Do You Know How to Drive If Your Tire Goes Flat?

When a tire goes flat or completely comes apart while you’re driving at highway speed, you can catch even the most experienced driver off guard.

Here’s what to do if it happens to you, along with a checklist for preventing flats.

How Can You Prevent Flat Tires?

Avoid tire failure by following these easy tips.

1. Check tire pressure monthly, including the spare.


2. Slow down if you have to drive over a pothole or other object in the road.


3. Don’t run over curbs or other foreign objects in the roadway, and try not to hit or rub the curb when parking.


4. Inspect tires for uneven wear patterns on the tread, cracks, foreign objects, or other signs of wear or trauma.


5. Remove any stones, bits of glass or other foreign objects wedged in the tread.


6. Make sure your tire valves have caps.


7. When carrying heavy loads, you should be extra careful about proper tire pressure. Overloading and low tire pressure can cause a tire to overheat, leading to tire failure.

How to Have a Happy, Safe Summer Road Trip

So you’re hitting the road for your favorite campsite, fishing hole, theme park or beach rental. Here are 17 summer driving reminders to keep you, your passengers and fellow travelers safer on highways and byways.

• Make sure your vehicle is safe and road-ready with this checklist.
• Buckle up every time.
• Put kids 13 and younger in the back seat. No exceptions.
• Inflate tires properly. Proper inflation is important for safety and can save you up to 9 cents per gallon through better fuel efficiency.
• If you’re hauling, use a safety chain for trailers and inspect your hitch whenever you stop.
• Check blind zones before backing up. Trucks, SUVs, RVs and vans are more likely than cars to be involved in backovers.

• Remember to add clearance for trailers, campers, bike racks and roof racks. It’s easy to forget your extra height or length.
• Add following distance. A fully loaded vehicle needs more stopping time.
• Add extra following distance for motorcycles. They can stop much quicker, in shorter distances.
• Slow down if there’s a sudden cloudburst to avoid hydroplaning.
• Never leave kids or animals in an unattended car, even with windows down or A/C on.
• Lock your vehicle when exiting.
• Don’t drive distracted. Don’t text or check your phone. Check out cell phone laws by state.
• Watch for pedestrians and cyclists on the shoulder. Warm weather means there are more sharing the road.

• Before driving, don’t take medications, alcohol or drugs that will impair you.
• Pull over if you get drowsy.
• If you get stranded without a roadside assistance policy, call an on-demand roadside service.

Environmental Leadership at Les Schwab

Les Schwab takes pride in being involved in local communities and environments. Environmental stewardship has always been a focus of Les Schwab’s strategies, and we continue to develop new ways to lead the way with environmentally conscious policies in the retail tire industry. Here are some of our current efforts.

Lead Removal

The wheels on your vehicle are fitted with small weights to keep it balanced. In the past, those wheel weights were made of lead. Since 2009, our tire weights have been 100% lead-free, using steel instead. Additionally, we supported the development of laws in both California and Washington to ban lead wheel weights altogether.

Tire Recycling

When you buy new tires from Les Schwab, we send many of your old tires off to be recycled. Some of the more common uses for that rubber include gym flooring, workout and playground mats, truck bed liners, and fuel for generating electricity.

Battery Repurposing

You know Les Schwab offers free battery checks, free charging, and free charging system inspections, but what you might not know is that we work with a supplier to repurpose up to 99% of the materials found in dead batteries. It’s an easy step that keeps toxic materials out of landfills.

Retreading

Adding new soles to a nice pair of shoes is just like retreading a tire — in a manner of speaking. Retreading truck tires extends the life of the tire casing. In some cases, we can retread tires multiple times. This can help save energy and resources. It can also save you some money.

Improving Brake Pads

Copper is amazing at dissipating heat, which is why the metal has been used in brake pads for decades. It really is the best option. However, as you use your brakes, that copper grinds down to dust, ending up on the roads, which can eventually contaminate lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

To minimize these effects, we worked with brake manufacturers to reduce the amount of copper used in brake pads without affecting performance. Today, we’re proud to say that we adhere to these strict minimums in our entire line of brake pads, despite the fact that many states do not enforce these easy, earth-friendly guidelines.

Planning Ahead

At Les Schwab, we’ve been working hard to minimize our environmental impact on the planet. Some of our changes include xeriscaping the grounds of our corporate headquarters and many of our tire center locations, employing LEED architectural initiatives in our new construction, updating our truck fleet for increased fuel efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and recycling fluids whenever possible.

Let’s Work Together

There are things you can do on your vehicle that can both save you money and help the environment. These include: checking your tire’s air pressure and keeping your vehicle aligned. When you have your tires properly inflated, you’ll improve your vehicle’s fuel efficiency, and when properly aligned, your vehicle will run more efficiently, burn less fuel, and could last longer. Stop by Les Schwab and we’ll check your tire pressure and car alignment for free.

Together, we can help care for the environment and go about our daily lives. That includes your commute, as well as trips to the store, after-school sports, and outdoor adventures. Stop by your local Les Schwab to add some environmental consciousness as well as decades of safety expertise to your next trip.