The knowledge you possess about your car and factors concerning its safety, in particular, can really save you high maintenance costs in the future. Being aware of the basics of something like tire safety can help you adequately check pressure and tread, enabling you to make a careful assessment of the problem at hand before referring to a professional. These decisions can have a direct impact on your own and your family’s safety. Furthermore, you can ensure that expensive efficiency and repair costs are altogether avoided.

Let’s look at the essential car tire safety checklist and what you need to do.

• Checking the air pressure on your tire

It is important to always check the air pressure of your tire at least once a month. It is a good strategy to save on fuel costs as maintaining proper tire pressure can save you money in the long run. You can simply purchase a tire gauge from any hardware store for this purpose. Be sure to check all of them even if one closely resembles another flat one. You can also simply pull up into a local mechanic or dealer and they will do the job for free. Also, note that the air pressure should always be checked cold. Heat tends to build up air pressure and will give you inaccurate readings. Your best bet is to wait till the car is sitting for three solid hours before checking it. The proper air pressure can be surmised from the car manual. Do not wait for your car’s alert system to warn you of low pressure and get the checks done before that.

• Check the tire tread

The importance of car maintenance can never be understated on a car tire safety checklist. If you have bald tires or nearly bald tires, they can be a hazard even on dry surfaces. Luckily, you need not look far to check the tread depth on your car. Everybody has heard of the trusty penny test wherein you need to place a pretty penny in the vertical groove of the tire with Lincoln’s head facing downwards. If the crown is still visible, it means you need to get new tires. Do so while you still have some grip remaining in the tires.

Make the assessment of each individual tire to get an overall understanding of how they stand.

• Tire rotation patterns

Rotating your tires is incredibly important and useful and most mechanics recommend you rotate the tires every 5000 or so miles. The rotation of tires can be done by putting the back tires in front and sending the front ones to the back. It can also be done by switching tires diagonally. All car experts agree that rotating your tires boosts their lifespan and positively impacts the fuel efficiency of the car. Do remember that you need to consult your own car manual to determine how often you need to perform this rotation.

These are the basics of a car tire safety checklist and must be followed to the best of one’s capabilities to guarantee a safe-driving experience as far as possible.