Your 4WDs tyres are your only point of contact to both the tracks, and the highway and neglected tyres can not only make your drive uncomfortable, but also can end up putting you, your families, and even other drivers in danger when the conditions become less than favorable!

The only way you can ensure your vehicle is up to scratch, is by keeping a regular eye on your tyres, and your tyre pressures – if you aren’t sure what you are looking for stick around, we are going to cover the basics of tyre maintenance and inspection to ensure you are as safe as possible on the tracks and on the road!

TYRE PRESSURES!

This one is the easiest bit of vehicle maintenance you can perform – by making sure your tyres are inflated to the correct pressures that your vehicle manufacturer recommends, you ensure you have the best possible road holding ability when travelling at speed on the highway.

The Adventure Kings range of air compressor equipment includes both compressors and other high pressure air accessories. The Thumper MKII air compressor is one of the best value air compressors available on the market, capable of outputting 160L/min of high pressure air, it is even faster than many fuel station air hoses at bringing your tyres up to pressure, and all off the power from your 4WD’s battery!

Your tyres air pressure is critical to offroad performance, this also includes being too high pressure. When you are driving offroad, it is important to drop your pressures low enough to allow your sidewall to sag and more contact patch to be put to the track surface. By dropping your pressures around half what highway pressures are you INSTANTLY enable nearly 300% of the surface area to present itself to the track, making your tyres perform like caterpillar tracks. Whilst the concept seems simple, it is still critical that your tyres are all deflated to the same pressure, to ensure your vehicles balance is not compromised!

To make certain your tyres are dropped equally and quickly we recommend using an Adventure Kings Kwiky Tyre Deflator – this clever device removes the core of your tyres valve stem and allows you to quickly and in control dump all of the excess air out of your tyres getting all of those offroad gains EASILY!

INSPECTING AND REPAIRING DAMAGE!
After a quick wheel in the bush, or even during extended trips off (and on) the tarmac, you should routinely check your tyres tread for torn tread blocks, sidewall tears, damaged valve stems and any other issues that could cause blowouts when you high the highway!

Whilst your tyres may not be leaking air, it only takes a small increase in tyre pressure to make rubber explode, potentially causing you to catastrophically loose control of your 4WD.

There are a few rules of thumb with damaged tyres, when looking at sidewall damage, ALWAYS replace the tyre with your spare, its simply not worth risking it, if you have a puncture or tear in the tread surface things get simpler and, in many situations, you won’t even need to remove the tyre from the car to fix the issue.

With a Hercules Tyre Repair Kit you have stacks of ways to repair your tyres but the most useful out of all the options is the plugs, these are perfect for punctures. All you have to do is remove any debris from the puncture, you can use pliers if you need then clean out the hole with the kits included reamer, it may need some lubrication to assist (looks like a drill bit). Once the puncture is cleaned out you can insert a plug through the eye of the tool (looks like a giant sewing needle) and force the plug into the hole and remove the tool, the included knife can cut the excess off. This will easily stop leaks you never thought possible, hook up your air compressor and inflate your tyres back up to pressure!

Don’t let your tyres fall into disrepair, make sure before every trip that you have stacks of tread for mud clearing, and water evacuation on the road – These are your point of contact on the road and will keep your trips ending with smiles!