Quality between you and the road

Today, a new set of car tyres represents quite an investment. These rubber products are nevertheless very cleverly engineered and designed to keep you safe while providing you with good value for the investment. However, you have to do your bit as well if you're going to get the most out of your tyres, as you cannot simply forget about them. What do you need to consider on an ongoing basis?

Setting Up for Even Wear

When you first purchased your last set of tyres, do you remember how much work went into fitting them onto each wheel rim? The engineer spent quite a bit of time on each corner making sure that the tyres and wheels were correctly balanced and tracked, but that's not just something to be considered at the outset.

Essentially, the wheels on your car need to be aligned properly. If not, the tyres will tend to wear out more quickly and you will spend more cash on fuel.

It's Getting Technical

Three different measurements will need to be considered to make sure everything is correct.

When you drive over a pothole or inadvertently strike a curb, the alignment of your tyres may well be pushed off balance. The "toe" of the tyre may be pointing slightly inward or outward rather than straight ahead, and this can cause uneven wear. The wheel and tyre combination also needs to sit upright when it is mounted, with a slight deviation inward or outward at the top. This is known as the "camber" and helps to balance the vehicle as it is being driven. The top of your tyre will need to lean either towards or away from the body of the car to a very small degree, or excess wear will occur on the inner or outer edges.

Steering Axis

The third calculation relates to the castor angle, which enables the fitter to adjust the steering arms on the front of the vehicle to position the front wheels properly in relation to the back wheels. This ensures that the steering axis is set properly so that all four wheels operate in unison, creating stable driving conditions in all circumstances.

Getting Experts to Do It

This may all seem very technical, and you might worry how you are going to implement it. However, you needn't worry, as it will all be taken care of by your tyre fitter, whenever you take the vehicle in for a full service.