Curb Rash: What is it and How to Prevent it?

Curb Rash: What is it and How to Prevent it?

You’ve spent your hard-earned money to purchase the car of your dreams and designed with custom rims and wheels. Unfortunately, a fender bender can ruin your day in an instant. The car’s rims are not just a nice aesthetic to your car- if you’re not careful, damaged rims can lead to damage in the wheels. One of the most dangerous threats to your car’s rim is curb rash.

What is Curb Rash?

It’s a colloquial term used in the card world to describe the situation when a vehicle’s wheel or hubcap has sustained damage from being rubbed along a curb. This is often referred to as curb rash. This type of damage is very common if you’re not careful.

What are the dangers with Curb Rash?

One of the major problems resulting from hitting the curb is throwing your car’s suspension out of alignment. This will even lead to uneven tire wear in as little as 200 miles. Due to curb rash, your tire may have also suffered damage to the sidewall that could lead to a possibly dangerous blowout.

Here are some dangerous curb rash damage:

If you hit a curb with your wheel, it’s impossible to guarantee your tire will escape the encounter uninjured. With this, it’s more likely that your tire took the first impact of the collision and your rim was damaged after the tire was deformed and pushed out of the way.

The sidewall of your tire is the weakest part. The curb rash can easily damage the weaker part of the wheel.
If you ever hit a pothole and notice a bubble in the sidewall, it means the steel cords have separated and the inner protective layer of the tire is compromised.

Hitting a curb even going as slow as 5-10mph can have a major impact on the performance of your tires.

How can you prevent it?

Here are some helpful tips to prevent curb rash.

Driving tips
The best way to prevent curb rash is to make sure that the rims never come in contact with curbs at all- and this purely comes to the driver’s skills. Obviously, this is something you have to practice yourself.

Be a master with parallel parking
Parallel parking is the biggest cause of curb rash and rim. Parallel parking can be difficult at times. However, with some simple tips, the process can be made easier. While you park parallel, tilt the passenger-side mirror down at the curb to better gauge distance. Back into the spot slowly at a 45-degree angle. If you are not sure about where the curb is, you’ll at least tap it with the stronger part of your tire, the back. Then you can pull forward and straighten it out. Lastly, park further away from the curb than you think, but remember no to far!

Total rim health
Always drive your car with an eagle-eye on the road. Always keep an eye on the road surface as well. Look for the pothole or any other hazards on the road to avoid the biggest obstacles, keeping the overall health of your rim.

Install rim protection
If you are really worried about your car’s rim, consider investing in a rim and wheel protector. These are inexpensive and correctly installing it is a key to their effectiveness. They are a rubber ring that fits between the tire and the rim. If someone else is driving your car, you can not be sure of parallel parking skills, wheel rim protectors are a good alternative to this.

Prepare for winter
Let’s say winter deserves a fair share of the blame for curb rash. Ice-covered roads make the tire slip and bang into curbs or other obstacles. Salt that is used to melt snow can have a corroding effect to rims. Winter rims are a good investment. It is better to invest then to spend a lot of money to repair rim damage.

Now it’s time that you start protecting your rims, and if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to compulsorily repair the damaged rims or need a custom wheel and tire, Tint Shoppe can help provide the best in class services. Get in touch with us and we will ensure that your car is in the best condition.