Hotel reservation? Check. Snacks? Check. But what about your tires?
Don’t blow your summer
And I mean that literally.
Consider what happened to Tia Johnson when she drove through Georgia early one morning.
“My tire blew at high speed right at the curviest turn on an exit ramp,” says Johnson, a business development manager from Charlotte who publishes a website about traveling the American South called Just Her Carryon.
She totaled her Jeep and never made it to her destination. Luckily, she walked away from the accident without injury. Since then, she says she obsesses about her tires.
“I make sure they have a warranty and inspect them before trips,” she says. “I also make sure to check the date on any new tires I receive.”
Maybe we should all be a little obsessive. That’s doable by buying the right tires for your summer road trip, inspecting them regularly and having a “plan B” if something goes wrong.
It looks like another big summer for driving. More than seven in 10 Americans are planning a road trip, according to the latest Hankook Gauge Index, a quarterly survey of American motorists. A Harris Poll of American drivers conducted on behalf of Bridgestone Americas found that while more than half of drivers have checked their tire pressure in the past three months, far fewer — 38% — have looked at their tread depth in the same period. And a study by Michelin suggests that drivers are overconfident during the summer, which is the most dangerous time of the year for driving.
“Road trips are supposed to be fun,” says Chris Burdick, the founder of Automoblog.net, a car site. “Tire blowouts or getting stranded in the middle of nowhere is a drag.”
❚ How to avoid tire trouble: “Coming out of the winter months, it is critical to inspect your tires or have a professional inspect your tires for unusual wear, vacation.
proper tread depth and tire inflation,” says Ron Margadonna, a senior technical marketing manager at Michelin North America.
The reason: Tire inflation can change — sometimes dramatically — when the temperatures change. A drop of 10 degrees can equate to a 1-pound-per-square-inch drop in your tire inflation.
A key to that is a thorough check-up by a pro. Most reputable tire stores will offer a free inspection. Experts say tread thickness is key. Tires are legally worn out at 2/32” of remaining depth. If you slide an inverted penny into the main groove in the middle of the tread and see the top of Lincoln’s head, you don’t have enough tread.
❚ Find the right tire: Having the right tire is important, too. Make sure it’s seasonally appropriate. A tire such as Michelin’s Premier A/S tire, designed for wet-braking and wet-traction performance that you’re likely to encounter in a summer rainstorm, promises to keep you safer on your summer road trip.
That’s especially true if you’re going camping and might take your car down an unpaved road this summer. For something like that, you might consider a specialized off-road tire such as the BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM3, which offers a tougher sidewall than standard tires and delivers better traction in mud and rocks.
❚ Play it safe: The best tires and inspections are useless if you don’t know what to do with them.
I’m reminded of Bridget Carlson, who had a flat tire while driving through South Carolina on a recent Sunday. She quickly pulled over to change the tire — only to discover that her spare tire had a hole in it.
“We visited Walmart to buy a tire, just to find out that North Carolina has a blue law which prohibited the sale of tires, among many other things,” says Carlson, who writes a popular hiking blog. She finally got help from a trucker, who lent her his repair kit.
Lesson learned? Inspect the spare tire before you leave.
Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate. Contact him at chris@ elliott.org or visit elliott.org.