Each year, there are 15,000 road accidents in the US caused by tire trouble. A sudden skid or blowout can be disastrous on the road. Tire maintenance is a critical part of staying safe while driving, a major component of which is regular tire rotation. Let’s take a look at four good reasons to routinely head to your local Ford dealer to have your tires swapped around.
No Loss of Handling
If you’ve noticed your car’s handling and responsiveness diminish, it might be because your tires are wearing down unevenly. Tires will usually wear down faster at the front of your Ford, which carries more weight. When this disparity in tire wear develops, you can usually feel it reducing the quality of your steering and control. By periodically rotating your tires, you spread out the wear more uniformly across all four tires and avoid this hit to your handling.
Less Chance of Skids
The minimum legal tread depth on a tire is 2/32 of an inch. Ideally, you want to keep all your tires from reaching this dangerous tread depth for as long as possible. If any one tire loses too much tread depth, and therefore traction, it puts your entire vehicle at risk of skidding. This is especially true in winter when it’s not recommended to let any of your tires fall to below 5/32 of an inch in tread depth.
Regular rotation will keep the tread depth deeper for longer on all of your tires. You’ll therefore have a reduced chance of one weakened tire taking you into a skid.
Less Chance of Blowouts
Over time, tires get damaged by knocks and bumps against curbs and over potholes or cut by sharp obstacles in the road. The tires bearing the most weight are slightly more susceptible to this kind of damage, and a tire damaged multiple times is more at risk of blowing out on the road. By switching your tires around, you spread out the damage and reduce your overall risk of blowouts.
Longer-Lasting Tires
Regular tire maintenance and rotation stand to save you a lot of money on new tires over the lifespan of your car. If your tires are wearing down more slowly due to regular rotation, then you don’t need to replace them as frequently.
On top of this, if you allow any one or two tires to reach dangerously low tread depth more rapidly than the others, you’ll usually have to replace all four tires at once. The Tire Industry Association recommends you do so because it’s unwise to combine a pair of partially-worn tires with a pair of new tires. If you do, the two older tires will have a marginally smaller circumference and will rotate more quickly, resulting in hampered handling.
Visit Your Ford Dealer for Rotation Twice a Year
In general, tires should be rotated every 6,000 to 8,000 miles. For the average Ford driver, this is once every six months or so. A convenient scheduling habit that many drivers follow is to have their tires rotated every time they go in for an oil change.
To have your tires inspected, rotated, or replaced by experienced professionals, visit Greenwood Ford. We’re a trusted local dealership that’s dedicated to providing for all the needs of our customers with the very highest standards of service.
Image via Pixabay
