ROAD SAFETY ARTICLE
Today, I wish to draw the curtains on my series on tyres. My focus on tyres started towards the end of the 2022 Christmas celebration. I know some did not spare to even glance through my piece while some others were kind enough to read the writeups. The series started with my first focus, titled “The New Tyre Commandants. In this piece, my focus was on the vital importance of tyres as the most important part of a vehicle but unfortunately the least understood.
I drew readers’ attention to the fact that without tyres your vehicle is useless and reminded them that buying tyres is a task you need to undertake very carefully otherwise your safety and that of others could be put in great danger. I concluded by reminding them that before buying any tyre, they must give serious consideration to the size, age and its physical condition. I followed the piece with another important one titled, ’Installing New Tyres’. This piece focused on how and where to install your new tyres. When most people buy new tyres, they tend to install them in the front axle. They give a number of reasons for doing so. Among such reasons are that with the engine in the front, new tyres should be in the front since they are stronger so should effectively support the weight of the engine; new tyres will be less prone to suffer a blowout and since blowout of a front tyre is more dangerous than that of a rear tyre, it is safer to install new tyres in the front; and front tyres suffer the rigors of acceleration, braking, steering and bad road conditions more and so wear out faster than the rear tyres.
So, new tyres are better installed in the front? I debunked the reasons which sound logical but dangerous. Last week, I took on the need to own a tyre gauge as priority because of the challenges of the absence of standard tyre gauge even among vulcanizers based on study conducted and also the knowledge gap among a handful who yet pretend to be experts. The concern was to guard against incorrect tyre pressure which is a killer.
If you run a check on your tyre pressures now with a quality tyre pressure gauge (not the abused/ overused roadside vulcanizer’s gauge), you will appreciate why the above alarm is sounded. Such a check may reveal that at least one of your tyres is incorrectly inflated. Very few vehicles, if any, will pass this test.
So, correct tyre pressure is a must for any safety conscious motorist. But the big question is, how do you ensure that what the vulcanizer pumped into your tyre is the correct pressure? Only a quality tyre pressure gauge will tell you. A quality gauge will also enable you to gauge your tyres at the right time and to ensure that all the tyres maintain correct pressure before the vehicle is driven out for the day.
This is particularly important if you are in the transport business or if you are travelling. Never rely on the roadside vulcanizers’ gauge. Most of their gauges are outright inferior, have been over used or abused over time and may have improper measuring units. In fairness to the vulcanizers, however, they may not be aware of these shortcomings with their gauges.
The second option is to install a high profile automatic tyre monitor. This is a state of the art device that uses sensors and a wireless monitor to monitor your tyres on a 24-hour basis. It alerts the driver well in advance about an impending tyre blowout or failure. It pinpoints the exact tyre so that the driver will take appropriate measures to deal with the situation. It also effectively takes care of premature tyre wear.
If you own a car, you should save your life and time by owning a high-quality durable tyre gauge and a portable high quality rapid action/durable electric tyre inflator. This could save your life and your time as stated below.
Let us start with saving your life in an isolated location: You could have a flat tyre in an isolated and dangerous location. With your tyre inflator, you can quickly inflate your tyre and get out of harm’s way.
The second is in saving your time/saving you from embarrassment. For instance, when going out in the morning, you could discover you have a flat. By that time, it is not likely to get a vulcanizer. So, your personal inflator and gauge will do the work for you.
The third is preventing tyre blowout: Tyre blowouts are often caused by incorrect tyre pressure. With your tyre inflator and gauge, you will gauge and inflate your tyres right. How do you know the correct tyre size/pressure for your vehicle? Your correct tyre size/pressure is the one specified by the vehicle manufacturer. You will find yours on the sticker by the driver’s door where the manufacture ring date of the vehicle is written. Pump your tyre to the vehicle manufacturer’s tyre size/pressure; nothing more, nothing less.
When‘s the best time to gauge and inflate your tyres? Best time is when the tyres are not hot, ideally in the morning before you drive out. If you do so when the tyres are hot, you will get an incorrect reading because the heat would have given the tyre artificial inflation and so you would think pressure is correct or more when it is not and then you risk a blowout.
Beware of the DANGEROUS vulcanizer’s error! The vulcanizer, most likely, does not know the specified tyre pressure for your vehicle and may not even have an accurate gauge. So, your tyre, most likely, will be dangerously overinflated! Most vulcanizers think that the bigger a tyre is, the bigger the pressure should be. However, the reverse is the case; the bigger the tyre, the lower the pressure. So, a vulcanizer could inflate a tyre with vehicle specification of, say, 30psi to 50psi there by putting one at a very grave risk. If you are using a vulcanizer to pump your tyres, you are the one to tell him the pressure specification for your vehicle and use your own gauge to confirm that he has pumped them correctly. It is your life. A lot of people have died and are still dying as a result of the vulcanizer’s error! In fact, the vulcanizer’s error is the major cause of tyre blow outs! So, beware!
Prevent your vehicle from skidding off the road/somersaulting in emergency braking: Major cause of this is incorrect tyre pressure which makes the tyre not to have a firm grip on the road. With your tyre inflator and gauge, you will pump and gauge to the vehicle manufacturer’s specification so that your tyre can have a firm grip on the road and minimise skidding/somersault.
Save your tyres from premature wears and tears: Wrong tyre inflation is the major cause of wears and tears. If you overinflate them, they will wear out on the crown (top). If you underinflate them, they will wear out at the edge. So, use your gauge and inflator to gauge and pump according to the vehicle manufacturer’s specification to save your tyres.
