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You are here: Home / Mechanical / Taking Care of Your Tyres

Taking Care of Your Tyres

Published September 5, 2014 By Mick Farmer

Take care of your tyres and they will take care of you.

Example of ‘Good’

Pirelli Scorpion - Blue 109

 

A Few Main Points to Check and Consider

(not in order of importance)

Tyre Pressure

No need to go into this in depth as I have already covered the importance of checking pressures in previous articles.

Checking Tyre Pressures

Valve Dust Caps

After checking pressures ensure valve caps are refitted. If not they allow dust and moisture to enter which degrades the valve seals. This causes the valve to start leaking.

Should this happens when you’re rolling at speed then the tyre could fail due to low pressure. Lots of stories out there of the consequences of tyre failure at speed!

Tyre Cap Missing

Tread Depth

You need tread depth to clear water from the contact patch on sealed roads and to get adequate traction on unsealed roads. The legal minimum tread depth is 1.6mm to 2mm depending on country.

The tread wear indicator (TWI) is at about 2mm. Obviously the tyre needs changing before it hits the TWI.

Excessive Tyre Wear

Spare Tyre

Ensure that the spare is the same as what’s on the vehicle and at the maximum pressure for the vehicle when loaded. Easier to deflat than inflate!

The spare should be good as it may have to be used for a long distance when operating in remote environments.

Use the spare regularly ( ie rotate tyres ) to get those anti ageing properties, used in tyre fabrication, working.

Tired Spare Tyre

Valve Stem

Ensure the stem is the correct length. Too long and it can easily be damaged, especially off road.

Tyre Valve

Side Wall

Regularly check side wall for cuts, damage, bulges. If in doubt have the tyre inspected by taking it off the rim and checking to see if there’s internal damage. If in doubt, change the tyre…

Spare Tyre with Side Wall Damaged

Wheel Nuts

Ideally at the correct torque. Do not over tighten as eventually, this leads to stud failure and missing wheel nuts.

Tyre With Missing Wheel Nut

 

**All the photos are from my travels training or vehicles brought to our site.

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Filed Under: Mechanical Tagged With: tyres

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About Mick Farmer

For the last 20 years, I have been the lead trainer /director for OnCourse. Have played a leading role in developing their courses into, probably, the best off road training courses, globally.

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