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Know the right and fit tires
The rubber at all four corners of your car is the only part of the vehicle that touches the ground, with four palm-sized contact patches depended on for traction. All the other components work to maximize their relationship with the tires.
Much attention is given to engine, brakes, and suspension when assessing a vehicle's dynamics. But the most crucial safety and performance component is the tires. With a two or even three-ton vehicle, not counting possible cargo or trailer, fitting the right tires for the job is important, with several options usually available in the factory and even more in the aftermarket industry.
There's much more to tires than the meets the eye. The right tires can bring an older car back to life, tighten up a sloppy riding and handling SUV, quell apprehension on a wet, curvy back road, and silently perform years of faithful service. The wrong tires, on the other hand, can make you think the shocks and bushings have failed, the alignment is out of speculation, the steering is demon-possessed, a band of screaming bobcats have taken up residence in the wheel wells, and the water on the road is a foot deep.
There are four main categories of tires. One is the Off-Road group. This features tires designed for rugged adventurers, wranglers, and rovers, which haul serious loads, down long trails through the wilderness in their 4x4s, trekking and scrambling across all type of terrain-mud, snow, rock, desert, and timber. The next group is the All-Terrain tires. These are engineered for solid on-road performance with added grip for dirt, snow, and wet surfaces, making them an appealing choice for occasional light-duty off-pavement excursions. Performance tires, on the other hand, are engineered to help SUVs and trucks achieve sport-sedan-like pavement traction, enabling maximum acceleration, braking, and handling, either from a premium vehicle or from a modified one.
Then there are highway tires for the rest of us, the tens of millions who settle for just projecting an image of freedom and excitement with a rugged, versatile vehicle that will never be pushed to its mechanical limits. Most consumers want a good pavement tire, with excellent wet-weather performance, good longevity, and low noise.
If you want to know more about your Ford tire maintenance, the site on Ford Tie Rod End will help you. A loose or worn tie rod will cause a feathered wear pattern on tires, and is probably the leading cause of rapid tire wear. Worn tie rod ends can be detected by raising the suspension and rocking the front wheel back and forth. If there is any free play, it probably means the tie rod ends are bad. Toe alignment must be reset once the new tie rods ends have been installed. You need to replace worn or defective originals to help restore safe smooth steering maintain front-end alignment and help prevent uneven tire wear.
About the Author: James Russel grew up in Los Angeles and is 35 years old. He works as a marketing analyst for a supplier of automotive parts in the United States. On his spare time, he loves to spruce up his vehicle.
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