PROLONGING TIRE LIFE.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 156, 28 October 1926, Page 7

PROLONGING TIRE LIFE.

SIMPLE PRECAUTIONS. j Which Make for Economy. (By a Manufacturer) It should always be remembered that the care of tyres involves a dual regard for the welfare of both tubes and covers, and the life depends as much on the driver as on the manufacturer. A faulty tube is a menace to the cover and a defective cover is a menace to the tube. The function of a pneumatic tyre in relation to a car is first and foremost that of. a shock absorber. The inequalities of the road surface would cause severe damage to the axles and chassis of the car unless the tyres working in conjunction with the springs were ready to take those inequalities. ... It is of course the air-filled tube which provides resiliency ; the cover is to protect the tube from contact with the road and to take the wear and tear of running. Consequently, to secure the maximum resiliency, the cover, although strong, must be flexible. CORRECT INFLATION NECESSARY.

To obtain the maximum degree of shock absorption, tyres should be properly inflated’. Insufficient inflation is to a great extent responsible for bursts and quick breaking up of the cover. When a trye is underinflated the walls are continually and excessively bending at a point midway between the rim and the ground, and the result of this continual bending is that the walls become weakened, eventually give way and burst. Rim cutting, creeping,, heating and puncturing are also brought about by running “ soft.” On the other hand, care should be taken not to overinflate tyres ; to have them hard as boards nullifies the property of shock absorption and the resiliency of the tyre is inappre- | ciable.

It is all-important to watch for small cuts' in a tyre and to repair them when they are still small. A tiny cut, if neglected, may in time destroy a cover. Inspect the tyres weekly for bad cuts, signs of bursts (caused through the fabric lining being rotted by wet) or boils (caused by dust or mud between the fabric and the rubber covering). Remove with a sharply-pointed piece of wood —not a knife—small pieces of flint, glass or other matter embedded in the tyre. Small cuts should be filled up at once with a special preparation obtainable for this purpose, although, if the tyre should sustain a large cut, or a small cut should have grown large before receivingattention, the repair must be vulcanised.

HOW TO REPAIR SMALL CUTS. To repair, small cuts the wound should be thoroughly cleaned with petrol, using a piece of rag and a small stick, and, when dry, coated with special solution. Allow the solution to become nearly dry, and if the hole is large apply a second coat; then fill in with the cement, pressing it down firmly. Use a little more than enough to fill the cut, Finally allow the repair to dry as long as possible. REMOVE RUST FROM THE RIM BED. It is a wise precaution to make a periodical examination of the inside of the rim to prevent accumulation of rust. To effect this first deflate the tyre and press the bead of the cover inward with the elever. If there arc any traces of rust, early opportunity should be taken to have the rim bed scraped and enamelled. I It is well known, but worth repeat- I ing-, that acids, oils, grease and light' are injurious to rubber. Water, although harmless to rubber itself, should not be allowed to reach the canvas casing of the cover, and for this reason cars should not be washed while the tyres are deflated, as water may then easily penetrate. Care should be taken, when lubricating wheel parts, to see that oil does not come in contact with the tyres. IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT ALIGNMENT. The life of a tyre depends largely upon the true running of the wheel to which it is fitted. A tyre should be subjected to a purely rolling action with a minimum of friction when the \ wheels run truly parallel. When a I wheel does not run truly parallel, the I tyre sustains considerable friction across the direction of travel, which rapidly wearf; away tire tread. To.

obtain high tyre efficiency, the alignment of the wheels should be checked and corrected if required. The front wheels are the more likely to lose their parallelism, and should, therefore, be closely examined. Dents in the wheel rims must not be ignored, as they are liable to cause damage to the bead and the side of the tyre. Steps should be taken without delay to have them attended to by a repairer. Rust should not be allowed to remain on a rim. It can be removed by the aid of emery paper and the rim then painted with rim paint. NURSE TYRES WHEN DRIVING ON UNROLLED ROADS.

To" keep down running expenses, it is desirable, to nurse the tyres when driving on flinty, rough or unrolled roads. It is quite easy to drive a car at 20 miles per hour over a stretch of unrolled or partly rolled metal, but it has to be paid for. At 20 miles per hour the treads of the tyre may be cut all over and deep incisions caused which in time will let in wet and mud; while at 8 or 10 miles an hour there will hardly be a scratch on the tread. When effecting repairs, “ more j haste less speed ” should be the order iof the day. Care is necessary, and the few additional minutes, required to do the work satisfactorily is well [ repaid. Before putting a -tube into position, powdei-ed chalk should be sprinkled around inside the cover; a handful thrown in results in the chalk caking in the rims and damaging the tube. To secure the best results, then, the following is a summary of the safeguards necessary. Tyres should always be kept sufficiently inflated. They should be inspected daily and embedded flints, etc., removed. Cuts should be repaired and no water allowed to enter, otherwise the fabric of the jacket will become rotted. The rim beds should be kept free from rust. It is better to wash tyres than to allow mud to dry slowly on them. The brakes should be judiciously and not abruptly applied. With vehicles other than friction-driven, the clutch should be let in very gently when starting from rest. Bad road services should be traversed carefully and not at a high speed. The chassis should be kept in good order; particularly does this apply to the alignment of the road wheels. The steering gear should be kept free from back-lash, as back-lash allows the front wheels to wobble when the ear is running. High speeds and overloading quickly affect the 'tyres; in-

deed, one real case of overloading i, sufficient to ruin a set of tyres, and although the injury may not be apparent at once, damage to the jacket will, nevertheless, have occurred and will be revealed sooner or ater. The foregoing hints on the care and maintenance of motor tyres, if constantly carried out,-will be the means of saving many anxious hours of worry, will curtail “very considerably the running expenses, enhance the value of a car, and provide a maximum of pleasure, comfort and efficiency. In a word, it is simply a question of exercising care.