Tyres
Tyres generally don’t get the respect they deserve and being the only part of a vehicle that holds you on the road they really do deserve more attention and care. In Ireland as in most other countries motoring law determines that your tyres need a minimum legal tread depth. This varies from country to country but is normally around 1.6 milimetres. To help you to figure out if you are close to this value, most tyres have what is called a tread wear indicators or (TWI). If you look at the tyre tread carefully on some tyres, at every quarter segment on the tyre you’ll see a bar of rubber which goes across the tyre and isn’t part of the regular tread .This is the tread wear indicator. It’s really basic, but it’s also pretty foolproof. The tread wear indicator is moulded into the rubber at a depth of about 2 milimetres normally. As the rubber in your tyres wears away due to everyday use, the tread wears down. At some point, the tyre tread will become flush with the tread wear indicator (which is normally recessed into the tread). At this point you know you have about 2 milmetres of tread left – Ldrivers.ie recommends you do not allow your tyre tread depth to go this low.The legal minimum tyre tread depth does not mean the tyre is safe to drive on. Tyres have a 6 year shelf life before giving problems. So if your car tyres have been lying around for a while it is advisable to have them changed, for piece of mind and overall road safety.
It would be advisable to change your tyres before they get to close to the legal minimum tyre tread dept. At 1.6 milimettres the tyre in the wet then becomes pretty limited, and its grip in the dry won’t be as sticky as it was when new. LDrivers.ie can only comment on research carried out by other parties but between 3 or 4milimetres seems to be a safer minimum tread depth. Third party reasons are backed up by testing, at 1.6mm, despite still being perfectly legal, the stopping distance is increased by 40% in the wet over tyres that have 3mm of tread left. So the lesson here is to keep an eye on your tyres and check regularly for tyre tread ware and for any other defects like splits, bulges, rips, or uneven ware across the tyre. This generally means the tracking might be out of line. The correct tyre pressure is also important for even wear across the tyre. and it stops the tyres overheating. The correct air pressure in your tyres can help reduce fuel costs. So tyres do demand more respect!
Aquaplanning is the result of your tyres being unable to channel water out and away from where the tyre contacts with the road. As your tyre tread wears down the ability of the tread to disperse the water also reduces. Eventually if you allow it, your tyres become like slicks which means they will be utterly useless on all but the driest of roads. The tyres disperse water through the grooves and under them the rest of the water goes around the tyres, this is where the spray comes from. The bigger the tyres the bigger the spray.
Did you know that a major cause of aquaplaning apart from your tyres is the road surface design?. Most roads are designed with a camber which means the centre of the road is higher than the sides. This should in theory allow water to run away to the sides of the road and in to drains keeping it off the road. Some newer road surfaces allow some water to run down through the road aswell as off to the sides.
So with all these modern wonders how is it that after a shower on a hot sunny day the road surface can become very slippery. Well because modern road surfaces use alot of oil and tar in construction, these products will over time separate from each other. When cars and trucks drive on the road surface they generally aid in the dispersal of the oily products. Then when it rains the road surface contracts and squeezes out more of the oily products and these then mix with any rain water sitting the top layer of the road. You may notice on a road after a shower a rainbow effect, this is the oil and water reflecting the sunlight. The result is a very slippery patch for your tyres, as rubber on oil has no grip at all.
LDrivers.ie has a useful link below which may help you find a tyre company in your area: Please note that LDrivers.ie accepts no responsibility for any damages caused to you or your person or your vehicle/s by a third party.
Good luck.
