The finer details on public transport tyres have proven an area of interest amongst Brits on social media as those in the know explained the importance of dents on tyres
Eagle-eyed Brits have been busy discussing an intriguing aspect of public transport after one person questioned the purpose of a feature found on tyres. Looking for answers on Reddit, they sought the advice of motoring experts after spotting a number of “small dents” embedded within the tyres on a local bus.
Their curiosity prompted them to take to the social media platform’s bus subreddit, where they questioned: “What is the reason for the small dents on the side of Arriva bus tires?” It prompted numerous people to offer an explanation, pointing out that the dents are in fact a safety feature.
“Wear indicator,” one person said, pointing out the feature isn’t exclusive to Arriva vehicles. “A lot of stops touches the curb and causes wear on the side of the tires. The sides of bus tyres are extra thick for this reason.”
A second concurred, penning: “This is to check the lateral tyre wear. If the dents are not any more visible, the tyre is worn out and needs to be replaced.”
Indeed, a third elaborated: “Buses are heavy, there’s a lot of energy even at very slow speeds. The issue is most often that the road surfaces at the stops are worn, uneven and sometimes has deep enough wheel grooves that more or less steers the bus as if it’s on rails (maintanance issue).
“Also snow/ice is always a challenge during winters, often a bus will slip/skid a bit regardless of how careful one is.”
Whilst a fourth Reddit user advised: “During maintenance the wheel is rotated and the dimples are observed from a fixed point. If three are counted whilst the wheel is in motion and then a further three are counted it can be confirmed that the wheels on the bus go round and round which is regarded as a minimum core function by the tester.”
Elsewhere on the post, meanwhile, others expressed an interest in the purpose of the green plastic surrounding each nut on the wheel rim.
“I want to know the purpose of those luminous green things on the wheel nuts,” one Reddit user said.
To which another explained: “As long as the points are facing each other the driver/mechanic can be satisfied that the wheel nuts haven’t loosened. They’re called wheel nut indicators.”
And a second individual added: “It’s a visual indicator to show if any of the wheel nuts are starting to come loose. If wheel nuts are over tightened they can get hot expand and snap off. Imagine being on a bus that looses a wheel at 50mph.”
