In many ways, your standard personal land vehicles have a lot in common with trains. They use engines, they move on wheels – it’s easy to think of a car as just a very small train, when it comes down to it. But there are a lot of crucial differences, and one of the most obvious ones is that trains need rails.
Why do trains need rails? Well, if you have a look at the wheels of a train, you’ll notice that they don’t have any tyres. In fact, they have little friction, so they can very easily roll and slide along the tracks. This is what allows them to be used by bodybuilders and strength athletes in train-pulling competitions: with enough force, a powerful human can pull a train along the tracks.
Fully Inflated Tyres are Safe
Other vehicles, like cars and 4WDs, are built for the road, and designed to be capable of travelling off-road too. A train can’t move off the tracks, because its wheels can’t grip the ground. But if you’re going on an adventure in your 4WD, or just driving down the street, you need to be able to push off the ground. And that means that you need tyres.
Importantly, you need your tyres to be properly inflated. Under-inflated or overinflated tyres don’t have the right amount of traction, and are prone to either gliding over roads (especially wet roads) or getting dragged against the surface of the ground, which wears out the tyres. A Tyre Pressure Monitoring System ensures that you always know whether or not your tyres are properly inflated. Specialised tyre sensors measure the pressure levels in your tyres, and a light will go on, alerting you when those pressure levels are outside the recommended range for your vehicle.
Under Inflated Tyres Could Increase Fuel Costs?
With a TPMS, you’re able to take swift action as soon as your tyre pressure isn’t what you want it to be. That means you won’t be driving on improperly inflated tyres, wearing your tyres out faster and wasting fuel. If your tyres aren’t inflated properly, you’ll have various safety risks including longer stopping distances, poorer handling, and an increased chance of blowouts. So get a tyre pressure monitor to avoid these risks and ensure that your tyres are healthy and that you’re always ready to drive. That way you won’t get caught taking the train.