Summertime - time for summer tyres
Don’t forget to check your tyre pressure!
Why are the right tyres so important? Your tyres are the contact point to the road. They affect such fundamental processes as the way your car handles, the way it goes round corners and the braking distance. Summer tyres are designed to perform well on dry roads as well as in warm and wet weather.But summer and winter tyres can only perform properly if they have the right pressure. That’s why you need to check your tyre pressure all year round. But how do you know which pressure is right for the tyres of your car?
You can see what the recommended minimum tyre pressure for your car is either by either checking your car manual or the sticker that is usually in the glove compartment or pasted to the inside of the tank flap.
Under inflated tyres do not only wear out more quickly, they also make you stop at the pump more often and because of the increased friction they can present a serious safety hazard.
The ADAC, the renowned German automobile club, even recommends that you pump up your tyres to 0.2bar above the minimum tyre pressure value, a simple measure that could knock off as much as 2% off your petrol bill next time you stop at the pump.
So why not pump up your tryes even more and save even more money?
That is unfortunately not the way it works. This is because over inflated tyres provide less grip and traction, which can be just as dangerous as driving with under inflated tyres.
And if you’re thinking of doing some motoring on the continent this summer and are planning on gliding along the German autobahns at a smooth 90 to 100 mph, you can even increase the tyre pressure to 0.6bar above the minimum recommended pressure value.
A quick guide to how to measure the pressure of your tyres:
The compact BY10 tyre pressure gauge fits snugly into any pocket or glove compartment. And because the BY10 is equipped with a large, crystal clear display and a built-in flashlight you can even check the pressure of your tyres at the crack of dawn or in the dead of night – but mind the other traffic if you haven’t got off-road parking!
- Here some guidelines which you should be sure to follow:
- The ADAC recommends that you check your tyre pressure once a fortnight
- Check your tyres while they’re cold and not after a long drive when they have had a chance to heat up
- Don’t forget to check the spare wheel!
- Make sure that you replace any old tyres every six to eight years