Safety Tips for Summer Vacation

With summer approaching and already arriving for most, next will come traveling.. and with traveling comes lots and lots of driving!

My friend Anjanette over at MommaYoung & Friends has some excellent travel tips for your vacation and weekends away!

Safety First:

Make sure everyone, children, parents, grandparents, and even the dog is buckled up! (They sell some great dog harnesses for your travels with your furry friends!)

But what about simple things like the condition of our vehicle and the tires we are driving on?  I was going to give my thoughts on it, but here are some tips from tire expert and Michelin subjective test driver, Sarah K. Robinson.

• Check you tire pressure – Check your tire pressure at least once a month and before and after a long trip.  Tires can lose 1-2 psi per month.
• Examine your treads – Always make sure your tires have at least 2/32” of tread depth (the penny trick). Examine the wear patterns; the wear patterns can tell you whether your tires are over or under inflated and if your alignment is off.
• Avoid hydroplaning – Simple adjustments to driving including reducing your speed and avoiding wet spots, especially standing water can reduce your risk of hydroplaning.
• Rotate – Tires should be rotated every 6,000-8,000 miles.
• Keep deepest treads in the rear – Make sure when replacing just two tires that you put the two tires with the deepest treads on the rear axle regardless, whether you have front-wheel, rear-wheel or all-wheel drive.

About Sarah K. Robinson – As the first female test driver at Michelin North America, Sarah K. Robinson is paving a new road for women in the automotive world. Robinson’s current responsibilities as a subjective test driver for Michelin include evaluating tire performance in both objective (e.g., wet braking) and subjective tests (e.g., wet and dry handling, noise) then delivering her results to Michelin’s designers and engineers to ensure the best possible tire is brought to market. She also develops and coordinates all visitor demonstrations, product launches and promotional activities occurring at Michelin’s test track, Laurens Proving Grounds (LPG) in Greenville, South Carolina.