Tips for your Christmas road trip.
It’s summer, finally. Time to catch up with family and friends. Take a break and head away with the family for a weekend, or a whole week if you’re lucky. There’s a lot to stress about with the silly season but it pays to be prepared if you’re planning on spending a lot of time in the car this summer.
For any long drives, you should consider taking water and snacks in the car. It’s a good idea to leave extra travel time so you’re not under pressure if you get caught up behind traffic and to allow for roadworks. All of these tips will help keep stress levels down and make for a more enjoyable road trip.
These days, in car entertainment is pretty easy to sort out. Think about pre-installing some games on the phone or the tablet. Making and downloading a music playlist to your phone can also be a good idea. Don’t forget a 12v to USB charger and a cable long enough to reach the back seat! As much as we tend to rely on technology these days, books and classic games such as ‘I Spy’ work well in the car to pass the time too!
If you are traveling with children or pets in the back, consider window shades to help with keeping direct sunlight out of the back seat area.
Tyrepower Kogarah will help get your vehicle sorted and now is the perfect time to get your suspension and tyres checked before the many kms you’ll be putting on them over the summer.
Wheel alignment and balancing
It’s absolutely crucial that your wheels be aligned. On top of the tyre wear concerns with mis-aligned suspension, fuel economy, tyre noise and emergency braking can all be affected by poorly aligned suspension.
Hitting curbs, potholes and even speed bumps too aggressively can knock your alignment out. You may notice this as the steering wheel is no longer straight when driving the car or that the car will want to pull itself to one side when driving along the road.
A normal part of fitting tyres to wheels is that fact that the wheel and tyre combination may be ever so slightly imbalanced, this can result from the rubber being slightly thicker in one area, or one spoke on the wheel might have more mass than the others. To compensate for this, tyre fitters will often fit counterweights onto the wheel to prevent any vibrations while travelling at high speeds.
Tyre pressures and tyre rotation
Along with a good alignment, correct tyre pressures are absolutely critical in getting the most out of your tyres. If you’re running stock wheel sizes, the manufacturers placard is a great place to start. Although if you’re heavily loaded, running aftermarket wheels and tyres with different sizing, or driving competitively, you may want to seek advice from the staff at Tyrepower Kogarah on a good air pressure to start with.
Air pressures ought to be checked at least monthly to ensure they’re in the range that provides the best fuel economy and even tyre wear. While you’re doing air pressures, don’t forget the spare tyre! Be sure you know how to safely use the tools to change a flat tyre or if your vehicle doesn’t have a spare tyre, make sure you understand how to use the puncture repair kit and compressor that some new cars come equipped with.
Come see the staff at Tyrepower Kogarah
Get in contact with Barry and the team at Kogarah Tyrepower for world class customer service and a quick turnaround. Servicing Kogarah, Rockdale, Bexley, Beverly Park and Monterey areas, we stock a wide range of tyres from the biggest names in the business to suit all makes and models.
So if you need tyres, wheel balancing or an alignment, make sure you give us a call on (02) 9587 3366, or drop by the store at 433 West Botany Street, Kogarah. Barry and the team will have your vehicle road trip worthy in no time!
