The heat is here!

 Well, the summer heat is here!

Old tires do not react well to the heat of summer, and with the weather getting hotter each year older tires have a higher chance of blow-outs and sudden decompression. Even if there is a lot of tread left on your tires, as they age they start to dry crack; at a certain point, especially as temperatures rise, the tire has a higher and higher chance of blowing out.

Save Money - Buy Tires Now!!

The other factor operating this year is inflation - rubber prices are going up, and that is already driving tire prices higher, and it is going to get worse as the year goes on.

Depending on the size of your tire, the increase in prices may not be too bad, but higher performance tires and larger mud & All Terrains like the one pictured above have already seen an appreciable price jump (on some models as much as 25% in increased cost to us).

So if your tires are getting close to the end of their life it may be best to get your next set of tires now rather than later - hopefully prices will stabilize and return to normal, but in the tire industry (as with many others) once prices rise because of material costs, they rarely go back down. 

Oil prices are hovering right around $75 dollars a barrel now, and it was spikes in oil that drove tire prices up the last time in the mid 2000's.

Aggravating things a bit more are the supply chain troubles that we have been experiencing from the COVID pandemic in 2020; some of those issues are ongoing, not just in tires but in wheels, musical and electronic gear and many other items. 

Part of that, especially in the auto industry, is increased demand in tires as more people are suddenly going on vacations and driving more miles for business. This increase in demand, along with the other factors, will make price increases on tires throughout this year more likely than not.

So if you are getting close to that point, you may want to purchase sooner rather than later - your pocket book will end up thanking you!

Go to your local tire store in Maiden NC or wherever you live and have your tires checked for wear or dry cracking; tires have already gone up this year, but they will continue to do so. Now is the time to get a quote on a set of new tires!

Wheel Locks - Why We Love To Hate Them!

Wheel Locks - What Could Go Wrong?

As it turns out, quite a bit - wheel locks were very handy in the 1990's when wheels were being stolen at a pretty high rate, especially in some specific areas. At that point in time, hot wheels weren't just a toy!

But, the car industry always evolves, and where there were relatively few bolt patterns across the industry back then, today there are many, many more. What this means is that it is much harder to sell used wheels than it used to be, because a set of wheels will only fit specific, select vehicles.

This is the same reason that many wheels must be special ordered as opposed to being kept in stock - and it also means that wheel locks are not as important as they used to be.

What Can Go Wrong?

What can go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot when it comes to wheel locks. 

First of all, they are easy to lose - either by dropping them in the snow when you're trying to change a tire, or in a ditch on a dark night - or, the last guy that changed your tires might have forgotten to put it back in the car. If you lose it before you get the locking lug nut off, you are stuck - you will need to call a tow-truck or mobile mechanic to break the locking lug nut off.

The other major reason locking lugs quit working is because the key itself becomes degraded. There are several different types  of locking lug systems. The most common is a hollow nut with a 'clover'design on the inside that latches into the same design hollowed out on the lug nut; another type is called a spline design, but these can be replaced pretty easily at most auto-parts stores, whereas the clover locking design cannot be replaced at auto parts stores.

The picture below is of the clover locking design; take a close look at the pattern inside the lucking nut and you can see the ridges have been degraded through use - this lug nut is useless now, and this type of damage is common.

This is a locking lug nut - as you can see, the key above is to degraded to lock into the grooves

A damaged lug nut key

All It Takes To Be Stranded

All it takes to be stranded is to lose the key, or as in the picture above for the key to be damaged (which does not take much on these keys). Unless you have really expensive wheels and tires it is usually not worth the aggravation of keeping the key - it is my experience that it will work perfectly until you really need it, and then you will be stuck.

So take off the locking nuts and replace them with regular lug nuts - or if you don't want to bother, any tire store can help you with that, like Maiden Tire & Wheel who is a dealer of new tires in Maiden NC!

Summers Here - And old tires feel the heat too!

Summer Heat Kills Old Tires

We've had a nice cool spring this year, but the heat is definitely on the way - it is supposed to get into the low 90's today, and the road can easily heat up to 160 degrees.

This is a major factor for older tires; as the rubber degrades, heat will have a big impact on tires that are older than 10 years, and sometimes less than that.

This can result in simple leaks, broken belts and blowouts, even if the tire has a lot of tread left - as rubber ages it gets more brittle, and at a certain point the tire will fail.

Inspect Your Tires!

This is a good time of year to inspect your tires to see if they are in good shape - pay attention to the sidewall and the treads, and look for small cracks in the rubber, especially where the tread meets the sidewall, and on the tread part of the tire look for cracks in between the treadblocks. The tire below is about 12 years old, and you can see how badly the rubber has degraded

How Old Are My Tires?

Every tire sold in the US has a date code of when the tire is manufactured - in the picture below, you will see a small oval pressed into the rubber with 4 digits - this is the code to tell you when the tire was manufactured.

You can see on this tire the number 1616 in the small oval. In these date codes, the first two numbers are the week and the second two the year, so this tire would have been made in the 16th week of 2016 - you can also see how smooth the rubber is compared with the tire pictured above. 

If the numbers were 0809 it would have been manufactured in the 8th week of 2009.

So, take a look at your tires before it starts getting to hot, and if you need new tires in Maiden give us a call - Maiden Tire & Wheel is your local connection for tires, tire and wheel packages and more!