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Tire Safety: Benefits Of Temperature & Pressure Monitoring (Part 2 Of 3)

May 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment


By Gary S. Rothstein

…continued from part 1

Pressure Influences Tread Wear

Maintaining proper tire pressure levels improves tread mileage as indicated below:

* A continuous 10% over-inflation reduces tread wear by 5%

* Tire Life will be reduced by 30% if constantly under-inflated by 20%

* For every 10 PSI (pounds per square inch) under-inflated, fuel consumption is
increased 0.5%

* A continuous 20% under-inflation decreases tread wear by 25%

By example, consider at an average price of a $250, a 20% under-inflated commercial truck or RV tire costs about $50 each in lost usage. Add in the costs of downtime, repairs and service fees; the picture becomes even clearer.

Fuel Efficiency Impact

Tire inflation also has a direct impact on fuel efficiency, since under-inflated tires can consume a greater percentage of each gallon of fuel just because of rolling resistance. The US Department of Energy advises that tires can account for as much as a 3.3% difference in fuel efficiency. The Department of Transportation’s (D.O.T.) studies have shown that the United States could save over 4.2 million gallons of fuel per day… just by keeping tires properly inflated!

Managing Fleet Maintenance Costs

Tires can account for as much as 36% of a vehicle’s maintenance cost. Yet this essential maintenance procedure, of regularly checking tire pressure, is one of the most difficult to enforce.

Even the best preventive maintenance programs will discover truck drivers and even maintenance personnel will often short cut this time consuming procedure. In certain cases some tires are skipped, assuming if a few are good, the rest are as well. In other cases, this extremely important procedure is ignored entirely. With tires usually being the highest maintenance expense, can any fleet afford to ignore the direct cost consequence of poorly maintained tires?

Make Checking a Habit

To guarantee the greatest tire life, keep them properly inflated at all times. For smaller vehicles driven locally, check the tires at a minimum of once a month. If you travel longer distance for work or play, check the tires more often. If you’re a truck driver accustomed to “thumping tires,” consider that this practice is unreliable and unsafe. An under-inflated tire is extremely difficult to detect by visual inspection or by thumping. Utilizing either of these methods is an accident waiting to happen. Don’t guess, don’t thump, measure with a quality tire gauge or a real-time tire monitoring system.

Dealing with Duals

Vehicles with dual tires have a hidden tire (inner tire position) behind the outside tire. They are more difficult to reach and easier to neglect. Checking the air pressure of the inside tires is an utter necessity. Even if an inside tire is completely flat, it will be supported by the outside tire, making it appear properly inflated. In the case of a flat inside rear tire, which appears properly inflated, the outer tire is doing all the work. The result is a tire at major risk to overheat, rupture or if a retread, the possibility of the tread releasing from the casing…something that leads to major highway accidents.

to be continued…

About the author:
Gary S. Rothstein is the President of Mobile Awareness, a company which designs and markets vehicle safety products. Mobile Awareness, 34305 Solon Road, Solon, Ohio 44139, 866-653-5036, http://www.MobileAwareness.com Copyright 2007
 






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Related Posts:

 Tire Safety: Benefits Of Temperature & Pressure Monitoring (Part 3 Of 3)  Tire Safety: Benefits Of Temperature & Pressure Monitoring (Part 1 Of 3)  How to Properly Check Tire Pressure and Condition for Safety – Part 1  How to Properly Check Tire Pressure and Condition for Safety – Part 2  Tire Pressure Gauge: Liquid Tire Gauges 


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