THE SCARY SIDEWALL INFORMATION

In this section we will discuss what the sidewall tells you !! I bet your tire salesman won't offer up this info freely!! you may have to pry it out.  Now lets generically explain.
Depending on your type of vehicle i.e. SUV, Pickup, Car, 18 Wheeler etc...there are many different applications for the different types of driving you doooo......
First lets take a good look at the DOT...(Department of Transportation) numbers. they will look like this: DOT OBX8 E20 (0410) OK I could go into a long technical term, but let's make it simple for ya. the first 4 alpha numeric numbers tell you where the tire was made, Bridgestone plant in dallas Tx. the middle numbers we will skip, being not important now, but the last four (0410) are VERY Important, they tell you WHEN the tire was made. in this case the tire was made the fourth week of 2010. (January 2010).  Why is this important?  the Department of transportation safety standards only allow a new tire that is up to 5 years old to be sold, for safety reasons, because the rubber starts to degrade after 5 yrs,  you have probably noticed this,  sidewall cracking, spider cracks all over the sidewalls. This is called dry rotting, and that is exactly what the tire is doing.

You would not put those tires on your Mini van or SUV and put your family at risk of injury,  at 70 miles per hour when the tire fails, you are in trouble.

But you will find that when you buy new tires, these are the first to be sold so the Dealer can get them off there books, and not have to (Write them Off) and take a loss.  Not all dealers are this way, there are a few good ones out there, I will tell you how to find them later.  So always buy a tire if it is 2 yrs old or newer.

P215/60R16 94S M&S  this is the tire size, speed rating and its classification
obviously P 215/60R16 is the size, 94S is the speed rating, which means the tire is rated upto 94 miles per hour. the S means passenger car.  M&S means mud and snow. this is standard on all non performance tires.

Treadwear, traction, and temperature ratings are important too. the lower the treadwear rating, the faster the tire wears out. and the higher the rating, the more mileage you will get out of it. the industry standard is around (380 to 400) between 70 thousand miles to 80 thousand miles.
TRACTION RATING, is usually (B) industry standard for non high performance tires.
high performance means Police cars and corvettes, you get the picture.
TEMPERATURE RATING is still a (B) rating this is still industry standard. temperature ratings of A are designed to stay cool at higher speeds, like police pursuits and sports cars.

We will get into more soon.  any questions email me at tiretruth@gmail.com
unitl next time........