Like any wear item, it’s important to keep an eye on your vehicle’s tires. Over thousands of miles of driving, tread will wear down and eventually they will need replacing. Driving habits, wheel alignment, and road conditions can all impact the life of your tires. Here are some things you can do to check your tires.
All You Need to Know About Tire Tread
A “do it yourself” method for measuring your tires tread depth is the penny test. You take a penny and insert it into the groove of your tire with Lincoln’s head facing you and upside down. If any part of Lincoln’s head is covered by the tread, you are said to still have a legal amount of tread depth on your tire and the traction has not been significantly reduced in rain, slush and snow. However, if you can see the top of Lincoln’s head, this indicates the tread is too low and it’s time to replace your tires.
For better accuracy, you’d want to check the tread of the tire in several spots, as well as all four tires because they can wear differently.
New tires can be expected to start with roughly ⅓” (10/32”) of tread depth and about 20 square inches of total footprint surface for standard passenger size tires. The majority of the footprint surface is the rubber that comes into contact with the road to grip the surface, the remainder is the voids/grooves in the tire that make up the tread design.
While tread depth and tread design isn’t a major factor in providing traction on dry surfaces, it does considerably help to provide control of the vehicle in wet, slushy, and snowy conditions. Liquids (rain accumulating on the roads) cannot be compressed, so your vehicle relies on the tires tread design to direct water and slush from between the tire and the road. When tires cannot effectively move water out of the way with ease due to low tread and less than optimal design your vehicle can experience hydroplaning, essentially floating on top of the water.
On top of the tread design, the depth of the tread contributes to how well the design works. The combination of tread depth and design is what gives tire edges the ability to “bite” into the snow. Tire tread and the volume of the tread grooves will erode over time. It’s not enough to notice during your day to day driving until one day there’s a noticeable difference in the time it takes to stop or some slipping in the snow or maybe even a slight hydroplane on wet roads.
A tire vendor tested how much traction worn tires sacrifice in wet conditions by measuring the stopping distance of vehicles with various tread depths from 70 mph. They compared new tires (10/32”), tires with a tread depth of 4/32” and tires with the legal minimum tread depth of 2/32”. They found that the vehicle equipped with tire tread measuring at 2/32” took 100 more feet to come to a complete stop. The vehicle was recorded still traveling at roughly 45mph at the same distance vehicles equipped with tires measuring 4/32” tread depths had stopped.
If you are becoming concerned about the condition of your tires in wet, rainy conditions, you might want to consider replacing the tires when the tread depth measures about 4/32”. Stopping distance has most likely increased and traction has decreased. Tread recorded at this depth is where it may become noticeable that the water can’t escape fast enough between the tire and the surface of the road, leading to hydroplaning.
Once snowy roads become a concern, the recommended tread depth for replacement moves to 5/32”. The vehicle’s traction and mobility becomes impacted when the tread is no longer sufficient enough to provide “bite” into the snow on each revolution. Under these conditions more tread is needed so the snow can compress into the grooves and release as they roll.
Tires at Scott’s U-Save
While it may not seem very economical to replace tires before they become legally worn. It is, however, way more cost effective than repairing your car due to losing the ability to stop in an emergency situation in less time and distance than the car in front of you.
Our friendly staff will help you pick the best tires for you vehicle. We carry top brands like Michelin, BFG, Continental, at our four stores in Schererville, Steger, New Lenox, and Crown Point.