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when is someone going to invent an easier way to inflate car tyres?
Comments
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surely i'm not alone in feeling that inflating my car tyres is a crucial yet so tedious job.
when is someone going to invent a drive through machine where you can get it done without getting out of your car?
We do that at our little tyre garage. Air is always free here FOR EVERYONE and we do it all for you - even if you're not a customer of ours. It's something we've always done, it's a small town and a large percentage of the popluation are elderly and dislike having to use the petrol station air pumps. It takes hardly any time (quick check of the tyre size, quick check of the chart) and doesn't cost us anything to do so we're happy to continue doing it. I think it's one of those courtesy services you used to get a lot at garages going back to the fifties and sixties.
Because we're in the town centre (rather than on a retail estate like a lot of tyre garages) people pop in regularly when they're coming to do their shopping or going to the bank.
We all know it's a good habit to be in - correct tyre pressure increases tyre life and fuel economy!
We even get the odd tractor in to pump up the tyres!
You can get valve caps with a spring loaded end where you just push the guage over the top and inflate through them. However, they can get stuck down and deflate your tyre and probably save you about ten seconds per wheel...Would LOVE to win:
A hamper - any sort! A goody bag - any sort! A UK mini-break. A year's supply of something foodie. Anything Sci-Fi related
2013 wins - Cutting Room book, Rock n Rose necklace, £50 M&S voucher, Greggs coffee, £70 voucher for a Onesie0 -
Friends who are both getting on a bit and find bending down difficult have their car and caravan tyres filled with a gas here in France and only have the tyres checked once a year by the specialist tyre supplier.0
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knightstyle - what do you mean with a gas?
to the commenter who said that you don't need to check it often - i find that you should check it every couple of weeks. about once a month. the pressure usually goes down, and the difference when you fill it up again can be quite significant. most car manuals recommend every week.
to the commenters that think it is too lazy - well, if we have a brain, we might as well use it to make things easier and more convenient for us. this seems like one of the things, that people, including myself, dread. especially when it is cold outside. I suspect that making this easier and quicker, even if just a few seconds, would give a psychological edge, and encourage a lot of people to do it more. Also, there are old people, and those with knee and back injuries, that just don't find it easy or doable. Yet it's quite a crucial thing, especially for handling and fuel consumption. The manual says it should be done every week, so if you go by that - that's 52 times a year. I think some thought should be given to that. Places like japan are just so easy to live in, in this respect, as they put so much thought and care into how day to day trivialities can be passed through as smoothly and quickly as possible.
to those who talked about attendants and car garages doing it automatically - yeh, i do miss those days. it would actually be a good idea.0 -
surely i'm not alone in feeling that inflating my car tyres is a crucial yet so tedious job.
when is someone going to invent a drive through machine where you can get it done without getting out of your car?
or valves that you dont have to manually take off, or at least screw off?
Michelin invented the Tweel, which does away with air altogether
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/tweel-airless-tire.htm0 -
knightstyle - what do you mean with a gas?
to the commenter who said that you don't need to check it often - i find that you should check it every couple of weeks. about once a month. the pressure usually goes down, and the difference when you fill it up again can be quite significant. most car manuals recommend every week.
to the commenters that think it is too lazy - well, if we have a brain, we might as well use it to make things easier and more convenient for us. this seems like one of the things, that people, including myself, dread. especially when it is cold outside. I suspect that making this easier and quicker, even if just a few seconds, would give a psychological edge, and encourage a lot of people to do it more. Also, there are old people, and those with knee and back injuries, that just don't find it easy or doable. Yet it's quite a crucial thing, especially for handling and fuel consumption. The manual says it should be done every week, so if you go by that - that's 52 times a year. I think some thought should be given to that. Places like japan are just so easy to live in, in this respect, as they put so much thought and care into how day to day trivialities can be passed through as smoothly and quickly as possible.
to those who talked about attendants and car garages doing it automatically - yeh, i do miss those days. it would actually be a good idea.
You can check your tyes at home with a pressure gauge (which will be more accurate than the garage ones) and it will only take a minute or two. You shouldnt neeed to put air in that often as others have said if you do then you have a leak which you should get sorted.0 -
Gordon_Hose wrote: »Soon... we won't have to get out of our cars for anything. We won't be able to get out of our cars because we've got so fat, we're now stuck fast.
Seriously though, how hard is it to inflate 4 tyres? lol
I read a MAD comic in the 70s. It had acomic strip of americans driving around in their big sedans. They had little davits on th eboot to hold a "moped" so that they didn't have to walk any where when they pulled up. Itshowed them with little legs looking like weebles , then the ruskies and chinks came over and pushed them around:D
Seriously Renault used to have some form of tyre pressure monitor in some of their wheels. Like most thing Renault (so I have read)I don't think it was too reliable."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Didn't there used to be a thing that fuelled your car, checked the oil water and tyres.
If I can remember correctly it was called an attendent, done away in order to reduce the price of the fuel, oh no got that wrong, it was to increase the profits of the fuel station
In the 60's when I was an apprentice I worked on the pumps to supplement my wages and we did all of the above
Yeah I used to do that as a part time job whilst at school. 4 of us on a shift. Black cabs and Land Rovers with the heavy duty basket filler being the worst to fill up.
Our air pipe was outside the canopy.
Still remember the cute little grandma/pa who would expect you to "just check the tyres" when it was hissing down
bless 'em. "If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
Anyone tried these tyre pressure caps? They look pretty handy, but I imagine they would get nicked pretty quickly!0
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I can confirm that these do get pinched, not by motorists, but by kids for their bikes. We got a fleet of vehicles at work that had those supplied as a driver aid. I think most of them were gone in a week!ridethelightning wrote: »Anyone tried these tyre pressure caps? They look pretty handy, but I imagine they would get nicked pretty quickly!0 -
knightstyle - what do you mean with a gas?
to the commenter who said that you don't need to check it often - i find that you should check it every couple of weeks. about once a month. the pressure usually goes down, and the difference when you fill it up again can be quite significant. most car manuals recommend every week.
to the commenters that think it is too lazy - well, if we have a brain, we might as well use it to make things easier and more convenient for us. this seems like one of the things, that people, including myself, dread. especially when it is cold outside. I suspect that making this easier and quicker, even if just a few seconds, would give a psychological edge, and encourage a lot of people to do it more. Also, there are old people, and those with knee and back injuries, that just don't find it easy or doable. Yet it's quite a crucial thing, especially for handling and fuel consumption. The manual says it should be done every week, so if you go by that - that's 52 times a year. I think some thought should be given to that. Places like japan are just so easy to live in, in this respect, as they put so much thought and care into how day to day trivialities can be passed through as smoothly and quickly as possible.
to those who talked about attendants and car garages doing it automatically - yeh, i do miss those days. it would actually be a good idea.
Knightstyle I assume means a nitrogen fill up which many tyre places offer now. Look up the chemical make up of the air we breathe and then see whether you think pure nitrogen is a money making con...
Most modern cars are considerably easier to look after and check these days in general, however a manual check of water oil and tyre pressure is still good practice especially before a long journey etc
Hope we won't go the full way of the US and have drive through everything and end up with a bulk of teh population so obese they can't tie their own shoes or have to wear elasticated trousers0
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