New tyres might look perfect, but they still need a few essential checks before they’re truly road-ready. From ensuring correct alignment and pressure to properly wearing in the rubber, taking a few extra steps can make all the difference in safety and performance. Here’s how to make sure your new tyres are ready for the miles ahead.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that new tyres can simply be fitted to your vehicle and driven without further checks. But the reality is that new tyres need to be checked for safety and performance purposes, ensuring the tread depth is even, that the wheels are aligned and well balanced, and that the tyres you’ve selected are suitable for the terrain and climate.
Here are some of the checks you need to take your tyres through before driving…
Do New Tyres Need to Be Worn In?
Think of your new tyres like a new pair of shoes, that need to be worn in before you start a long walk.
New tyres that haven’t been driven on before will have the kind of slick rubber surface that needs to be worn in and scratched up prior to driving, to ensure that you generate the right kind of friction and grip between tyre and road surface. Not only is the rubber perfectly smooth prior to driving, but it is often coated in remnants of the lubricant used to remove tyres from the tyre mould during manufacturing.
However, it’s not enough to simply turn the wheel a few times and scratch up the rubber.
Ideally, brand new tyres require up to 200 miles of cautious driving, to ensure that they are well bedded in, that the surface is roughed up, and that the tyres can uphold their pressure correctly.
What is Wheel Balancing?
Another part of your tyre check, especially when fitting new tyres - though this is also important as part of your regular maintenance - is a full balancing and alignment service.
Wheel or tyre alignment is when you ensure that as the wheels rotate and the vehicle moves, it does so in the correct direction. This service essentially checks the position of each wheel and the direction it will move in when turning, to ensure the vehicle lines up with the trajectory of the road. Without it, the steering wheel has to constantly be used to counter the direction that the wheels want to move in, causing extra stress and pressure on the tyres.
Wheel or tyre balancing is a service that ensures the weight of the vehicle is distributed equally across the width of the wheel. This is important because excess weight on one side over the other can lead to uneven wear and tear across the tyre surface, which causes issues with tread depth later down the line.
The latter service sees small weights used to evenly distribute weight, offsetting any extra weight from the vehicle to one side of the wheel, so that the rotation happens seamlessly. This is done by a professional mechanic and is an integral part of tyre maintenance that ensures the tyres wear down at an even rate, with the longest possible lifespan.
