A five-minute tyre check before you load the car prevents most road-trip breakdowns. A long, fully loaded drive is exactly when a marginal tyre lets go, so it pays to look at tread, pressures and condition before you set off, while you can still do something about it. Here's the checklist worth running before any weekend away.
Why check before a trip
Road trips combine the things that stress tyres: high mileage, a heavy load, sustained speed and often hot or cold extremes. A tyre that copes fine with short local trips can struggle under those conditions. Catching a low pressure, a worn tyre or a hidden nail at home is a two-minute job; discovering it on the hard shoulder is a ruined day.
The five-minute checklist
The UK tyre safety charity TyreSafe boils a good check down to three things, the ACT check: Air pressure, Condition and Tread depth.
- Tread: do the 20p test on all four tyres, including the inner edges. The legal minimum is 1.6mm across the central three quarters, see UK tread depth law.
- Pressure: set them cold to the recommended figure.
- Condition: look all round for cracks, bulges and embedded nails.
- Age: a quick glance for perished or very old tyres.
Don't forget the load
A full car of people and luggage weighs a lot more than your daily commute, and the tyres need more pressure to support it. Use the higher "laden" figure on your door placard for a loaded trip, or the tyres will be effectively under-inflated, which raises heat and blowout risk on a long, fast drive.
Check the spare or kit
The one tyre everyone forgets is the spare, which is often flat or perished when you finally need it, see spare vs repair kit. Check its pressure and condition, or make sure your repair kit is in date. A working get-you-going option is worth having before a trip away from home.
Pre-trip fit at home
If your check turns up a worn or damaged tyre, we'll replace it at your home before you leave, across the UK, so you set off on tyres you can trust. Book a pre-trip check.
