Before you get into the drivers’ seat and start your engine, take a deep breath and make sure that you’re calm and composed. Remaining calm will not only preserve your sanity, but will also prevent you from triggering the road rage button - with the added bonus of keeping your tires in better condition.
By making sure that you’re calm when behind the wheel, you’ll naturally drive in a smoother and more level-headed manner - which in turn prolongs the lifespan of your tires.
When you brake hard in your car, two components in your car undergo the most wear - your brake pads, and your tires. Hard braking scrubs rubber off the tire’s tread surface in each instance, with a flat patch of worn rubber appearing under extreme circumstances.
This situation is termed ‘flat-spotting’, where vehicles not equipped with an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) lock up the wheels and grind the tread against the road surface in an attempt to reduce vehicle speed. However, even in less extreme braking situations, coming to a stop quickly will wear your tires out quicker than when compared to coming to a gradual stop.
It’s said that tires tell stories about your driving habits, just by visually inspecting them. This is due to the different and accelerated wear patterns that appear on the tread surface, such as rounding or scrubbing on the tire shoulder.
Under hard and abrupt cornering, most of your car’s weight is transferred to the outside wheels, increasing the load significantly. With just a slight increase in cornering speed, tread wear can be increased significantly - with the first hint of an elevated wear rate appearing on the tires’ shoulders.
According to the laws of physics and thermodynamics, heat will be produced as a tire compresses and decompresses as it rolls along the road. More heat is produced when traveling at high speeds than when traveling at lower speeds, softening the tire compound and wearing them down quicker.
Download the infographic from this link.
For more articles on how to increase your tire's lifespan, head on over to our Tire Clinic, the ultimate destination for tire information, to learn more!