Author: Neil Marritt

As you’re cruising down the highway, you probably don’t often think of your car’s tires. But put just a little bit of ice and snow on the ground, or start maneuvering around tight hairpin turns, and it quickly becomes obvious how important your tires’ traction really is. And that traction, as well as almost everything about your tires’ performance, depends very strongly on proper tire pressure.

The trick of it is this: Even though it might look like your tires are fully touching the ground while you drive, they’re actually using a much smaller contact patch. And for the average tire, this area where the tire is actually touching the ground while you’re moving isn’t much bigger than the sole of your shoe.

When your tires are properly inflated, their contact patches are like a well-fitting pair of shoes.

High Heels and Clown Shoes

So imagine for a minute: What if your shoes didn’t fit well at all?

Overinflated tires are like shoes that are too small. Their contact patches (soles) are smaller than you’d expect, and that makes it awfully difficult to keep the right traction and stability while you’re moving — just think of what it would be like to wear high heels on an icy sidewalk!

Similarly, low tire pressure and underinflated tires are like wearing a pair of clown shoes. Their contact patches are bigger and floppier, and that makes them harder and less efficient to move around in.

But the perfectly inflated set of tires is like the perfect shoe, giving a smooth and comfortable ride and plenty of traction even when road conditions get dicey. And that efficiency is key to getting the best gas mileage out of your vehicle, just as wearing a perfect pair of shoes makes it easier to walk longer with less fatigue.

Right Tire Pressure, Better Gas Mileage

This isn’t just a fun analogy, though — it’s also backed up by science from the U.S. Department of Energy.

In a study from 2014, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested tires across a range of inflation pressures and highway driving speeds from 40 to 80 miles per hour. And their results were pretty amazing: In addition to being much safer to drive on, properly inflated tires can have as much as 10 percent better fuel economy compared to underinflated ones.

Checking Your Tires

Now that you know how important tire pressure can be, you might be wondering: How do your tires currently match up?

Most cars list an ideal tire pressure on a sticker inside of the driver’s side door; open your door and look down, and you should be able to find it pretty easily. Failing that, you can also find optimal tire pressure listed in the owner’s manual for your car.

Or you can save yourself the hassle, and bring your car by any of our Chapel Hill Tire locations to get the pressure checked and adjusted. That’s a great time to make sure your tire tread is in good shape too, so you can rest easy knowing that your car will get you from here to there and back again without any problems.

“I’ve had so many opportunities to learn and grow.”

Speaking with our General Manager Todd Ward, that’s a sentiment that comes up time and time again. It’s not just words, either — it’s backed up by an impressively long career history with Chapel Hill Tire, stretching all the way back to 1987.

In his first position as a General Service Technician, you could find Todd changing tires and oil with his team at the Carrboro location. But even during the four years he was cutting his teeth on the automotive repair industry, Todd was already looking to take the opportunities offered to him. That led to making light repairs on shocks, springs, and the like.

But Todd’s willingness and aptitude led him to become a Service Writer at the Carrboro location next, followed very shortly thereafter by his role as Manager of the entire location, a role he would hold all the way until 2015. This was perfect for him, as he felt a deep sense of connection to his work family at Carrboro, and loved being able to support them through the trials and tribulations of personal and professional life.

Even all of that experience couldn’t quite prepare Todd for what came next, though. With Marc Pons taking on the role as the company’s CEO, Todd was offered his largest responsibility yet: A role as the General Manager in charge of all Chapel Hill Tire locations.

“At the time, I didn’t deal with change very well.” says Todd, “And I’m a very loyal person. My Carrboro team was my family,” and being away from that location felt almost insurmountable.

“I just knew that the toughest part would be leaving my Carrboro family — but I also knew that I’d still be involved. Letting go was hard, but it’s been totally worth it.”

But with time and experience, Todd has taken to the General Manager role like a duck to water. He loves getting to spend his days visiting all nine locations, checking in with his people, making sure everything is going well for them both personally and professionally.

“In the stores, I always want to show that I care.” says Todd, and he does that every day by having conversations with every employee he meets.

“It did take me a little while to get in my groove. It was a lot to learn, and a different way of leading than what I was used to.” But what made that transition possible for Todd was sticking to Chapel Hill Tire’s core values — particularly Winning As A Team. By always supporting each other like a family, those values served to open the door to real personal and professional growth, all within the company.

With regards to those values, Todd says it best:

“I’ll say this: Those values are not just writing on the wall. They are what have helped to build the culture that we have today, by living those values and making decisions based on those values.”

For Todd, that means implementing them in a real, physical way each day: “We really focus on and talk about them daily, with our managers having a morning huddle focusing on the value of the week. They’re a huge piece of what’s gotten us to where we’re at today.”

Chapel Hill Tire wouldn’t be the place it is today without the people who keep it running, and we especially thank Todd for the work he’s done in continuing to grow and develop with everyone as a team!