Reduce Tire Wear - simple ideas to save money

Tire wear is about the same thing as wear on your wallet. More correctly, it's wear on the money inside your wallet.

You probably know that tires are expensive. A decent passenger car tire is about $125. A commercial truck tire is more like $400. A tire for a tractor or backhoe can be nearly $1,000.

With all this money at stake, it pays to monitor and take good care of your tires. Let's talk about several factors that affect the wear on our tires:

• inflation (air pressure)
• driving habits
• alignment
• rotation
• road hazards

As we discuss each of these categories, I'll offer suggestions about how to monitor for problems so you can head them off before they blossom into tire failure.

Inflation

I make a quick visual check of my tires before I leave the house. Do they appear to be properly inflated? Do both back tires look about the same? Are the front tires "pooched out" about the same due to the extra weight of the engine?

It's not necessary to check tire pressure every day, but it's a good idea to make a visual check. On occasion I find a tire that appears lower in pressure. Once in a while I find the reason is a nail.

If I proceed with my travels without noticing the lower pressure, then the tire will heat up and may fail. If not, then running on a low tire will ruin the sidewall, and that's as good as a blowout.

The bottom line is prevention. If you know your tire is low on air, you can get it filled up enough to take it into the shop for a repair. Otherwise, you risk ruining the tire and that will require a replacement. Cha-ching!

My tires are $100 a piece, so I don't want to be replacing them unnecessarily.

Measuring tire pressure with a gauge is a good idea. I'd do that whenever you suspect the tire is low. As long as you're giving your tires a visual inspection each time you drive, you'll be fine using a gauge only when you suspect something is wrong.

Of course, you need to know what properly inflated tires look like in the first place. So use a gauge to start with and take a good look at what your properly inflated tires are supposed to look like so you can recognize something that isn't quite right.

If you don't want to bother with an inspection, I'd check tire pressure about once a month - when the tire is cold. In other words, before you drive it. If you find it's low, find out the reason as well.

Spray with diluted household cleaner around the bead, on the exposed valve stem, and all over the tread to find bubbles that indicate the source of leakage. Or, simply take it to your tire shop and they'll do much the same.

Let's talk about tire wear associated with tire inflation.

• Over-inflation causes excess tire wear in the middle of the tread.
• Under-inflation causes excess tire wear on the outside edges of the tread.
• Properly inflated tires will show even tire wear across the tread.

Neither over nor under inflated tires are easy to detect until the tire is worn significantly. Only then can you easily see the difference in tread depth, and then it's too late. That's why proper tire pressure is important.

Driving habits

The biggest factors in tire wear when it comes to driving habits is how and where you drive. Let's look at how you drive and its influence on tire wear.

• Quick take offs from a standstill wear out your tires by leaving a bit of them on the pavement.
• Fast stops leave more tire on the pavement too.

Go easy on the gas and brake, and you'll have more tread on your tire and less on the pavement. You'll also lengthen the time in between tire replacement

Here is another tire care tip. Tread can separate and tires can throw a weight that causes them to be off balance. That will cause a noticeable vibration. You'll notice this if how you drive includes paying attention to what your car is trying to tell you.

• Vibrations you feel in the steering wheel are coming from the front end of the car (could be tires, bearings or steering linkage).
• Vibrations you feel in your butt are coming from the rear of the car (could be tires or bearings).

Try having a closer relationship with your car. Get used to how it sounds and feels under certain conditions. This can help you detect tire wear and other problems before they become larger and more expensive.

Now let's look at where you drive and its influence on tire wear.

Travel on rock and gravel roads is rough on rubber. It tends to take little chunks out of the tire as the sharp pieces of the road act somewhat like sandpaper on your tires.

In you drive on large pieces of crushed rock or near the edge of a sloped embankment, don't be surprised if you get a cut in your sidewall that deflates your tire in about two seconds. A gash in your sidewall is not repairable. You'll need to buy another tire.

Driving in construction areas or in the junk yard will raise the chances that you will get a puncture or cut in your tire. Nails are a common source of tire failure, especially around construction sites.

Most nail holes can be fixed with a plug type patch, but larger holes cannot. Holes on the edge of the tire (between the tread and sidewall) are difficult to fix. Holes in the sidewall require tire replacement.

Take care how you drive and where you drive, and you'll save on tire wear, tire repair and tire replacement.

Alignment

Wheel alignment has a tremendous effect on tire wear. After only a thousand miles or so, you'll be able to notice unusual wear patterns on your new tires if the alignment is wrong.

If you trust your car dealership, then get your tires aligned there. If you don't, then find a reputable alignment shop. If you are the least bit concerned that your alignment isn't correct, then have the shop recheck it before unusual wear patterns set in.

Poorly aligned wheels will cause tire wear patterns to set in that cause road noise, adverse handling and premature tire replacement. The sooner the problem is identified, the longer life your tires will have.

As part of normal tire care, I periodically check the wear on my tires using a simple method. Here is how I do it:

1. Check for embedded objects like nails or glass on the tread of your tire to avoid cutting yourself, as you're going to brush your hand across that area.
2. In one direction, in line with the direction of tire rotation, lightly drag your bare hand for about 10 inches over the entire face of the tire tread. Make certain the heel of your hand rides over the outside edge of the tread, and your fingertips ride over the inside edge of the tread.

   Do this much like you would gently pet a cat.

   You should feel the tire tread grab your hand a little as you pass over the grooves (sipings) that are perpendicular or angled on the surface of the tire in relation to how it spins.

3. Do this same procedure, on the same portion of the tire, with the same hand, but in the opposite direction
4. Compare the grabbing or snagging characteristics that you feel and note any differences from a pass of your hand in one direction versus the other.
5. If they are the same, you likely have no problem. Your tire is wearing normally (as intended).
6. If you clearly feel more snagging of your bare hand in one direction or the other, then you have feathering, and an alignment may be in order. If you feel depressions at regular intervals on the heel of your hand and/or fingertips, then you have cupping, and an alignment may be in order.
7. Repeat this techniques on all four tires.

If the car has been aligned recently, then any abnormalities detected may have been corrected by the recent wheel alignment. Tire wear patterns that have set into the tire will never be corrected by a wheel alignment.

If these are new tires, then abnormal tire wear most certainly indicates an alignment problem and it should be checked by a trusted alignment specialist before you wear out your new tires. Tire warranties never cover wear due to misalignment.

You can save yourself some tire wear and money spent on alignments by:

• avoiding potholes
• parking near the curb, not bumping into it
• taking it easy on uneven surfaces

If you find yourself with a car that won't hold an alignment, then you might be better off just letting the tires wear and replacing them with cheap used tires when necessary.

A wheel alignment can cost nearly as much as a tire, so it doesn't take more than a few wheel alignments before front tire replacement becomes a less expensive option to deal with abnormal tire wear.

Also note that some vehicles require a four wheel alignment, but usually only the front wheels are prone to going out of alignment because they turn and tilt and get bumped into things like curbs and concrete parking space stops.

Rotation

Tire wear is normal. Tire wear will be a little different on each tire because some wheels are drive wheels, and some simply follow. Suspension design also has an influence on tire wear.

To equal out tire wear, a tire rotation should be performed based on the number of miles traveled. I like to have my tires rotated about each 6,000 miles. Some "tire care packages" provide for a rotation at 12,000 or so miles.

When you rotate isn't as important as the regularity of rotation. The idea is to distribute unique wear characteristics across your set of tires so they all wear out at about the same time.

If you expect to get the rated tread life out of your tires, then tire rotation will be an influential factor.

To make this a cost-effective proposition, you'll need to have purchased a "tire care package" where mounting, balancing, flat repair and rotation are all part of the purchase price of the tire.

Road hazards

Road hazards can be many and varied. We are all familiar with potholes, but you can also find rocks, metal, glass, wood and just about anything else you can imagine laying in the middle of the road. Each present a hazard to contend with.

I live in the country out where the roads aren't busy at all, and sometimes I'll see a short piece of 2 by 4 laying in the road. If I come back the next day or so to pick it up, it is usually crushed and splintered into many pieces by the passing vehicles.

It always amazes me that people will drive over a road hazard like that instead of driving around it. There are plenty of things that can find their way into your car tires. It makes no sense to run over something that is clearly visible in the road.

Glass, boards, cans, and other unidentifiable debris should be avoided as a way to reducing tire wear and helping prevent punctures. It only makes sense to me.

Once I had to drive over some glass fragments because I was one of the first cars to be allowed through after the scene of an accident. I wasn't happy about having to drive over glass, but I didn't have the choice to pull over until the road was in better condition for travel.

At my first opportunity, I gassed up and checked all surfaces of my tires to make certain there wasn't a piece of glass working its way into one of my tires.

If you want a lesson in road hazards, just go down to your local tire shop. They usually have a glass jar that holds all the items that they have pulled out of customer tires. You would be amazed at what can work its way into your tires. How about a spoon or a ball point pen? I'm not kidding. They have all been found inside of tires.

Avoid road hazards. Tire wear takes a while, but a road hazard can stop you flat in just a few moments. Worse yet, it can cost you in near term tire replacement, whereas at least tire wear can give you a chance to save up for the necessary replacement.

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