How To Prepare Your Car Tyres For Winter?

Driving your car in winter is more challenging than you might think. This is primarily because of snow-laden roads that can easily make your car skid on the surface and make you lose control of your car, making it far more difficult for you to handle it or keep it stable.

Winter poses risks to not only your car but also to others on the road that can be involved in an accident due to your carelessness. Thus, you must prepare your tyres for winter so that they can handle snow. If you want to do so, continue reading the following blog that we have come up with that mentions a few tips you could follow that would help you in preparing your car tyres for winter.

Regularly Check and Maintain Tyre Pressure

Your tyres are more likely to lose air pressure in extreme temperatures, like cold, due to the principles of air. In winter, the air inside your tyres compresses, making your car tyres under-inflated, which is a term for tyres that do not have sufficient pressure. If you drive with such tyres, you will encounter some troubles.

When your tyres are underinflated, they become wider under the weight of the car, increasing the contact patch. This results in increased friction, which stresses out your car tyres, resulting in more heat and thus more wear and tear. 

Prolonged use can easily make your tyres develop bald patches or have a reduced tread depth, making it harder for them to ensure pepper traction; hence, you will experience a reduction in road grip. You should regularly check your tyres using a manual tyre pressure gauge or rely on the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, installed on your car. 

Rotate Tyres In Winter

Like most drivers with a front-wheel-drive vehicle, you have to rotate the tyres more frequently during the winter. This is because the tyres on your front axle will wear out faster due to the increased weight from the engine. This will lead to these tyres wearing out faster, resulting in a shallow tread depth. With constant use, the other tyres on your cars will also start developing similar issues. When all of your tyres have a shallow tread depth, it will be very difficult for them to grip the road perfectly. 

When this happens, it will simply increase the risk of your car losing control on snow-covered roads. To prevent this, all you have to do is go to an auto repair shop or a tyre fitter to get them to rotate the tyres on your car according to the car manual. You can use some rotation techniques for this, be it cross rotation or a direct rotation of the rear tyres to the front. 

Be Ready For The Summer

Just because it's winter doesn't mean you have to disregard proper tyre storage. You should make sure to store your tyres properly so that you can use them during the summer when you are using winter tyres during the season. Even if you are using the best cheap tyres in Long Eaton, you have to ensure that they are stored properly, unless you want to spend a huge amount of money on tyre replacement.

And no, you can't continue using your winter tyres during the summer, as it will only make them wear out faster, resulting in even more expenses. You can choose suitable storage and use a good storage method to hold your other tyres for the next season properly. Or, you can simply use all-season tyres. 

Use Chains or Studs On Your tyres

Try using chains or studs on your tyres for added safety and security to enhance their road grip. Yes, this is quite suitable if you hail from a region that welcomes extreme winter and heavy snowfall. Chains and studs on your tyres help them bite into the snow and prevent your car from losing control. These can be used during heavy snow. But you have to ensure that such methods are permitted in your region, as they can quite easily damage the road. So, unless advised otherwise, you should not use chains or studs anywhere. 

Inspect tyres Regularly And Repair Them If Needed

Other than the above-mentioned tips, you should also take care to check your tyres regularly and ensure that there is nothing wrong with them. If your tyres need any repairs or patchwork, you should see to it immediately, as driving with a damaged tyre during heavy snow is simply inviting trouble. You can first visually inspect your tyres, or even visit an auto repair shop for a more comprehensive inspection that would cover things like the structural integrity of your tyres, their alignment, balance, and pressure. 

Use Winter tyres

Lastly, the most effective tip would be to use a set of winter tyres. There are not many tyre options on the market that can outperform winter tyres during, well, winter. Thus, if you are from someplace that experiences frequent snow and a chilling winter, you can consider owning two sets of tyres, one specifically for the winter season.

This will prevent a lot of issues. Although you might still have to follow some of the tips mentioned above, such as ensuring proper tyre pressure or regular inspection, you will have peace of mind when you are using these tyres, as they are specially designed for the season.