What you do not know about your tires
Security Systems,  Tips for motorists,  Blog,  Machine operation

What you do not know about your tires

When a car crashes, the police first determines whether the speed of the car met the established requirements. Most often it is indicated that the cause of the accident is the speed of the machine, which is the iron logic, because if the car did not move, it would not collide with an obstacle.

But the truth is that very often the fault lies not in the direct actions of the driver and not in speed, but in the technical preparation of the car. Most often, this applies to brakes and especially to tires.

Tires and road safety

There are several factors that directly affect road safety.

What you do not know about your tires

Some of these factors are obvious to everyone - others remain relatively unknown to most people. But even over the most obvious details, we rarely think about it.

Consider the importance of tires. Without a doubt, you have repeatedly heard that they are the most important part of the car, because they are the only connection between it and the road. But we rarely think about how insignificant this link really is.

If you stop the car on the glass and look from below, the contact surface, that is, the area where the tire touches the road, is slightly less than the width of the sole.

What you do not know about your tires

Modern cars often weigh one and a half or even two tons. Imagine the load on their four small rubber soles, on which everything depends: how fast you accelerate, whether you can stop in time and whether the turn will be completed.

However, most people rarely think about their tires. Even the correct recognition of the inscriptions on them is relatively rare, except for the name of the manufacturer, of course.

Tire markings

The second largest inscription (after the name of the manufacturer) refers to the size.

In our case, 185 is the width in millimeters. 65 - profile height, but not in millimeters, but as a percentage of the width. That is, this tire has a profile of 65% of its width (65% of 185 mm). The lower this number, the lower the profile of the tire. The low profile provides more stability and cornering dynamics, but less ride comfort.

What you do not know about your tires

The R designation means that the tire is radial - it is now difficult to find others in cars. 15 - the size of the rim on which it can be installed. Inch size is the English and German name for the same unit of measurement, equal to 25,4 millimeters.

The last character is a tire speed indicator, that is, at what maximum speeds it can withstand. They are given in alphabetical order, starting with the English P - a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and ending with ZR - high-speed racing tires, the speed of which can exceed 240 kilometers per hour.

What you do not know about your tires
This is the maximum indicator of tire speed: M and N for temporary spare tires, which can withstand up to 130 and 140 km / h. From P (up to 150 km / h) ordinary car tires start, and for each subsequent letter the speed increases by 10 km / h. W, Y and Z are already supercar tires, with speeds up to 270, up to 300 or without restrictions.

Choose tires so that the speed index is at least slightly higher than the maximum speed of your car. If you drive faster than this, the tire will overheat and may burst.

Additional Information

Small letters and numbers indicate additional information:

  • maximum allowable pressure;
  • what kind of load they can withstand;
  • where are they produced;
  • direction of rotation;
  • date of manufacture.
What you do not know about your tires

Look for these three codes: the first and second relate to the factory where it was manufactured and the type of tire. The third (in the circle above) means the week and year of manufacture. In our case, 34 17 means the 34th week of 2017, that is, between August 21 and 27.

Tires are not milk or meat: it is not necessary to look for those that have just come off the assembly line. When stored in a dry and dark place, they can easily last several years without deteriorating their properties. However, experts recommend avoiding tires that are more than five years old. Among other things, they are technologically outdated.

Add a comment