I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! And now that summer is near, it’s a good time to look at the tires on your vehicles. I know, I know, not the way you were expecting to spend your time, but it’s always good to play it safe and make sure that your vehicles are ready for all those summer trips you will be taking this year.
Let me tell you a little story about why I am glad that we have a National Tire Safety Week to remind us to check our tires and ensure that we are safe on the road.
A couple of years ago we took a family trip to Mexico (nice long drive I might add), and one of the things that has changed since last time I was there is the amount of speed bumps there are in the roads. And we are not talking about just plain roads here, this is on the main highways. Definitely not something that you see much of here in the U.S.. But the bad part about it is that they don’t do a great job of marking some of these speed bumps (which by the way are made up of a few smaller bumps followed by a big hump). And I’ll tell you what…. We would be traveling between 55 to 65mph and we would get to one of those unmarked ones, and by the time we would hit the little bumps (which I guess they are called rumble strips), it would be too late to try to slow down because at that point if we hit the brakes, all that would happen is that our SUV would start to turn to one of the sides. We learned after the first time it happened that we were better off just letting off of the gas and hold on because if we didn’t, we would hit that speed hump and we would go air-borne. Kind of like the Dukes of Hazard, you know, when the General Lee would jump over a river and Bo and Duke would yell YEEEE-HAAAA!!! Except that was not the kind of yell that we would have. Ours was more like AAAAAA!?!?! 🙂 And even though it cost us three tires and two rear shocks, we had a great time and learned from our experience to keep those tires checked.
Here are a few things to do for safety:
Check tire pressure once a month and before long trips. Under inflated tires can cause extreme wear on them and lower your fuel efficiency, while over inflated tires can cause stopping problems and will also cause wear on them. Check your owner’s manual for recommended air pressure for your tires.
Rotate and balance tires every 5,000 to 8,000 miles. This helps with having the wear on your tires to be more evenly and give you a smoother ride.
Inspect and measure tire tread. Check for uneven or excessive tread wear. Use a quarter for checking the tread depth by placing the quarter with George Washington upside down and if you can see the top of George Washington’s head, then that means that it is time to start shopping for new tires.
Choose the right tire for your vehicle. When buying new tires make sure to get the size that is recommended. Look at your owner’s manual for that information.
Here at Speedy Equipment Rentals we have a lot of tires to check and inspect and we do that on a daily basis to ensure that your rental experience is a great experience. We offer several type of equipment like trailers, backhoes, excavators, trenchers, man lifts, skid steers and much more. So just give us a call or stop by, just remember to watch out for any speed bumps.