Check Your Tyres Before Storm Season

November and December are the height of the storm season in QLD. It is extremely important to check your tyres now before driving your car in wet conditions.

Most people may not know that the main function of the tread on a tyre is to dispel water from under the tyre as quickly and efficiently as possible. Most people have watched car racing at some time in their life. You may notice that in the dry the race cars reach high speeds both on the straight and cornering using slick tyres. These tyres have no tread whatsoever, which in dry conditions is the ultimate way to have as much sticky rubber on the road at any time, providing maximum performance and grip. However, it is a totally different story when it rains, and cars are caught out on the track when a storm hits. 

When a slick tyre travels across water it literally looses contact with the road. As you can imagine, you will lose steering and traction performance almost completely.

Demonstrating why tyres with low tread depth Aquaplane

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Now consider your car tyres, if they have low or little tread left on the tyres, you are affectively running on semi slick tyres. The same thing will happen when your tyres travel in the rain. You will lose traction, cornering and braking performance which may result in a serious accident for you and cars around you. It is vital that you check your car, truck, and other vehicles to assess the tread depth is suitable to get you safely through the storm season and beyond.

As you will see in the you- tube clips, cars and trucks can simply lose all steering and braking when travelling at speed on wet roads. This can happen on suburban streets as well as freeways and can result in catastrophic crashes that could have been avoided.

Unfortunately, in QLD we have a perfect storm coming in terms of the start of the holiday and weekend adventure season at the same time as the storm season. Thousands of people are currently planning trips, but have they taken into account the state of there car tyres, 4X4 or SUV tyres and for that matter, are truck drivers checking their tyres.

Tyre Tech- Understanding your tyres in all conditions

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Worn truck tyres like all other worn tyres will not dispel water effeciently and can aquaplane in wet weather. From 6 wheel trucks to 18 wheel 24 tonne trucks, worn tyres are a major hazard in the wet.

Regular fleet tyre checks as well as the home fleet tyre checks will ensure your tyres are kept legal as well as safe. It takes no time at all to walk around your car or truck and have a look at your tread depths. The legal tread depth is 1.5 mm evenly across the face of the complete tyre. However if you do not have anything to measure the tread depth the head of a match was an old way to quickly get an idea of the current depth. However turning your car to full lock when you are home and on a flat surface will dispay the full face of your car tyre. When doing so you should see the black indicators as shown in the picture above. If these are the same height as the standard tread or just below, it is time to change your tyres to make sure your car is safe in the wet. If you can’t manage to look at your tyres, the best thing to do would be to call your local tyre expert. At the same time they can check for other inperfections like sidewall fractures and splits that you may not be aware of.

Prior to any storm season it is not the time to see if you can get more out of your tyres than they can safely give. It is dangerous to your family and others. Now is a good time to get the massessed and replaced before the expense of Christmas is upon you. 

Good tyres cost money, we realise that but you get what you pay for. Tyre companies spend billions of dollars every year on reasearch and development, to make their tyres handle better in the wet and dry and are cintinuing to improve tread patterns to dispel water more and more efficiently. Cheaper tyres spend less and use older technology to save money and simply pump out black round things as quick and as cheaply as possible. 

From experience I have done thousands of kilometers around Australia in all sorts of weather and the only time I felt the car wanted to aquaplane was on a cheaper tyre. I have done 98% of my traveling on premium Yokohama tyres and I can say without dought, I have never been concerned about aquaplaning, braking or cornering in the wet.

Consider your next car, van or truck tyre purchase as there are all sorts of options to pay for tyres these days that will allow you to get the safest tyres for your vehicle.

We offer all credit card options as well as Afterpay on all brands and for all vehicles. If you need advice on the best tyre for your vehicle, just give us a call for a hassle free discussion and we will do our best to find you the right tyre for the rightprice and payment method.

Safe & Happy Driving!