New tire tread depth minimums?

Very interesting article as to why the old 2/32" minimum may not be good enough anymore and should be replaced by a 4/32" minimum:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=85&;

good post. it's good food for thought. i have seen tires that you could see the air in them and they are still running them on the car. not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

you can raise the minimum, but the difference it makes will always be limited. there will always be people who don't know or don't care about the wear on their tyres.

i work at a tyre shop and have seen it all from people who want to change their tyres after 2mm of wear to those who run the tyres until the steel belts are poking out.

I'm a mechanic, and I have seen many vehicles come in with belts showing almost all the way across the tire. People aren't replacing tires that are physically worn out, let alone legally worn out. A new minimum won't do any good unless the laws are actually enforced.

In most cases I run mine down just about to 2/32" thread depth because I'm a cheap bastard. :lol: And I guess there are a lot of variables especially if wet traction is not that significant due to weather conditions such as a lack of snow or minimal rainfall like in the desert Southwest. But it is better safe than sorry.

Yeah, but I can see why in the U.K. you would want to keep a close eye on monitoring thread depth. Ouch!!! :eek:



Minimum thread depth 1.6mm.

The penalties for having illegal tyres are currently up to a £2500 fine and 3 penalty points PER TYRE!

BTW - Anyone have experience with the Goodyear F1 "All Season" performance tires? Good, bad, indifferent?