Majority own a car but fail to understand or know what the car tyre really is, today, I will in full detailed topical information; tell you what a car tyre really is.
Tyres are among the most important parts of the vehicle but unfortunately, the least understood. Without the tyres, your vehicle is absolutely useless. You need the tyres to start, to move, and to stop the vehicle as well. So buying tyres is a task you need to undertake very carefully otherwise your safety and that of others could be put in a grave danger.
However, you must guard against the blunder committed by a friend of mine who daily boast that once he is assured of sound tyres, he is at liberty to clone the formula 1 (one) driving tendencies.
Today, he has repented from the foolish notion that having brand new tyres is a license to drive excessively.
Installing brand new tyres is not a guarantee that you will avoid road traffic crash; the only guarantee is responsible driving and deep trust in the protective hands of God Almighty.
Before you buy any tyre, give serious consideration to these three factors which is what I am vividly going to discuss on this thread. Keep on the reading to understand the whole thing am trying to unleash.
Here are the factors below;

CHECK THE TYRE SIZE

On the side wall of the tyres; you will see some relevant figures like 215/75/15R, or 195 /65/14R etc. These are designated for your tyre sizes; check your own tyres to know what is written on it. The first figure from the left is the width (From side wall to side wall) 0f the tyres in millimetres, the middle number is known as ASPECT RATIIO is used to calculate the height of side wall of the tyres. The last number is the Rim diameter. When you go to buy tyres. You will mention all of these figures to the tyres seller so that he will give you exactly what you want There are various size of tyres in the market that can fit your type of vehicle but that doesn’t mean that those size are good/safe for your vehicle. Every vehicle has tyres specified by the vehicle manufacturer. If you check the tyres placard by the end of your driver’s door, hood or the vehicle manual, you will see the specification for your vehicle tyres sizes. Please stick to this specification while buying replacement tyres. The manufacturer of your vehicle has takes a lot of safety factor into consideration before specifying your vehicle’s tyres size. If you change that, your vehicle may not handle well and you may be risking a blowout and crash. Changing to fatter tyres as some people do may look better but not safer in most cases, the manufacturer provides alternative size should you not find the original sizes the vehicle came with. The tyres placard will specify this alternative.

DETERMINING THE AGE OF THE TYRE

Even more important than the size of a tyre is its age. Unfortunately most motorists, as well as tyre sellers themselves don’t know how to check for the tyre age. They depend only on visual inspection of the physical conditions. Some will invite a vulcanize who will do a press-up (or is it press-down) on the tyre to certify if it’s okay. What a wrong and dangerous thing to do.
Why the emphasis on the age of a tyre? Just as age could disqualify an otherwise promising marriage mate age would disqualify tyres even if every other thing seems alright from a visual inspection. Do not be deceived by the tyre’s took. Every tyre has an effective life span beyond which you will be entering the danger zone. As a general rule any tyre more than 6 years old should be discarded. This rule, however applies to quality tyre with branded known name. Less quality tyres of course may not last that long so how do you determine the age of a tyre? Unlike humans who can hide their age, every tyre is provided with information about its age but in a coded form.
Look as the side wall of your tyre and check for the letters DOT look around the DOT (to the left or to the right) until you get to either a 3-digit or 4-digit number boldly imprinted on the tyre without any alphabets attached to it. Some tyres though may not have the letters DOT printed on them. Just look around the side walls. You definitely will see a 3 or 4 digit number clearly imprinted on the tyre. The 3 or 4 digit number is the code designation of the date of manufacture of the tyre. Since it is a code, you need to decode it to get the age of the tyre. So let’s decode it if it is a 3 digit number, check to see if it has a triangle sign attached to it.
A 3 digit number without a triangle means the tyre was manufacture in the 80s.The first two number from the tell you the week in the year in the 80s. For example, if you have the number 341 (without a triangle), it means 34th week of 1981 (34 is the first two number from the left indicating the week while 1 is the last number indicating year of the 80s) if the 3 digit number has a triangle, it means the tyre was made in the 90s. So 341 with triangle means the tyre were made in the 34th week of 1991.

If it is a 4 digit number it means the tyre was made any year 2000.for example a tyre with 2302 means the 23rd week of 2002.the first two numbers from the left indicating the week while the last two numbers indicating the year.
4 digit numbers do not have triangle sign with them. From the date of manufacture you can now determine how old the tyre is. Do a sample calculation on tyre made in the 80s or 90s and see how old such tyre could be. Even if a tyre looks brand new, don’t be deceived check the age.
I believe with these attributes, you would b able to identify real and fake tyres. Just keep rolling on the pool of wisdom.
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2 Comments

  1. thanks Ben for this edified thread.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow...i really like this.
    Thanks very much sir ben

    ReplyDelete

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