The Magical Tire Guage

By: Jack Cooper

The politicians today are laughable, instead of trying to debate on serious problems that face our country they argue over how much fuel you will save by adding air to your tires.

There is no doubt that proper tire inflation, tune ups, and proper maintenance on your vehicle will add to you overall fuel mileage.

But this is on an individual basis, and the saving will depend on many factors. The Presidential candidate (Obama) assumes that the whole country is running around on flat tires and their cars all need a tune up.

The truth is most everyone that owns a vehicle keeps their vehicles tires properly inflated and try to keep their maintenance up.

If everything is working poorly on your vehicle and the tires are almost flat, bringing everything back to a normal condition WILL add 3%-4% to YOUR vehicles overall mileage.

But even after all you do to get your mileage up you drive excessive speeds, do jack rabbit starts and have just plain erratic driving habits, all your gains will by for not.

One thing that is dangerous in what the supposed next President says on tire inflation is, a lot of people really believe what he says and they will think if adding more air to my tires will get me better mileage, I'll just add a little more and get even more mileage.

This is where it gets dangerous, over inflated tires can cause your vehicle to severely hydroplane in wet conditions. Your tire wear will increase. And the shock to your tires will be greatly enhanced when you hit potholes and can cause blowouts.

A lot of people do not know how to properly inflate their tires. If you just came off the freeway after driving 60-70 MPH for awhile and you check your tires they could be up to 10 pounds or more over normal pressure due to heat build up.

So what the uniformed may do is take that extra 10 pounds out and then when the car sits overnight and tires go back normal temperature, the tires will then be 10 pounds low.

Always read on your tire what normal pressure should be and adjust pressure on a COLD tire. Make sure when you read the proper inflation on side of the tire if it says max pressure hot or max pressure cold.

One other thing is on your tune up, a properly tuned vehicle runs smoother and uses less fuel. But, unless you are driving a pre 1990's vehicle chances are you won't need the normal tune up as in the past.

Most all 1990's and above vehicles are computer controlled and does not need a tune up. All that is needed is regular maintenance, oil changes, filter changes etc. Most vehicles now will probably not need spark plugs for 75,000 and even upwards of 100,000 miles as long as you maintain your vehicle properly.

I really don't know where to find this "Magical Tire Gauge" but if I do find it I will let you know where to get one. And if antone out there can find where to get it let me know and I'll pass it along.

As for now "Happy Motoring" keep your tires inflated and your vehicle fine tuned and use a light foot and maybe in a few days we wull be weened off foreign oil and have no need for our vast oil supply.