Category Archives for "Tyres"

When should you visit our Brisbane Tyre Centre to get your Wheels aligned?

Tell-tale signs that it’s time to visit our Brisbane tyre centre and get your wheels aligned

Tyres can last tens of thousands of kilometres if they are treated right and you look after them. As I discussed a short while ago, you can save your life and your money by proper tyre rotation. The same can be said for wheel alignment: when your wheels are properly aligned, you’ll notice the difference in handling, fuel consumption, and on the life of your tyres. But how do you know it’s time to head to our Brisbane tyre centre to get your wheels aligned?

4 signs it’s time to get your wheels aligned

There are some classic signs that you are suffering from bad wheel alignment:

1. Uneven wear: indicated by different patterns of wear on front and back tyres of nearside and offside tyres.

2. Steering is pulling: if you find that you are beginning to wrestle with the steering wheel to stay in a straight line, the wheel alignment is probably the cause. A less aggressive pull – when you’re on a road, and the car gently pulls one way or the other – is an early warning signal.

3. Car vibration: if you’re driving along and the car starts to judder and the steering wheel vibrate, then wheel alignment is again the most likely cause.

4. Misaligned steering wheel: if your steering wheel is crooked when you’re driving in a straight line, it’s time to get your wheels aligned.

The benefits of keeping the wheels aligned correctly

According to RACV’s cost of motoring study, a properly fitted and correctly aligned set of wheels should last 45,000 kilometres. With an average mileage of 45,000 kilometres per year, your tyres should be good for three years. It’s recommended that you check if your wheels are properly aligned once a year (or every 15,000 kilometres) to make certain that you get maximum wear. If you do this, then you will:

1. satisfy tyre warranties
2. improve the handling of your car
3. reduce wear and tear on the steering column and other engine parts
4. get better fuel consumption

If you’re unsure if it’s time to get your wheels aligned, then err on the side of caution and have them checked by a professional at our Brisbane tyre centre. Doing so could save more than a few kilometres every litre of fuel: better handling equals a safer drive.

If you’d like to know more about tyre maintenance, or get a free quote on wheel alignment, give us a call on 3333 5510.

Cheers,

Kevin Wood

How to Buy the Best Tyres for your Car

Make sure you always buy the best tyres for your car,

You stand there, looking at the range of car tyres on offer. And there are plenty. Do you buy a Michelin, or a Bridgestone, or a Pirelli? Seriously, it’s not an easy decision to make. There are so many different styles, tread patterns, sizes, compounds, and making head and tail of the performance statistics can be a little like doing a fiendish Sudoku… you get so far and then get lost. So what are the best tyres for your car?

On my travels I see plenty of vehicles with the wrong car tyres. It makes me cringe. I see some cars with expensive car tyres that are unnecessary, and others where safety appears to have been of no concern to the owner. So here are my tips on how to make sure you buy the best tyres for your car:

Think about the car you’re driving

If you’ve got a high performance car, or a large, powerful engine, you’ll need to have car tyres that are suitable to the power. Smaller and more economic engines don’t need the same grip to work with the lesser traction when you put your foot on the accelerator or brake pedals.

A bonus tip here is to upgrade your spare. Most new cars today only supply a space saver spare tyre. This is okay to drive a few kilometres before you can buy a new tyre, but you never know where the next tyre shop will be.

Think about how you drive

This might be the one consideration that most people give no thought. How you drive is a big determinant as to car tyre wear and tear. A friend of mine has two identical cars – one for him and one for his wife. His tyres last twice as long as hers. She drives faster and brakes harder.

He kept complaining about the tyre wear, so we suggested a change. The tyres are a little more expensive, but his wife drives several thousand more kilometres on them than she did on her old ones. My friend keeps telling me that he owes me a schooner or two to say thanks.

Think about the road conditions

I could easily have spoken about the weather here, and I’d be right to do so, but the weather and road conditions are interlinked.  All weather tyres will cover you through all seasons and in the torrential rain we sometimes suffer here. Or, if you want to up your on-road performance you might decide to change your car tyres as the weather changes and the road conditions alter.

Think about your budget

I’ve deliberately put this as the last of my tips on how to buy the right car tyres. Unfortunately, most people think about their budget first without regard to getting the best and safest tyres for their car and style of driving. It’s decision making the wrong way round.

Always think about your car, driving style, and conditions in which you do most of your driving before thinking about cost. You’ll find that your choice will be less bewildering, and that there will be car tyres to suit your budget and ensure your safety.

Call us today on 3375 3566, and we’ll be happy to discuss your car tyres with you. We’ll make sure that you get the best for you, and that you don’t overstretch your budget. It’s kind of our mission in life!

Keeping your family and fleet safely on the road,

Kevin and Darra Team

Cut your heavy vehicle fuel consumption with Bridgestone tyres

Reduced fuel costs and lower emissions are a win/win for fleet service

Here at Darra, we’re always looking to help our clients stay safe and reduce costs. A couple of weeks ago, we posted about fleet tyre services that reduce fuel costs. Today we’re looking at the new additions to Bridgestone’s Ecopia tyre range that has got our juices flowing since they were introduced. Not only do these Bridgestone tyres reduce costs, but they’re also good for the environment, too. That’s a big win/win… and we love the double wins!

Tried and tested Bridgestone tyres

Since its introduction in 2013, Bridgestone’s Ecopia range has proved its credentials. It has now added four new sizes to the range, covering both drive and trailer. This means that Ecopia tyres can be used by up to 95% of the drive and trailer market. In an interview with tradetrucks.com, Andrew Moffat, the MD responsible for sales of Bridgestone tyres in Australia and New Zealand said:

“The key factor here is that we are consistently seeing fuel savings of up to six per cent. This reduction is beneficial to both operators and the environment.”

We couldn’t agree more. The industry is coming under increasingly strict regulations in a world that are becoming increasingly concerned about the environment. If green is the way to go, then Ecopia tyres are certainly proving their worth.

Ecopia’s low resistance leads to lower fuel consumption

The design of Ecopia tyres helps to reduce resistance on the tarmac. This helps haulage and trucking companies to get more mileage and reduce fuel consumption. The knock on benefit is a huge cut in CO2 emissions.

In a market where your customers are likely to have their own carbon targets and want to promote their own green credential to their customers, being able to offer a fleet that uses less fuel and stamps a smaller carbon footprint is another positive toward clinching the next big haulage contract.

A good track record with Bridgestone tyres

Bridgestone is the world’s largest tyre manufacturer and one of the largest suppliers to Australia’s automotive industry. They’re certainly one of the most popular manufacturers here at Darra.

We’ve been supplying Bridgestone tyres for years, and this expansion of the Ecopia range is going to benefit our fleet and heavy vehicle customers.

A tip from heavy vehicle tyre customers is to put in place a good tyre maintenance program to reduce your fuel consumption costs. This will also make sure that you, your drivers, and other road users benefit from better safety on the roads. Give us a call on 3333 5510 to find out more, or to get a quote.

Keeping your family and fleet safely on the road,

Kevin and The team at Darra Tyres

Save your Life and Protect your Quality Tyres with Good Rotation

Rotate tyres to make big gains

Tyre experts – and this includes tyre manufacturers – all say that tyre rotation should be on the list of general car maintenance. But what is tyre rotation, and why should you rotate tyres? Read this to learn how to protect your quality tyres.

Reasons to rotate quality tyres

When you rotate tyres, you reduce uneven wear. There are a number of reasons that tyres wear unevenly, including:

1. When you drive around a corner, the front tyres wear more on the outside ‘leading edges’. The faster you drive round corners, the greater the lean and the worse the wear. The rear tyres don’t suffer from the same forces, and so wear more evenly when cornering.

2. If your tyres are poorly aligned, you’ll also suffer from uneven wear on the tread. You’ll know that your alignment is out if the:

• tyres are wearing unevenly
• vehicle pulls to one side
• steering wheel isn’t centred when you’re driving in a straight line
• steering wheel vibrates when driving

(I’ll talk some more about tyre alignment in a future post)

3. Some people come in with tyres that are worn on both sides (shoulders). This is caused by under-inflation.

4. If your tyre is wearing straight down the middle, your tyre is overinflated.

5. Other tyre wear patterns that we see include an uneven wear across the tyre at regular or irregular intervals, or in spots. If this is the sort of wear that your tyres are suffering, then you’ve most likely got a mechanical problem (it could be related to suspension or unbalanced wheels, for example). Or it could be that you simply brake hard and fast all the time.

The risks and costs of uneven tyre wear

If tyres aren’t maintained well (and this includes tyre rotation practices), it will increase the costs of motoring and the risks of being involved in an accident:

1. Poor alignment reduces steering ability and cuts the life of your tyres
2. Underinflated tyres can reduce tyre life by 15% or 20%, and makes your engine work harder. That’s going to add to your fuel bill and increase engine maintenance costs
3. Overinflated tyres reduce grip on the road, make your brakes work harder, and increases the risk of blowout

There are a number of strategies you could use to reduce tyre wear. For example, you could drive only in a straight line, never taking a corner or bend. Or you might drive real slow around corners.

More practical strategies include regular checks on tyre pressure and a tyre rotation strategy combined with wheel alignment.

What should you do when you rotate tyres?

To rotate tyres properly, you’ll need to remove all tyres from your vehicle and move them to different positions. How you do this depends on the type of vehicle you’re driving and the wear that you’re experiencing.

When you reposition the tyres, you should check tyre pressures and adjust as necessary.

Finally, brakes and alignment should be checked (it’s easier to check brakes when the tyres have been removed).

The benefits of tyre rotation

By instigating a ‘rotate tyres regularly’ policy, you will find you suffer less wear on treads. That will lead to lower costs of tyre changes, better fuel consumption, and, most importantly, a safer and more balanced driving experience.

If you’d like to know more about tyre maintenance, or how the tyres on your vehicle should be rotated, give us a call on 3333 5510.

Keeping your family and fleet safely on the road,

The team at Darra Tyres

Fitting Quality tyres – How to reduce the threat of aquaplaning

What you believe about fitting quality tyres is probably wrong

If you’ve ever found yourself caught in the rain or on a wet road and having to apply the brakes, you’ll know the fear that aquaplaning can cause. And rightly so, too. An aquaplaning accident can be devastating. Spinal injuries are common outcomes, as is brain damage. The most common reason for loss of control on wet roads is poor quality tyres or wrongly fitted tyres.

But do you know the correct way of fitting new tyres?

The myths of fitting new tyres

All of the followings are myths surrounding fitting new tyres:

• It’s natural to think that on front wheel drive vehicles, new tyres should be fitted on the front. After all, that where all the power, grip, and steering happens.
• Most people want the best grip on the axle that provides the drive. Unfortunately, in wet conditions or on slippery roads, it’s more dangerous to have the back end skidding than the front.
• Blowouts are more manageable if they happen on the rear. This might be true, but blowouts generally don’t happen because of a lack of tread. They are usually caused by something on the road. Also, what is most likely: a blowout or aquaplaning?

If you follow these myths of fitting new tyres, you’d fit the best tread at the front every time. You’d be wrong to do so.

Now for the facts

• Front tyres wear more quickly than rear tyres, so rotating every few thousand kilometres helps even out wear of tyre tread.
• Most of us don’t rotate tyres, and so the front tyres wear first. We then replace these like-for-like.
• The tyres with least tread will begin aquaplaning first.
• It is easier to control an aquaplaning vehicle when it is the front tyres that have begun to aquaplane first.

What the manufacturers of quality tyres say

It’s natural to think that the tyres with the most wear should be replaced like-for-like, but all the major tyre manufacturers warn against doing so. Here’s what a few of them say:

Goodyear: “When radial tires are used with bias or bias-belted tires on the same car, the radials must always be placed on the rear axle. Never mix radial and bias-ply tires on the same axle. When you select a pair of replacement tires in the same size and construction as those on the car, we recommend you put them on the rear axle. A single new tire should be paired on the rear axle with the tire having the most tread depth of the other three.”

Bridgestone: “If winter tires are applied to the front axle of any vehicle, they must also be installed on the rear. Do not apply winter tires to only the front axle — this applies to all passenger cars and light trucks, including front wheel drive, 4×4 and all-wheel drive vehicles.“

Dunlop: “Put new tyres on the rear axle: for better traction and stability when you drive.”

Michelin: “A pair of new tyres should go in back.”

Wherever your vehicle needs new tyres, always insist on tyre rotation and the new tyres to be fitted to the rear axle. It might cost a few dollars more, but it could just save your life.

To benefit from a great service and safe fitting call Darra on 3333 5510. Our guarantee is your safety.

Yours in family and fleet safety,

Kevin and the team

Sketchy Tyre Dealers could pose a toxic fire risk in Queensland

Green tape was removed, but has it caused a bigger headache for Brisbane?

Waste tyre regulations were changed in Queensland by the Newman government, but they could pose a real threat of fire. When they were updated, the reasoning was to remove so-called ‘green tape’. But the change has simply allowed unlicensed tyre dealers to gather huge piles of tyres before they send them to be recycled.

Even worse, there are concerns that some businesses have been collecting a fee for collection without any intention of recycling – and that poses problems in more ways than one.

Tyre fires burn for days

If one of these tyre piles should go up in flames, the fire is likely to last days and send huge plumes of toxic smoke into the local atmosphere. One operator flouting the tyre regulations is known to have a stockpile in two sites in Brisbane and Logan – if either of these goes up, the result could be devastating for local residents and the local environment.

To see how bad a tyre fire in a stockpile this size could be, you only to look toward Castilla-La Mancha, near Madrid in Spain, where a tyre fire raged for days recently. There, a tyre dump went up in flames causing 10,000 people to be evacuated from their homes. The illegal dump – which ignored EU tyre regulations – was the size of ten rugby fields, and the massive black cloud carrying toxic fumes billowed hundreds of metres. It is estimated that now the fire has been extinguished there are still 30,000 tonnes of tyres remaining.

Thankfully, none of the illegal tyre dumps in Queensland are that big – yet.

Fire is not the only threat from unlicensed tyre dealers and their illegal tyre dumps

While fire is the most obvious threat, a 2015 report detailing illegal dumping and stockpiling of waste tyres in Brisbane (and published by the Boomerang Alliance) highlighted the likelihood that these dumps are becoming breeding grounds for mosquitos. That report found seven such dumps that posed a mosquito plague threat to local residents.

The Boomerang Alliance made some recommendations, including eliminating the misleading ‘suitable operator permit’ from the new regulatory approach and enforcing illegal dumping provisions.

Here at Darra, we believe that all tyres should be disposed of with safety in mind. We only use bonafide recycling operators to dispose of waste tyres. This means our customers can rest assured that we have their safety in mind when we fit their tyres and beyond.

To benefit from a great service, safe fitting, and safe waste tyre disposal, call Darra on 3333 5510. Our guarantee is your safety. And when it comes to safety and tyre regulations, we take nothing more seriously.

Keeping your family and fleet safely on the road,

The team at Darra Tyres.

New Tyre Size – Square Tyres, What will Pommys Think of Next?

6,000 miles on a flat

I’m guessing when the Pommies say “It could only happen in America” they don’t think about any of the strange events in Britain, like an airplane landing on a square tyre. That’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago at Heathrow when an Airbus A380 flying from Hong Kong landed at Britain’s busiest airport after suffering a loss of tyre pressure in Hong Kong.

Here at Darra we thought we had worked with every tyre going. But we guarantee we’ve never seen a square tyre. Whatever vehicle we’ve fitted with tyres – be it crane tyres, earthmover tyres, commercial tyres, fleet tyres, and so on – we have never, ever, not once, fitted a square tyre.

So what did happen to the A380 tyre?

The pilot received a loss of pressure warning as he was taking off from Hong Kong, but chose to ignore it. (That’s either a very brave call, in which case he must have been an Aussie pilot. Or a very dumb call, in which case the British Airways pilot might very well have been Pom, I guess!)

One airline pilot ventured that the tyre may have detached from the wheel on landing. He said, “The tyres are pressurised to around seven times that of a car tyre. Once depressurised the tyre will have ‘flatted’ while the aircraft was braking and once it did so it would then rotate through 90 degrees to another part of the tyre and then do it again — hence the four flats you see.”

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)  spokesperson said that it had never seen anything like it before. However, the CAA and other pilots didn’t seem overly concerned about the problem square tyre. One even said, “Is it dangerous? No. To lose one is no big deal.”

Don’t risk loss of tyre pressure on the road and never try out this new tyre size!

Though the thoughts of the CAA and other pilots might seem nonchalant, you can kind of see their point: the plane did have 17 other tyres to rely on. Having said that, we wouldn’t suggest that you risk having a loss of tyre pressure. Most road vehicles only have three other tyres to carry them through a journey safely, losing one is going to be mighty dangerous.

If you’ve ever seen a square tyre before, we’d love to hear about it. Meanwhile, stay safe and have your tyres checked regularly. Give us a call today on 3333 5510 to guarantee you don’t suffer a Pommy blow out. We’d rather you use our mobile service than be caught out while you’re working or travelling.

Keeping your family and fleet safely on the road,

The team at Darra Tyres.