Experts say that when given proper storage and care, tyres can last you up to a decade. When properly stored in a climate controlled warehouse, tyres have an almost
unlimited shelf life, and once they are on the road, proper care can mean extra years to a tyre’s life. The most damning factors to the shelf life of tyres are exposure to ozone or UV rays and wide fluctuations in temperature, inflation, tyre rotation and storage.
To ensure you always know the right time to change the tyres, you should be inspecting and maintaining your tyres every month. Thekey indicators of wear and tear are cracks in the sidewall caused by either sun exposure or under inflation and tread depth. Then there is inflation, tyres naturally loose about 1 psi per month on average, and
loose or gain 1 psi for every 10 degree drop or increase in temperature.
Those changes require regular monitoring and adjustment, and this requires a keen eye and a human perspective as most vehicle systems are not adept to dealing with such
minuscule fluctuations.This will ensure your tyres have longer life.
Air Pressure
It is advised that once a month, check your air pressure with a tyre pressure gauge. Most vehicle systems are set to alert the driver about a low tyre only after the pressure
has dropped below 75 percent of the recommended figure. But that is well past the point of damaging the tyre and shortening its life, this also sucks down your fuel
economy.
To ensure correct and more accurate reading, check your tyre pressures with a good gauge in the cool air of the morning before the car has been driven anywhere at all or
at least a few hours after its last trip. Even a couple miles on the road can warm up the air inside the tire, causing it to expand and giving you an inaccurate reading. Warm summer days will expand the air inside the tyres, too. A cold reading will give an accurate measure of pressure and, once filled, leave room for expansion while you are
driving.
Alignment As A Way Of Making Your Tyres Last Longer.
Proper alignment ensures your tyres last longer.Before engaging a professional’s opinion or instruments, there is a way that you can check if your vehicle needs to be
aligned. Check for camber (the tilt of the tire toward or away from the frame of the car). This can be done by standing in front of the parked car (or behind it, if you are
checking the rear tires). If the tires tip in, the tread will wear away on the inside of the tire first. If they tip out, there will be more wear on the outside.
Rotation and storage
Rotating the tyres means taking them all off and moving each one to a new position on the car. Rear tyres wear differently than front tyres, depending on whether it is a
frontwheel drive or rearwheel drive car. Left tyres wear differently than right ones, too, depending on the number of turns taken in either direction or how carefully you
parallel park.
We have probably all scraped a Left tyre or two in our time; rotating the tyres means not scraping the same.
As for storage, for most street tyres, it does not matter whether they are stacked on the sidewall or stood up on their tread, mounted or unmounted. As long as your tyres
are out of sunlight, away from ozone, and in an environment with a stable temperature, then they are assured to last longer.