Preparing Your Car for the Possible Holidays and Tyron Bands!

The lockdown and Winter weather now have an end in sight meaning more and more people are gearing up for mass holidays. Whether it be heading elsewhere in the UK to a B&B or heading out in your caravan, it's time to start gearing up and preparing your vehicles!

But what do you need to check?

Well, aside from the usual fluids (Coolant, Oil and Wiper) see below for some other items;

-Windows. Visibility is key, clean your windows if needed! Driving with an inch of mud obstructing your view is hard at the best of times. Also, check for any cracks! Sometimes, this can get worse through rapid heating and cooling the screen causing spider webs. In addition, the extreme pressure from the wind can cause the windscreen to shatter at high speed. Don't take the risk, get it replaced or repaired!

-Safety. It's a situation that we all dread, being stuck at the side of a busy road at night whilst recover or help is heading out to you. To keep you a little safer, taking a road safety triangle and a high vis vest is a great way for motorist to see you keeping you and your family safe.

Checking tyres is not particularly hard and can be done within a few minutes.

-Tread

More tread means more stopping distance. That is an undisputed fact. With this in mind, tyres below 1.6mm are declared as illegal and should be replaced as soon as possible. However, it's recommended that tyres be changed at 3mm. To test this, take a 20 pence piece and place it in the tread. If the outer border is showing, then it's time to change the tyres. If it's hidden, then you're good to go!

-Pressures

As with most UK residents, we aren't using our cars as much. For some, we stare at our cars daily wondering when we can head out again and only during this do we notice the tyre has gone down. Slow punctures are just as dangerous as fast ones and should not be driven on for fear of further damage to the tyre. If you encounter a puncture, give us a call on 0333 444 5454 where we can book you in! Often, it's slight corrosion on the bead (where the tyre meets the alloy) and can be fixed with cleaning the area back and applying a thick bead sealing solution. But, we always double check the tyres to ensure there are no hidden nails!

-If the tyres are wearing down on the outsides this is most likely down to an under inflated tyre. If the central section (only) is wearing down, this is because it is over-inflated pushing the central tread proud. Ideally you want the pressure set to the manufacturer's recommendation, so the tyre wears down across the whole tread giving you better grip! These pressure settings can be found in the manual, fuel filler cap or even on the door sill but, depends on the manufacturer.

For most, the process above is enough! this process is enough. But, for people with caravans, we need to talk about inspecting the tyres and ensuring they are ready for a long journey.

Much like the cars, we need to check the pressures and tread. One other thing to note is the date on the side of the tyre.

First, check the tread for any flat spots, lodged stones or even nails. The former two can cause a rough ride but shouldn't produce any serious issues. Flat spots tend to work themselves out over a few miles once the tyre has warmed up and the steel bands inside morph back into shape. As the caravan moves about on the road, the tread blocks open up allowing lodged stones to fall out. If you're able to remove these stones before heading out it's a great cathartic experience that all should enjoy at least once in their life!

The latter is a little more tricky. Nails in a tyre should always be taken seriously. Due to contact patch of most caravan tyres, we find more often than not the tyre needs to be replaced as the puncture plug just doesn't have enough room to seal. But, if it can be repaired we will safely do so!

Date codes require a little more attention. As per the Caravan Club's recommendations, it's always best to change caravan tyres once they hit around five years old. But how do you tell the age of your tyre?? Tyres pre 2000 contain three numbers and possibly a shape; For example, 192 would indicate the 19th week of either 1982 or 1992. However, if there is a triangle symbol before the three numbers, it would indicate a manufacture date of the latter year. Modern codes removed this and have four numbers. The first two being the week made and the second two being the year. 3220 would be the 32th week of 2020!

First used in military applications, Tyron bands prevent the bead of a tyre from going into the wheel of the wheel. This provides run-flat capabilities of the tyre has no pressure on the inside. Nowadays these are mainly used on caravans. For example, if a caravan were to encounter a blowout on the motorway without the band installed the tyre would work itself off the rim possibly causing the caravan to flip over in the process. In general, it's not a good time. Alternatively, if the wheel were to have Tyron bands installed then the tyre would go flat but not work itself off the wheel providing a grace period for the customer to access a safe location.

You can find more information on Tyron bands here

As a trusted Tyron band installer, why not contact us about having these installed? Alternatively, if you already have these installed why not ask us to come and inspect them along with the tyres to ensure you're safe no the road!