The subject of tire recycling is one that has come up here before, but we didn't really offer up any useful suggestions for the average reader on what to do. Let's change all of that with our latest Instructable of the day. Used tires still have lots of life left in them if you are willing to get a little creative. As you can see by the links at the end of this post, quite a few people have come up with this idea already, but it's new to us. The general plan goes like this: trace out a pattern of your foot, trace that pattern on the tire and cut it out. Glue some sort of foot-bed onto the tire cutout and attach straps. Want instructions that are a bit more specific? See here, here or here. We like the idea of promoting walking and recycling tires at the same time.

[Source: Instructables]

Goodyear recommends that you check your car's tire pressure once a month. But who has time to waste the seconds, maybe even minutes (!), that it takes to check your tire pressure? Isn't there is a gadget that makes checking your tire press a little simpler, possibly involving LEDs? Yes, yes there is. The Air Alert is one of several products I have found that replaces your regular tire cap with a device that includes a pressure sensor and LED. If your tire pressure falls 4 psi below the set pressure, the Air Alert blinks, alerting you to your limp tires. It's not TPMS and it's not perfect: some of the Amazon reviews complain of problems with the battery and leaking but most reviews gave it a 4 or 5 stars rating.

Related:

• Self inflating tires: where the technology is today
• Need to check your tire pressure? Head to the Internets
• Know about TPMS? You will, and soon

[Source: Amazon.com]

Michelin has a new low resistance tire called Energy Saver and they brought it to the Frankfurt Motor Show. The Michelin demonstration of the tire at the show has two cars on a slope rolling back and fourth. The car with the Energy Saver tires continues to roll 18 seconds longer than the car without. Below the fold is a Michelin advertising commercial with the phrase "a better way forward" that includes tires that get better fuel economy. Other tires companies are not left out of the green revolution, either. Yokohama Tire is also highlighting green efforts in their new ads.

[Source: YouTube]

Fact 1: The US Department of Energy estimates that we could save two million gallons of gasoline every day if our tires were properly inflated.

Fact 2: An estimated 30-50 percent of all vehicles on the road are operating with at least one under-inflated tire resulting in decreased fuel economy.

Fact 3: Oxygen and moisture in air diffuses through tires 30-40 percent faster than nitrogen resulting in under-inflated tires.

Conclusion: inflate your tires with nitrogen to improve fuel economy and help reduce oil imports.

All well and good if you can find nitrogen to fill your tires with in the first place.

Enter TireLast Systems, who announced the new UltraAir Nitrogen Vending Station which provides, a cashless, VendiPay prepaid smart card smart-card-operated, self-service nitrogen gas dispenser for cars and light trucks. The nitrogen that UltraAir provides is basically compressed air with the oxygen and moisture removed. With nitrogen constituting 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere by volume, removing the oxygen and moisture pretty much just leaves nitrogen.

The UltraAir also features microprocessor controlled tire inflation supplied to any desired pressure. Payment will be via prepaid Inflation Cards available soon at retail stores.

Analysis: Good idea - deserves to make a lot of money.

Related:

• Plenty of 40 mpg cars overseas, just not in the US
• Critics say automakers can be greener with better computer programming
• Windshield reflects sun -> cools car -> reduces aircon -> improves mpg!

[Source: TireLast press release]

Hankook Tire Co. has developed an “ultra fuel efficient tire” called the fx-Optimo. Their definition of drastically improving fuel efficiency boils down to a savings of up to 3%. As is the case with many incremental improvements, they might sound small, but when one considers the bigger picture, every little bit helps. If everyone in the US was able to save 3% of the fuel they use, we would reduce our gasoline and diesel consumption by about 6 billion gallons. The newly developed tire will be targeted to the hybrid vehicle market.

If we could compare these new tires with the tires currently offered on the Toyota Prius, we would probably see very similar fuel economy performance, since both are low rolling resistance tires. The lifetime of the current Prius tire is limited to approximately 30,000 miles, one aspect the new Hankook tire seems to want to address. The Hankook tire promises to have equal levels of durability compared to existing tires, through the incorporation of a new rubber compound and tire structure design.

[Source: Tire Review]