I personally am going to wait until the wear bars. I am at 45000 miles on the stock Dunlop and have 4/10 tread. Hoping to get another 5-15k out of them. Excited to try the achilles atr sport 2.

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The wear bars are minimum legal (2/32); you can be ticketed for being at or below them. I typically replace at about double that (4/32) since I usually find wet traction has degraded to the point that I'm unhappy with it around that point.

 

The wear bars are minimum legal (2/32); you can be ticketed for being at or below them. I typically replace at about double that (4/32) since I usually find wet traction has degraded to the point that I'm unhappy with it around that point.

I also change them when I find they aren't as good on wet pavement.

If you can store the tires, you could order them from Costco and they won't mind if you don't install them right away. Just bring them back later with your invoice. But you need to pick them up or they'll send them back.


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I live in a place where rain is a relative rarity, so I run closer to the wear bars than some do. As was said, wear bars are supposed to reflect 2/32” tread depth remaining. A range of 2/32 to 4/32” is a reasonable window in which to replace, IMO.

 

Great Question.
Up here in the Pacific NW, if they are 4/32" at the start of summer (and I don't have any road trips that include dirt roads) I let them go until winter.
If they have 4/32" at the beginning of winter, I replace them. The amount of rain we get combined with the rubber hardness (5,000 mi/yr = ~5-6yrs) means every wet highway trip may very well end up with a, 'moment'. My wife is not down with having to produce surprise 'rally driving skills', just to survive.
Your results may vary.

 

UPDATE - I went to Costco and asked them to measure my tread depth (I trust Costco, they aren't going to try to hustle me into buying tires when I don't need them).

He said my tires are 4/32" to 5/32". I told him that I use winter tires and he replied that my tires were good for at least another summer. Happy to hear that.
Thanks for the replies, I am grateful.

 

I usually try to run my summer's down to 2-3/32, but something I ran into the other month was the big box tire stores (Discount and Belle for me) wouldn't plug a nail when the tire was just below 4/32. Luckily I found a mom & pop to do it (this is on my Cadillac, so no spare tire and I was out of town on vacation), but something to keep in mind.

 

Well if it's in the tread area I've successfully used an old-style plug and it lasted as long as the remainder of the tread did. Why? Because the person who owned it already had an old-style plug in the tire and once you have one in there the shops will NOT touch it.

Therefore there was no risk -- if it failed then they were buying another tire anyway. It held until the tires finally wore out two years later.

I know it's not the "right" way to do it.... but it was the field-expedient way, and it held, so there you have it.

 

I have used plugs just fine for years. On my Landcruiser FJ40 I could plug the 33" tire with air still in it. Speed plugging.

 

I'm willing to ride my motorcycle on plugs, so I can't see a reason in the world I wouldn't run a car on a plug (in the tread, not the sidewall).

 

The old standard is to take a penny and push it into the tread grooves. The depth needs to cover the top of Lincoln’s head. If you can see his hair, time to start shopping.

 

Well, OP asked and answered...but for anyone who's interested. From my time in the industry, I would say that when to replace depends on a few things. #1, wear bars are 3/32", most tire mfrs won't honor a treadwear warranty until 2/32" - evenly across the whole tire. But by 4/32", the ride becomes uncomfortably rough, and stopping distances begin to increase dramatically - potentially making your car a liability. IF you are not trying to get money off the next set using the treadwear warranty, I think 4/32" is when to begin looking to replace tires.

 

Four over thirty two, three over thirty two, two over thirty two... I can't easily imagine how thick or thin is it. If only it were in millimeters.

And I should have used numbers instead of words, it's also easier to read.
[emoji3]

If I may add, I couldn't imagine how far or near is half mile without me thinking that 1 mile = 1.609 km.

This was taken when I was in Jacksonville, Florida.

 

How to Check Tire Tread Depth: The Penny Test

www.bridgestonetire.com

 

Archerfish:
1/32 isn't much smaller than a mm. In tires, converting to mm is probably accurate enough for quick reference. I like that image you posted b/c you can see the exist, so you get a good visual reference of what a half mile looks like. In my head, I loosely equate 500m with 1/4 mi, but I realize that doesn't scale up. I usually try to compare 1/2 mi to 3/4km.

 

Where's the edit post button? I meant EXIT not EXIST

 

hahahahahahahahaha

I had to read it twice! Anyways, you gave me a "good rough estimate" for kilometers and miles.

To answer your question, the edit button is just besides your Avatar. If you click your post, there should be 3 horizontal dots that you should see.

EDIT: You don't have to click your post. I just checked using a mobile browser.

 

Thanks. BTW, don't forget that 1.6 converts backwards to abt 6 mi for each 10 km