Evening star., 1937-02-14
CASUALTY REPORTS ON NIGHT DRIVING SOUND LIz
YOU AND Y0URCAR
AIDED BY RUSSELL
Underinflation Causes Most
of Spotty Irregular Wear
on Front Tires.
BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL.


BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL
Safety would take q new lease on
life II about 5 per cent of the oper-
ators would Immediately abdicate the
drivers seat.
Believe the tire man when he tells
you that most Of that spotty, irregular
wear on the front tires Is due to UNDER
imitation. You can reason it out for
yourself, especially II the center Of
the tread remains quite normal. A
tire that says has to support too much
weight on the edges of its tread. This
spares the center, but overworks the
edges. The reason for the spotty wear
is simply that the wheels 60 through
certain amount of dancing, plus
shimmy action.
confess to have lost many thou
sands Of miles Of front tire service by
not making a habit of checking the
tires certain day every week.
Covers Still in Vogue.
While there are many cases where
different thermostat is needed to
raise the efficiency of the cars heater.
one Of the simplest aids to more
warmth from a hot-water heating
system Is to cover a portion Of the
radiator grille. This raises the tenn
perature of the entire heating system,
improving the efficiency of the engine
as well as that of the heater.
The usual remedy for inefficient
heating Is to install a thermostat
which opens at a higher temperature.
Preferably this should be an adjust
able thermostat rather than one of
fixed degree Of opening. While such
thermostat helps the heater warm
up quicker, nevertheless there is
always marked drop in temperature
when it opens up and permits water
to circulate into the cold radiator.
A more logical solution is to increase
the temperature Of the entire system
by shielding the radiator from an
excess of cold air. There are this
year some very tailored covers which
solve this problem in way that makes
it unnecessary to resort to makeShift
covers of cardboard.
hccp wheel BONUS 1lknt.
Having a wheel nearly come of
probably isn't a common occurrence
in these days of safer cars, but it
happened to member of my family
with a car only 5000 miles old. so I
feel compelled to pass along a hint
or two. Perhaps my thoughts in
the matter would be most helpful If
I pointed out the importance of hav-
ing the wheels lacked up when in
specting the bolts which hold the
demountable wheel to the relatively
small hub. If the wheel Is on the
ground these bolts will seem tighter
than they really are.
If, for any reason, the bolts have
come loose. always inspect their threads
before screwing them in again.
Machanic Joe Speaking.
"It has been suggested that another
way to encourage better driving is
for the industry to popularize white
side-wall tires to point where low
prices will bring these tires within the
reach of all Nothing more quickly
shows up bad driving than the tell
tale marks of carelessness on such
tires. Dumping and scraping curbs
leave their plain marks on the white
walls and readily brand the driver as
one who docs not appreciate low care
lessness, even in parking, can effect
the alignment of the front wheels"
New Safety in Steering.
Just one reason why you should
have q new car this year Is the added
safety of improved steering. Few
motorists appreciate what danger
there is in their present cars, when
driving at road speed, by reason of
the fact that they were designed to
offer maximum ease in parking. Up
until recently car that was extremely
easy to put into tight spot along the
curb was likely to be a hard car to
hold to straight course on the open
road, especially if the road surface
was wavy and the wind was high.
The new steering security Is OBJ
tanned through making the steering
gear provide something approximate
ing dual ratio. It is harder to turn
the new cars away from the straight
ahead position, but very easy to swing
the front wheels when they are cut
for turn or for parking.