Tyres Matter: Here's Why

No matter whether you have a luxury car or a humble hatchback, tyres are the most crucial element in your car. They work to keep you and your loved ones safe from hazards on the road and play a key role in your daily drives. Often neglected, regular maintenance of your car’s tyres is as important as that of its engine.

Here’s three reasons why your tyres must always be in top-notch condition:

1. First line of safety

While we often equate safety with the number of airbags, strength of a car’s shell and other equipment like ABS, we often forget to acknowledge the first layer of defence - tyres. They work towards preventing a crash by stopping the car in the quickest and shortest distance possible. The onus of ride and handling are also on tyres. They are the reason you can safely manoeuver through daily traffic and navigate a series of corners with ease.  

To ensure that your tyres are in good condition, ensure that they have adequate air pressure and adequate tread depth (1.6mm at least). An easy way to check the tread depth on your tyres is  through a ‘Coin Test’.

• Take a Re 1 coin and insert it into the tread groove with Lion Capital of Ashoka facing upside down.

• If the head of the lion is completely concealed, then your tyres have adequate tread depth and do not require immediate replacement.

2. Saving grace on wet roads

It doesn’t matter how good the brakes on your vehicle are or how precise the steering is, all this cripples over wet surfaces. The only saving grace then are your tyres. The narrow grooves and sipes on your tyres are there for a reason. They evacuate water from underneath the tyre so that tyre is always in contact with the surface, thereby ensuring adequate grip and braking in wet conditions.

3. Comfort

Tyres play a key role in improving the overall ride comfort as well. They are responsible for tackling undulations and potholes on the road. Tyres absorb shocks through their sidewalls and do not let them travel up to the chassis via the suspension. The result - passengers do not feel these undulations inside the cabin.

Low profile tyres, like the ones seen on sportscars, offer better performance but fare poorly in ride comfort when compared to tyres with sidewalls of standard dimension. That’s because the fail to absorb undulations and bumps due to the low height of the sidewall. Passenger cars, on the other hand, make use of tyres with regular-height sidewalls as comfort is a key factor in such cars.  

Conclusion

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We can’t stress enough about importance of tyres in your everyday travel. You simply can’t roll without them rolling. Best of all, they don’t demand much from you apart from some basic care. In return, they ensure your safety on wet roads and keep you comfortable from road undulations.