As students make their way back to high school and college campuses across the country, they should pay special attention to their tires – the only thing connecting their car to the road.
Cooper Tire’s Tread Wisely program, a tire and vehicle safety campaign for teens and young adults, offers three important tire safety tips for young drivers headed back to school.
1. Check your tire pressure
To check your tire pressure, find your car’s ideal pressure listed on the sticker inside your car door, glove box or fuel door, or in the car’s manual. Remove the tire’s valve cap and press a tire gauge firmly onto the valve stem. The end of your tire pressure gauge will pop up and show a reading of the pounds per square inch (PSI) of air pressure in your tires. If this number matches your recommended tire pressure, you’re good to go. If the number is lower than the recommended tire pressure, your tire is underinflated. If the reading on the gauge is higher than the pressure recommended for your car, you need to release some air.
2. Check your tread depth
To check your tread depth, use the penny test. Insert the edge of a penny into the most worn groove of your tire tread with Lincoln’s head down and facing you. If the top of Honest Abe’s head is covered by tread, meaning you cannot see the top of his head, the tire tread is in good shape. If the top of his head is visible, you need to replace the tire.
3. Assess the overall condition of your tires
Assess the overall condition of your tires by looking at them closely to ensure there are no cuts, cracks, punctures or bulges. If you spot any of these, get your tires checked by a professional before driving on them.
Students can learn how to perform these checks by taking part in the Pump It Up campaign offered by Tread Wisely and DoSomething.org. Pump It Up encourages young drivers to print and place eye-catching tire safety flyers under their friends’ windshield wipers. Those who receive the flyers text the word “TIRE” to 38383 for fun and informative messages about how to check their tire pressure, tread depth and overall tire condition. The young drivers also receive text messages encouraging them to join the campaign and share tire safety with their friends and family. Those who sign up and successfully complete the campaign, which will run through Sept. 30, will be entered into a drawing to win a $3,000 scholarship.
Brief videos showing how to perform the three important tire safety checks can also be found on the Tread Wisely mobile app. The app is free and available for download from the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android).
To learn more about Tread Wisely or the Pump It Up campaign, visit www.treadwisely.org.
