First, understand that your tires get down and dirty

Think about it: your tires are the only parts of your car that touch the Denton, TX streets. Your tires, therefore, are well-acquainted with every little bump in the road, surface abrasion, temperature change, and so on. For that reason alone, it’s important to take care of your tires.

If you’re like most people, you think about your shoes more than you do your tires – even though chances are good that you’ll get more mileage out of your tires than your shoes. The comparison between shoes and tires is fair. After all, if you compare your tires to the soles of your shoes, you’d want to be sure that you have soles that don’t slip or slide, aren’t worn away until they’re threadbare, and that help to support the rest of your shoe as you walk.

Understanding the importance of your tires is the first step in ensuring that you get the right tires for your needs and maintain those tires properly – no matter how you use your tires to get around Denton, TX.

Inflation matters

One of the most important elements of tire maintenance is keeping your tires properly inflated. For every vehicle, there is a spectrum of what is considered to be “proper” inflation. This spectrum should be located in your owner’s manual. When you inflate your tires to the high end of the spectrum, your tires will transfer more of the bumps in the road and vibrations from travel to the carriage of the car, so you will “feel” the Denton, TX road more.

Therefore, the ride is less smooth than with tires that are inflated to the low end of the spectrum. However, tires that are fuller also improve gas mileage. Therefore, it’s important to determine your travel priorities before you decide your preferred inflation level. Once one tire is inflated to your preferred level, all four tires need to be inflated to the same level.

Check them every 6 weeks

Most people seldom check their tires to be sure that they are uniformly inflated to the proper levels. However, it is recommended that you check your tires once every 6 weeks, or about once every other time you fill up your gas tank (depending on how frequently you fill up your gas tank). Yes – checking all 4 tires every 6 weeks does take time and requires you to get down low to the tire so you can measure the air pressure. However, by making sure that you properly maintain your tires, you can help to improve your vehicle’s safety and longevity.

Neglecting your tires has consequences

Imagine if you walked 100 miles in shoes that had well-worn soles. Chances are good that the poor state of your soles would translate to physical problems in other parts of your body; your feet might hurt more than they should, your knees could be damaged, and you may even fracture the small bones around your toes without ample shock protection.

The same is true for your tires. If your tires are not well-maintained, there are serious physical repercussions on your car. For example, if your tires are out of alignment, your axels could be so badly stressed that they might fracture. Likewise, if your tires are low on air pressure, you may notice that your car achieves only mediocre gas mileage. While these issues may not happen all at once, especially if you only use your tires to travel around Denton, TX, the physical damage will add up over time.

For this reason, it is important that you not only select the right tires for your car and for the way you plan to use your car, but it is also important that you properly maintain those tires.