Pressure drop, oh pressure, pressure’s gonna drop on you
And when it drops, you’re gonna feel it
You’ve been doing it wrong wrong wrong
We can’t guarantee that Toots and the Maytals were talking about tire pressure when they wrote “Pressure Drop” in 1969. But we’ve decided to adopt this song as our official anthem for tire inflation pressure anyway. After all, if the pressure drops in your tires, eventually you’re gonna feel it, and you’ll know that you’ve been doing it wrong. Unfortunately, by the time that happens your tires will be underperforming at best -- and worn out and unsafe at worst.
Tire pressure may seem like a little thing, and maybe even something you don’t have time to deal with -- but it really does have a significant effect on your vehicle's performance and safety. Checking your tire pressure once a month is one of the easiest ways to keep your tires in good shape. Plus, it can save you money in the long run by helping your tires wear evenly. Convinced yet?
Proper air pressure in a tire helps to distribute the weight of a vehicle evenly across the tire’s tread pattern, so the tire (and the vehicle) is at its most stable. When a tire is under-inflated or over-inflated, it loses stability, negatively affecting handling, cornering, and stopping. Eventually the tire will also start to wear unevenly. Under-inflated tires tend to show wear on the outside edges of the tread, while over-inflated tires show wear down the middle of the tread. Either way, incorrect inflation pressure = uneven wear = tires that wear out faster = less $$ in your pocket. Nobody wants that.