.30am – 12 noon on Sunday mornings. Local branch manager Paul Kinnaird, and his assistant Craig Denness, are looking forward to these new facilities and remain committed to providing a top class service on Tyres, Exhausts, Brakes and associated products in 2013!
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