# Why do/did people kick the tires of a car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618 "2015-09-18T01:06:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/21 "2015-09-18T14:46:51Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **Moderator Note** > > We actually do ask people to do that. From the General Questions Rules and FAQs: > > While we don’t want to discourage people from asking questions, it’s certainly good practice to link to previous discussions if you are aware of them. > > Please refrain from junior-moderating. This goes double for when you are contradicting what is actually considered good practice in GQ. > > Colibri > General Questions Moderator yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking about. sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/22 "2015-09-18T14:48:49Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > Although the modern sense of “tire kicking” implies that you’re basically automotive window shopping; that is looking at a car listed for sale without any intention of actually buying that particular car. So tire kicking in that sense is something you do when you don’t really care about the condition of a particular car but want to pretend you do. “Time wasters” are usually also referred to as tire kickers in other retail services, it’s not just applicable when purchasing a used car. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/23 "2015-09-18T14:52:41Z")
I don’t like car tires. ---
**Author:** ![brovolone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@brovolone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brovolone)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/24 "2015-09-18T14:53:33Z")
I kick the tires to make sure they feel like the other tires I’ve kicked in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/25 "2015-09-18T14:55:09Z")
Our car club has a monthly breakfast where for 15 minutes we meet in the parking lot to “kick tires.” For us this means we shoot the breeze before heading in to eat. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/26 "2015-09-18T14:56:11Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > I don’t like car tires. Then kick them real hard so they know. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/27 "2015-09-18T17:02:29Z")
[QUOTE=Bullitt] On a road trip a year or two back, we stopped at a truck stop to fill our tank and to drain our bladders. Waiting for the gang to finish, I walked through the shopping aisles and saw an interesting device that looked like a baby baseball bat. The label said it was a Tire Thumper, and IfU (Instructions for Use) said you use your ear and the sound and feel of the rebound to tell if your tires were properly inflated. [/QUOTE] [Some more](http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/how-to-use-a-tire-thumper.53195/) on how to use a tire bat, aka tire thumper. Unlike car tires that will look flat if they’re a couple PSI down, a lot of truck and trailer tires have stiff sidewalls so the tire will look OK even if it’s dangerously low. A few years ago, I borrowed a friend’s box trailer. Before heading out on the trip, I checked the tires and was surprised to find them looking OK, but all under 10 PSI, which would have almost certainly led to a blowout on the highway. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/28 "2015-09-18T18:58:05Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > I don’t like car tires. Housing accoutrements and automobile accoutrements have always had perpetual animosity toward each other as they vie for the affections of their human familiars. The motor home attempted to reconcile the feud, but only exacerbated it. ---
**Author:** ![Satellite\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Satellite\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satellite_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/29 "2015-09-19T02:51:02Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > [Some more](http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/how-to-use-a-tire-thumper.53195/) on how to use a tire bat, aka tire thumper. > > Unlike car tires that will look flat if they’re a couple PSI down, a lot of truck and trailer tires have stiff sidewalls so the tire will look OK even if it’s dangerously low. A few years ago, I borrowed a friend’s box trailer. Before heading out on the trip, I checked the tires and was surprised to find them looking OK, but all under 10 PSI, which would have almost certainly led to a blowout on the highway. :eek: The truck and trailer tires aren’t necessarily stiff-walled. The fact that the truck drive tires, as well as the tires of most trailers, are duals, meant that even if one tire is low, the tire right next to it is still supporting the load, and as such, the low tire doesn’t show. A kick will expose the culprit. I’ve found my share of flat tires on fully loaded trailers, while kicking them during my pre-trip. Kind of puts a crimp in your day, when you have to lose 45 minutes of your day at the local tire place. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/30 "2015-09-20T01:28:02Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Do people why die still “kick buckets”? Still _kick buckets?_. I never heard the term until the movie came out and I am in my 70s. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/31 "2015-09-20T03:10:03Z")
> [@urban1a](#): > > Still _kick buckets?_. I never heard the term until the movie came out and I am in my 70s. I don’t know which movie you’re talking about but I remember the expression being used in a classic [Bugs Bunny cartoon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKPOhFZuFQg). ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/32 "2015-09-20T03:36:21Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Or, we could be appreciative of members who go to the trouble of linking us to other people’s responses and making us aware of information we did not previously know about. +1 Not only that, the complaint is particularly churlish because two threads were sifted, quoted, and cited-from, not just cited (which is excellent in itself). That takes work and concern. It’s a good OP. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/33 "2015-09-20T03:42:15Z")
I see I posted above w/o reading the whole thread, and I am guilty of just piling on. I apologize. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/34 "2015-09-20T23:22:47Z")
Tire design has also changed from the 1940s. Is that something that contributed to the value of thumping tires? ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/35 "2015-09-21T00:37:23Z")
**Satellite^Guy** explains the tire bat pretty well. Dual tires support each other, and a flat can be overlooked, especially if it’s an inner tire. This is quite dangerous. In addition to the single inflated tire almost certainly being overloaded by weight, the flat will rub against the sidewall of the good tire and can swiftly wear through it. You can kick inner and outer tires and flats will sound quite different from inflated ones, but you have to kick pretty hard to get an audible noise. It’s easy to kick outer tires, but it takes some fancy bending and leg work to kick inners. And it’s hard not to get your pants leg dirty. The bat – or a piece of broken broomstick, which is what I carried on the RV and horse trailer with duals – reaches the inner ones so much more easily. This should be part of the routine walk-around inspection good drivers do routinely, before starting and at stops during the trip. Frankly I have no idea if this is in any way related to the historic practice of kicking the tires of automobiles. I always suspected it was more myth than reality, possibly dating to the period when cars were just becoming popular and their functioning wasn’t widely or well understood. “Kicking the tires” was just a way for the buyer to pretend to be checking for faults. Both seller and buyer could agree on its effectiveness, no faults were actually revealed, all parties saved face, and the transaction could be consummated. Or maybe not. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Satellite\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Satellite\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satellite_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/36 "2015-09-24T00:25:06Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > **Satellite^Guy** explains the tire bat pretty well. Dual tires support each other, and a flat can be overlooked, especially if it’s an inner tire. This is quite dangerous. In addition to the single inflated tire almost certainly being overloaded by weight, the flat will rub against the sidewall of the good tire and can swiftly wear through it. You can kick inner and outer tires and flats will sound quite different from inflated ones, but you have to kick pretty hard to get an audible noise. It’s easy to kick outer tires, but it takes some fancy bending and leg work to kick inners. And it’s hard not to get your pants leg dirty. The bat – or a piece of broken broomstick, which is what I carried on the RV and horse trailer with duals – reaches the inner ones so much more easily. This should be part of the routine walk-around inspection good drivers do routinely, before starting and at stops during the trip. I’ve never used a stick for my pre-trips. In my opinion, the stick doesn’t carry enough heft to really notice the flat. I’ve always given the tires a kick, it’s really not hard to get in to the inner tires, the axles aren’t that close together. With a kick, if the tire’s flat, it will move considerably; it’s a physical thing, not a sound thing. a low (but not totally flat) tire will also move differently from a properly inflated tire. Unfortunately, this is only effective in locating tires that are considerably low. This is why you want to, on a regular basis, use a tire gauge. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/37 "2015-09-24T00:30:00Z")
They should make dummy cars-with-tires to practice with. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/38 "2015-09-24T00:32:06Z")
> [@Corner\_Case](#): > > Housing accoutrements and automobile accoutrements have always had perpetual animosity toward each other as they vie for the affections of their human familiars. The motor home attempted to reconcile the feud, but only exacerbated it. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/39 "2015-09-24T01:16:03Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Tire design has also changed from the 1940s. Is that something that contributed to the value of thumping tires? eh, sort of. tires were of bias ply construction up through the 1970s. which means the fabric layers molded into the tire carcass had their threads oriented on a “bias;” meaning each ply’s threads crossed the underlying threads at roughly a 45° angle. Also, they had no belts supporting the tread. this meant that a fully inflated tire would look almost perfectly round, with no “bulge” at the bottom where the tire met the road surface. but that bias in the carcass plies meant that the tire underwent an enormous amount of internal stress as the biased plies twisted and scrubbed across each other. “Blowouts” were common because the plies in the sidewall would separate and give the air inside the tire a way to punch a hole in the rubber. I suppose kicking an underinflated bias-ply tire would give some indication of its condition. The radial tire (invented in modern form by Michelin) is much more robust and forgiving. the carcass plies orient their threads in parallel; the plies don’t scrub or twist against each other. the tread is supported by strong steel and/or aramid (kevlar) belts. but the radial orientation of the carcass plies means that a properly inflated radial tire still has a “bulge” at the bottom where it sits on the road. some people, accustomed to bias-ply tires, saw this as a sign of underinflation and put too much air in their tires. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618.md?page=1)