BE A ROADS SCHOLAR

Over the past six months, we’ve looked at a number of tips and guidelines to help prolong the life of your tyres and, at the same time, ensure you have the safest of driving experiences.

But, have you every considered that one of the biggest factors that affects your tyres’ performance has nothing to do with its price tag or brand.

It’s got a lot to do with the person behind the steering wheel – YOU!

As you can appreciate, your driving style will directly influence the life of your tyres, so here are a few things to avoid where possible:

Abrupt braking:

It’s one thing to have a ‘lead foot’ when accelerating but being a heavy braker can be just as detrimental to your vehicle. If you brake at the last minute, the force is likely to cause your vehicle to skid as it comes a halt. This will continually wear your tyre tread unevenly because of the extra friction.

Overloading:

The exhaustive testing car manufacturers undertake is for a reason – so, adhere to their recommendations. The load capacity of your tyres can be found on the tyre’s sidewall and will prove a very accurate guide. You mightn’t think ‘a few kilos here and there’ will make a difference, but overloaded tyres build up excessive heat and that can lead to rapid deterioration.

Hard Cornering:

The laws of physics are pretty simple – if you take a corner at high speed, your car (and its tyres) have to work so much harder to keep you on the road. Proper inflation of your tyres can help protect them, but approaching corners at too high a speed is not only dangerous but it will very quickly develop ‘rounding’ on the tyres shoulders as the extra velocity impacts the tread pattern.

Rapid acceleration:

Many of us have taken off from a standing start a little too aggressively and, as a result, have inadvertently spun our wheels. Police attention aside, obviously this isn’t a good thing. A tyre will spin in place as it waits for traction to engage (and that will dramatically wear your tread) – do it too often and you’ll be reaching for your wallet a lot sooner than you expected.

Always remember, look after your tyres and they’ll look after you in return.

Safe driving.