Taking Care of Your Car Tyres

DID YOU KNOW?

Driving on an overloaded tyre is hazardous. When your car is carrying too much, the weight can create excessive heat inside your tyres and that can cause sudden tyre failure. Never exceed the maximum load rating of your tyres, which you can find on the sidewall of your tyres, in the owner's booklet or on the vehicle placard.

When you replace a tyre, make sure the new tyre has a load carrying capacity equal to or greater than the tyres that originally came with your car.

A tyre should be correctly inflated to carry its load. A simple empirical approach shows that the load a tyre can carry depends on inflation pressure. For example, a tyre with an internal volume of 25 liters inflated at a pressure of 2 bars can carry 500kg of load. If the pressure ratio is correct, the flexion of the sidewalls in the contact patch will not exceed 20% of their height. This ensures reasonable side wall flexion and the longest possible service life for the tyre.

Source: Taking Care of Your Car Tyres