Tyre Expert: Do you really need it?

What is a tire specialist? By its very definition in the dictionary, a specialist is "a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity; a person highly skilled in a specific and restricted field"

What is a tire specialist? By its very definition in the dictionary, a specialist is "a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity; a person highly skilled in a specific and restricted field". So, with that in mind, a tire specialist is a rather skilled individual in handling all requests related to tires.

If your TV was faulty, you wouldn't get a chef from a five-star restaurant to come and fix it, now would you? Of course, not, yet some people still believe it's fine for any person to handle their car's tires. The very fabric that keeps your vehicle safe on the roads and allows the power from the engine to propel it in a forward motion should be checked by a specialist.

There are many aspects involved when it comes to your car's tires. It's not simply just the rubber that goes around the wheels. You want them to have an extensive knowledge on the workings of it as well as the surrounding parts.

This article will give you an idea of ​​the few things that they should be able to assist you with or at least have a working understanding of.

Let's start with the tire itself.

There are two main classes of tires, they are referred to as tubed tires and tubeless tires. When choosing the correct tire, one should take the following functions of the tire into consideration; maintaining the contact between the vehicle and the ground by providing the desired traction, supporting the load of the vehicle, dealing with various forces acting on the vehicle during its journey and providing cushion against shocks and damping them.

Next up, you want your specialist to understand wheels.

When picking your wheel, you will need to choose the correct wheel diameter, wheel width as well as wheel offset. These might sound a bit daunting but to a seasoned professional it will be like feeding bread to the ducks.

So, you have chosen the right wheel and tire to complement one another, but we still need to balance them out. Wheel balancing is done on a special machine that measures the weight being exerted at all points in the wheel's rotation cycle. If the balance is out slightly, the specialist will place small offsetting weights at a series of specific points around the outside of the wheel.

Last but not least is wheel alignment.

So many people underestimate the importance of wheel alignment that can come at a hefty cost. Wheel alignment is the process of adjusting vehicle suspension components to bring the wheels and tires into specific angles, facilitating optimal car handling, tire wear and of course overall performance. Wheel alignment generally takes about an hour to complete. Normally, you can just pop into your tire specialist and they should be able to help you, however some do prefer you book an appointment to avoid you sitting around and waiting.

It is highly advisable that you seek the advice of a tire specialist as they can positively affect the running of your vehicle as the optimal performance.