Top Autumn Tyre Checks To Keep You Safe

Article written by Bush Tyres

A Change of Season

With the torrential rain that has just caused chaos across the country, you may well be thinking more about building an ark than performing some autumn tyre checks to your vehicle.

Autumn brings a double-edged sword, the trees and hedgerows look stunning with their auburn and red hues, but the pay of to this is that very soon those trillions of golden leaves are going to spread themselves liberally across roads and pavements up and down the country.

Add in the fact that our daylight hours will be getting shorter with increased chance of rain, and you have the slip and slide season.

So, what can be done to reduce the risk of being involved in an accident. The first thing that you should look at our your tyres. In essence, for the majority of motorists your car interacts with the road in four places. These places are of course the contact patches where your tyres make contact with the tarmac.

Considering the size of your vehicle and then compare that against the actual surface area of the part of the tyre that actually interacts with the road, and you start to get some idea of just how hard your tyres are having to work.

The Need For Autumn Tyre Checks

The legal minimum tread depth is 1.6mm across the central ¾ section of the tyre. At Bush tyres we would always recommend that you change your tyres well before the legal minimum.

A car travelling along at 30mph with a tyre tread depth of 1.6mm will take nearly 8 metres longer to stop than the same car with 3mm of tread depth. In old money that’s just over 26ft.

The first really easy thing to do is as part of your autumn tyre check is to measure the tread depth of your tyres. It’s really easy to do this so don’t panic as all you need is a 20p piece. Simply insert a 20p coin into each of the grooves across your tyres, if the band of the coin is hidden by the tread, your tyre is legal, and consequently if the band cannot be seen then your tyre is likely to be nearing or below the legal minimum limit.

If you are ever unsure bring your vehicle into one of our many Bush Tyres branches and we can perform an autumn tyre check on your tyres in more detail and advise you accordingly.

Also check the tyre wall itself for any signs of damage or cracking, again if you are concerned at all, please call into one of our branches.

As a side note, remember to check your spare tyre as many people overlook this and discover later when they need it that the tyre is not fit for purpose.

More rain means more road spray, add that to the dirt and grime that is washed onto our roads everyday and you have a muddy gloop who’s sole purpose in life is to liberally cover your windscreen in a brown sludge.  When driving at night glare from oncoming motorists headlights can sometimes make it almost impossible to see ahead when you haven’t been able to effectively remove the aforementioned sludge from your windscreen. This emphasizes the importance of ensuring your screen wash reservoir is regularly checked and topped up when necessary.

All of the above Autumn tyre checks can be performed pretty much anywhere and are very simple. Whilst they are very simple they will go a long way to keeping you safe this autumn.

To get your tyres checked please click on the button below to find your nearest Bush Tyres branch.

Autumn Tyre Check