Preventing Tire Rack: How to Measure Tire wear with US Coins

Car parts are not eternal all of them need replacing sooner or later. Today I want to talk to you about tires. How can one learn that his/her tires need replacement? Well, there are various ways to get to know that fact, but I would like to give you the most practical one. Here is the way which is used by thousands of auto owners across the US.

Measuring a tire tread depth gauge with American coins.

1. Insert a penny into a number of grooves across the tire. If you see that a part of Lincoln’s head is lower than the higher part of the thread it means that you still have 2/32” of the thread depth in possession.

2. Insert a quarter into several grooves across the tire. If you see that part of Washington’s hear is lower than the higher part of the thread, you still have 4/32” of the thread depth in possession

3. Insert a penny in thread grooves across the tire. If you see that the top of the Lincoln Memorial is lower than the top of the thread you still have 6/32” of the thread in possession.

Once you are done with the first location of the tire you need to measure the depth of the threads across the entire tire. In order to do it measure the depths in the middle of the tire as well as on its sides. This helps to determine the unevenness of the wear and some other aspects as mechanical damages etc.

In the overwhelming majority of states the law prohibits driving on a tire as the wear reaches 2/32” of the thread depth. Practically all the modern tires are equipped with wear indicators (so-called “wear bars”). These are the marks that are build into the tire with the goal of showing the driver when the tire is no longer legally usable.

Nevertheless, the law regulations aren’t always the best. The mark the crucial point when the tire cannot be used any longer on a dry surface. As for the wet surfaces, at 2/32” of the remaining thread depth the tire cannot resist hydroplaning and its traction on snow is close to zero.

In fact, even when the wear reaches 4/32” of the thread depth you should consider changing tires. You need to realize that all the negative effects of a wet road are eliminated by removing water via the threads from the surface of the tire. When the threads are not deep enough to perform their direct functions, the tire becomes uncontrollable.

As for snow-covered surfaces, the proper time to replace the tires is when the wear reaches 6/32” of the threads depth. When you are driving on the snow the tires need to have sufficient thread depth to remove snow as they roll. That’s why some winter tires have “wear bars” at 6/32” of threads depth.

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