Tires cost the owner about the same as the car if he does much running. In a general sense the set of four tires used on any car bears a certain proportion to the selling price of the car. On the cheaper makes of cars the tires cost new approximately $60 per set. They increase in price in direct ratio to the price of the car. They are usually guaranteed for five thousand miles, and as the average owner makes at least ten thousand miles per year, he uses up two sets of tires. Taking three years as the average time the owner will keep the car before trading it in, would mean six sets of tires. Taking the car which uses the $60 set and we find that six sets of tires would cost $360, or pretty near the first cost of the car. Few owners give consideration to this fact.
Another way of figuring the cost of tires is that in upkeep expense tires figure for one-third of the total, gasoline and oil for another third, and wear and tear on the car the remainder. Upon this basis the owner should give one-third of the total care to the tires. But few, if any, do.
When the car is stored for the winter, or for any length of time at any other season, the car should be jacked up and the tires deflated until the pressure is less than half the normal. Where the car cannot be left jacked up the tires should be removed from the car and hung up high and dry where there will be neither extremes of heat nor cold, though heat is more injurious than cold.
It is good practice, if, on coming to the garage, it is found that one or more tires are deflated below normal and there is no time to pump them up, to lift the weight off the tire with jack or otherwise, so that the strain will be removed from the walls of the tire between the rim and the floor or ground.
Do not put tires where they will be subject to strong sunlight, which decomposes the rubber. Oil and grease left on the surface do the same thing. Clean the tires of mud and grease after every trip. Keep the small cuts healed and the big blisters will not occur.
Make friends with the vulcanizer and take his advice as to repair of your tires. That’s his business. If too far from a vulcanizer, buy a small outfit and spoil a few casings and tubes learning how to do the small jobs, and send the big ones to the shop by express.
Remember in mending tubes and casings that cleanliness is before godliness. You may be a perfect church member, but if you do not observe perfect cleanliness the mend will not stick and in the end may lose you your church membership by provoking you to violent words.
Throw away the valve insides every once in a while on general principles and put in new ones. Learn how to test the tubes by dipping them under water when inflated and looking for air bubbles. Test the valve the same way, at the same time. Bubbles may indicate why the tire will not keep pumped hard.
Rubber is porous to a slight degree and you must expect loss of air from that cause both in the tires on the wheels and that held in reserve. Make sure of the pressure by the tire gauge.