If you are one of the millions of households across the UK that take your car to your holiday destination, you need to check your tyres.

Whether you plan to take a holiday within the UK or catch a ferry abroad for a road trip, it’s vital that you must check your vehicle’s tyres to prevent possible costly damages or more importantly, road accidents.

Research from National Highways shows that only “one in six drivers check their tyres before setting off on a long journey.” That means that only 16% of drivers are ensuring their vehicles are road worthy, while the other 84% run the risk of potentially driving with a serious vehicle defect.

To emphasise this point, National Highways state that separate figures show a fifth of motorway breakdowns are caused by worn or incorrectly inflated tyres. To prevent potential future breakdowns from occurring, minimise your risk by completing a full tyre check before you set off.

Tyre Pressure

Your tyre pressure is one of the most important checks you should make when inspecting your tyres. Your car’s weight rests on the air pressure in your tyres, meaning any change can significantly alter how your car performs. Having under-inflated tyres can increase the risk of serious incidents or breakdowns. Even a 10% under-inflation can lead to longer braking distance and difficulty steering as well as using more fuel and shortened lifespan of your tyres.

The RAC recommend that you only check your tyre pressure with a pressure gauge that uses the same unit of measurement as the pressure guidelines given for your car. It’s also important to check the pressure in each of your four cars, including the spare tyre.

Tread Depth

Tread depth is incredibly important to the quality of your tyres and the safety of your vehicle. When your tyres are new, they start with an average tread depth of 8mm which provides full contact between the tyre and the road and gives optimum grip. As you use your tyres, tread depth will naturally start to decrease, causing less grip and control over the vehicle, which could be fatal on the roads, especially wet roads.

The UK legal tread depth is 1.6 mm. However, many tyre experts including G&H Tyres, recommend that motorists do not pass a tread depth of 3mm before they change them out for new ones. By having less tread depth, less water is dispersed while driving, which drastically increases stopping distances.

There are tyre depth gauges that you can purchase for accuracy. Although in a pinch, it’s also to check if your tread depth is deep enough by using a 20p coin. Place the coin into the grove of the tyre, if the outer band of the coin isn’t visible then the tread depth is legal. However, if you can see the outer band of the coin, the tread depth is too shallow. When this happens, give us a call at G&H Tyres on 07739 634929.

Tyre Sidewalls

The integrity of the tyre’s sidewalls needs to be kept to a high standard as they absorb the shocks, stresses and forces whilst driving. Tyre sidewalls should be checked for any tears, cuts, bubbles or bulges. At any sight of these issues, it’s essential that you have your tyres checked and if necessary, change your tyres before you set off for your holiday, as they are vulnerable to blowing out suddenly.

Make sure you’re not left in limbo with your vehicle’s tyres when you’re out exploring. Check your vehicle’s tyres before setting off and give us a call on 07739 634929 or Contact Us online and we’ll get back to you.

24/7 Tyre Fitting Service

CALL US FOR A PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

We offer competitive prices to all of our customers.