When Is the Best Time to Check and Inflate Your Car Tires?

You need to make sure that you stay safe while out on the road. Driving is an important part of life but it can also be somewhat dangerous. As long as you keep your wits about you, it’ll be possible to keep yourself as safe as possible. Of course, you also need to make sure that your car is in the right condition by checking your tires and taking care of other important things.

Today I am going to be taking a look at the best time to check and inflate your car tires. Many people have been asking for advice about tire inflation and how often you should check things out. I’m going to give the best advice that I can while also looking at things from a practical point of view. You can read on to discover everything that you need to know.

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Best Time to Check Tire Pressure

If you want to get the best results, then you should try to check your tires once per month. There are many people who wind up checking the air pressure in their tires more often than this, though. This is just a good general rule for checking your tire pressure. If you ensure that you’re checking on things monthly, then you should be able to keep things driving smoothly and safely.

Just remember that you should take the time to check your tires at least this often. If you go too long without checking the air pressure in your tires, then there’s a good chance that you’ll be driving around with tires that aren’t inflated properly. This can wind up leading to many different issues, like noise. If you don’t take care of things, then it could even lead to a car accident.

Checking your air pressure isn’t something that should take a lot of time. You should be able to check everything out in a matter of minutes so long as you know what you’re doing. Driving on tires that aren’t inflated right is never going to be a good idea. You need to make sure that you’re inflating your tires often enough to keep yourself safe.

When to Inflate Your Tires

There is no specific time for when your tires need to be inflated. If you check your tires and they need to be inflated, then you need to take the time to inflate them. This is luckily going to be as simple as it sounds. You just want to follow the above advice and check your tires often enough.

You’ll also encounter situations where you should check your tires more often. Once per month may be a good general rule to follow but it might not wind up being perfect for you. If you run over something and suspect a leak, then you might need to check your tires to see if anything is amiss. Likewise, if you notice that your car is driving oddly, then you should check the air pressure situation in your tires.

You should also check and inflate your tires before going on long trips to be safe. If you’re planning a road trip that will have you driving multiple hours in a row, then you’ll definitely want to make sure that you can count on your tires. Taking the time to check things out ahead of time could mean the difference between a safe journey and complications. Always err on the side of caution when it comes to checking and inflating your tires.

How to Check the Tire Pressure Properly

It’s also good to point out that you need to check your tires properly to get a good reading. Some people think they know how to check the air pressure in their tires but they aren’t actually doing it right. Thankfully, I should be able to explain everything to you fairly easily. Follow this advice to make sure that you’re going about things in the right way.

Find the Proper Inflation Levels for Your Tires

So many people make the mistake of judging whether or not their tires are inflated properly just by looking at them. This is not going to be a good way of keeping yourself safe out on the road. Your tires could be pretty far off of their ideal inflation levels without you really being able to tell. It isn’t always easy to spot things with the naked eye so don’t think that you can inflate your tires to the right level without first finding out what the recommended levels are.

The recommended tire pressure is determined by your vehicle and not the maximum tire pressure of the tire itself. This means that you shouldn’t be paying attention to the side markings of the tire. Instead, you need to take a gander at the sticker that should be present near your driver-side door jamb. This should list some information such as the weight restrictions of your vehicle and the recommended tire pressure.

Once you’ve located this information, you should be able to inflate your tires properly. If you don’t have the right information handy, then you can likely use a search engine to research the make of your car. The recommended tire pressure for your specific car should be easy enough to find online. Just make sure to do this before proceeding with inflation.

Always Use a Tire Pressure Gauge

Always remember to use a tire pressure gauge too. A good tire pressure gauge will be able to give you an accurate PSI reading for your tire. There are several different types of tire pressure gauges on the market. The cheapest gauges are going to be very affordable and even the fancier digital gauges are quite cost-effective.

You don’t want to just fill your tires with air until they look good to you. Make sure that you actually use the tire pressure gauge to fill them to the recommended levels. You want your tires to be even so that you can have a smooth ride. Taking the time to do things right is always going to make a difference.

The Car Temperature Needs to Be Considered Too

You shouldn’t check your tire pressure as soon as you’ve gotten done driving. Temperature actually plays a role in the PSI readings that you’ll be getting. If you’ve been driving on a hot road, then you might not get the best reading until things have cooled down. This is why experts recommend checking your tire pressure when it is cooler outside.

If it’s summertime and you want to get an accurate reading, then you should check your tires in the morning when it’s still cool. Also, you’ll want to check your tires a little more often in the autumn and winter. Hotter weather can cause tire pressure to go up by as much as one PSI for every 10 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that your tire pressure might be lower during the cooler months.

You can still stick to the once-per-month formula of checking your tires if you’d like to. Just keep in mind that temperature does play a role in your tire pressure readings. You also need to keep in mind that tire pressure will build during longer trips due to the tires getting hot and being constantly used. Things will even out so you don’t need to worry about this.

Don’t Forget to Check Your Spare Tire’s Pressure

It’s actually going to be a good idea to check the air pressure on your spare tire as well. This is actually something that many people forget about. Your spare tire is supposed to be there for you when you need it. If the tire doesn’t have the proper pressure when you’re trying to put it on after getting a flat, then you might wind up being out of luck.

When you check your tire pressure each month, take the time to examine your spare tire. This is not going to take you much longer to do and it’ll save you from encountering certain problems. No one wants to go to change a tire while on the side of the highway only to find that the spare is also flat. You can prevent this from happening by simply planning ahead.

It might be a nuisance to do this at first but keeping your spare tire inflated to the proper level is useful. This could bail you out in a bad situation. You’ll be happy that you did this the next time that you get a flat on the road and need to put the spare on.

Keep Your Tires in Check

Knowing what to expect when it comes to tire pressure will make you feel safer on the road. Doing your part to check your tires often will keep you driving as smoothly as possible. It doesn’t take a long time to check your tires and it’s certainly worthwhile to do. Just remember to do things right and you’ll have a good overall experience.

Your tires are such an important part of your car. You truly rely on your tires to get you where you need to go and to keep you rolling down the road. Buy a good tire pressure gauge and check things out once per month. As long as you do things properly, everything should turn out just fine.

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By CarRoar