Tag Archives: cheap tires

How To Choose The Correct Tires For Your Vehicle

When it comes to buying new tires you have an almost unlimited selection to choose from. This isn’t the false freedom of choice you experience when deciding which of seven virtually identical brands of frozen broccoli to go with either. This is the real deal.

The tires are the main point of interaction between your vehicle and its environment. It is, quite literally, where the rubber meets the road. This makes choosing the right tires a very important decision.

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Choosing Tires: Cracking the Sidewall Code

There is a lot of information to be found on your tire’s sidewall. However, aside from the part that gives you the maximum load and the maximum tire pressure, it’s not exactly easy to understand.

A good place to start is by taking a look at the Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG). It’s one of the few places on the tire where you will see actual words. These are tread wear, traction, and temperature.

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Retreads Versus New Tires: The Facts

No matter how diligent you are in maintaining and rotating your tires, sooner or later the tread will be gone and the tires will have reached the end of their life. Or have they?

If you take a look at a tire that is “completely” worn out, you will notice that the tread is basically gone and the tires just can’t grip anymore. But you might also notice that the rest of the tire seems to be holding up just fine.

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Knowing Your Tire’s Maximum Load Can Save Your Life!

Most of us never stop to think about the maximum load our tires can support. After all, passenger cars are usually used to transport well…passengers, and any human beings who would cause the vehicle to exceed its maximum load are unlikely to fit through the car doors in the first place.

But (and just like in the example above it’s a big butt) with the large number of light trucks, SUVs, and vans being used as primary transportation today, a tire’s maximum load becomes a much bigger factor.

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Roadside Reading: How To Change A Flat Tire

When it comes to car repair, most of us are totally clueless. Even if we took auto shop in high school, vehicle design and technology changes so fast that it seems like the only people who can keep up are professionals and extremely dedicated hobbyists.

However, there is at least one quick fix that every motorist, regardless of occupation, age, or gender should be able to perform, and that is how to change a flat tire.

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A ‘Good’ Deal: Can You Buy Cheap Tires And Be Safe?

There’s no question that tires can be expensive. However, before deciding to replace your worn tires with a discount brand there are some things you should consider.

First, you can use a little common sense to determine which kind of tire is right for your particular situation. A good way to think about this is to think of tires as being like shoes for your car. Would you wear brown oxfords while jogging? When you attend a funeral do you throw on a pair of cross trainers? Of course not!

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Why Should You Rotate Your Tires?

Why should you rotate your tires? After all, they seem to rotate plenty when the car is moving. All kidding aside, there is one very good reason to have your tires rotated on a regular schedule. By rotating your tires, you are ensuring an even pattern of wear. This means you will get the most possible use out of your investment.

Assuming that your tires are of at least average quality and you never rotate them, your front tires will wear out somewhere between 16,000 and 32,000 kilometres. Compare this to the rear tires, which will last anywhere from 80,000 to 130,000 kilometres, and you can see that without tire rotation you will be shelling out a lot of extra cash to replace tires you don’t have to.

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Chains, Studs, and Other Forms of Tire Bondage

If you happen to live in an area that experiences severe conditions during the winter, you may want to consider chains or studded tires.

Before you rush out to buy them, though, there are a few things you should know. These traction devices are for situations where a regular tire just can’t hack it, not for driving to the corner store in the middle of January. In most cases all-season radials or snow tires can handle anything you would care to throw at them.

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Used Tires: Brilliant Idea or Buyer Beware?

So you’re leafing through the newspaper on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and you come across a classified ad that reads something like this:

GREAT TIRES FOR SALE! Barely used, premium tires, $15 each. Come to Josie’s Bar and Grill, ask for Snake. NO COPS.

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Tips on Choosing Discount Tires

There is a saying by a famous tire manufacturer Michelin: “So much is riding on your tires.” This is true no matter if you’re driving a sport coupe or an electric scooter. Cheap tires can damage a great car, and great tires can do wonders for a worn out vehicle. Luckily, today, thanks to technological advances, you can buy a great set of discount tires and still be quite happy about them.

If you understand that you have to buy new tires, you have a few options. The easiest way is to buy the exact size and brand of tires that your vehicle had when you picked it at the dealership. However, you may choose to upgrade your tires depending on what driving conditions you currently have or foresee. There are many reasons to change the tires for a different model. While some people look for a new design they may simply change the wheel and use the same tires as before. Some people prefer to wait till they need new tires and then they upgrade for a larger diameter of the wheel and new tires at once.

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Snow Tires or All-Season Radials - How to Choose?

Driving through snow is not on anyone’s list of fun things to do. It becomes even less enjoyable when you feel your tires quit on a particularly slippery patch.

When it comes to ensuring safe winter driving, you have two choices. Either you buy snow tires, or you go with all-season radials. Which one is the correct option depends entirely on the environment you drive in.

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Sit and Spin: Rotating Your Own Tires?

Can you rotate your own tires? The answer is yes, but it’s really the wrong question to be asking in the first place. A better question is: Should you rotate your own tires? The answer in this case is probably not.

Rotating your vehicle’s tires is a breeze if you have the right tools. Unfortunately the right tools for rotating your own tires consist of a lift, a powerful compressor, and the air tools to go along with it. You could make do with a tire iron or even the right size of socket wrench, but it’s the lift that is the real sticking point. Even the most dedicated of do-it-yourselfers rarely has a hoist in their garage. If nothing else, the cost of the equipment and installation can prove prohibitive. If you could afford to put in a lift, you could probably afford to have your tires professionally rotated every single day for the next year

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Under Pressure: What You Need to Know About Inflating Your Tires

The days when a smiling service attendant would cheerfully check your tire pressure as a matter of course are long gone. It is up to you, the motorist, to make sure your tires are properly inflated.

Tire inflation should be checked at least once a month and before starting any long trip. Properly inflated tires ensure as smooth ride as possible and help to conserve fuel.

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Patch It Up or Pitch It Out: What to Do With a Whole Lot of Hole

Is there anything more annoying than a flat tire? Sure there is. How about a tire that keeps going flat no matter how much you pump it up?

Driving over a nail right after you’ve bought new tires can be heartbreaking. Obviously in this situation you would rather have the tire repaired than replaced, but that might not be possible.

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Are Premium Tires Worth The Money?

There are a lot of different reasons why people are willing to pay extra for something that is available in a cheaper form. It may be because they prefer brand name cola to a store brand, or because they think that the higher priced item will convey high status.

Sometimes, however, people are willing to pay more because what they get is worth substantially more. There’s an old saw that says you get what you pay for. This is definitely the case when it comes to buying tires.

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