Canvassing opinions here...…. I've been asked to draft some sort of standard regarding the minimum depth of tyre tread on our pickup truck fleet. Nothing large in it, mostly Toyota Hilux & Ford Ranger about 1/2 ton capacity. Now I know the legal minimum worldwide is usually somewhere around 1/16" (1.6mm) of tread, but personally-speaking how much of a minimum tread depth would any one of you be happy to run on his personal ride..? I'm betting that it would be significantly more than whatever is the legal minimum in your location. I'm not going to muddy the waters with what I've been told up to now. So speak up and give me your thoughts.
It's been a long time since I saw a tyre without built in tread depth indicator bars. I usually just check to see if the wear is getting close to these.
Wear indicators are 2/32, and I try to pull mine @ 4/32. I only have 30 or so trucks.
I never run less than 3/16, but then I live in the snow belt and the tires that I run are needed for ice and snow as well as mud on construction sites. I don't trust many tires to go through temperature swings from 100 to -20F as well as highway temperatures thrown in and last more than a very few seasons. YMMV of course.
I have always run them all the way out, wring out every last drop. Last winter was that time, lots of snow also but I made it work. There is a story that tires wear more slowly at the end of their life cycle than the beginning. Don't know if true but it seems that way to me.
Depends on your conditions. Best traction is a slick on dry pavement. Worst traction is a slick on wet pavement. I'm usually with Birken Vogt except with tires away from home ground.
We run summer tires and winter tires on all the pick up trucks. Run them to the bars always. Winter tires will get ran to the winter bars then get put on in the summer and get used all the way down. We have found that the problem is not so much the tires but more the link between the stearing wheel and the seat.
4/32 range or higher on our trucks, depends on the season. If the tires are getting worn and it's heading into winter where we get tremendous amounts of rain I'll put a new set on. I see also as a safety issue with 3 guys in a crew cab pulling a CTL down the highway, not going to try and get every 1/16th of tread out of a set. We're running 250/350 crew cab LWB 4x4 pickups averaging 9-10K average load before hooking a trailer up.
I work in a shop that sells tires. 95% of sells are to amish haulers this is the most extreme,harsh,misuse,brutal treatment a tire will ever see. Any thing less than 8ply for minivans is a wast of time. They run them till they show wire.Some days a busy hauler will have 2 flats a day. I run my pickup tires just to the wear bars unless i plan on a trip or heavy use.
I never go to the wear bars, when you get close the vehicle rides and drives like crap, not putting up with that. This tire is on my winter beater, way overdue to be replaced. Already have new tires, will get changed out as soon as I fix the rusted out brake line. Ed
I feel the opposite effect, when tires are new they seem to squirm around and have to herd the truck down the road. Sort of feels like dancing around on the ends of a paint brush or something like that to my imagination.
Thanks for all the replies so far. Some very good points raised. We have a number of pickups that go from the job site into town first via 60 miles of dirt road followed by 70 miles of 2-lane highway. Those vehicles are often driven by people who are not necessarily mechanically-minded. I have been tasked with coming up with a pre-op checklist that includes amongst other things a tyre inspection. Now we all know that a brand-new tyre can have a nick in the sidewall that you or I would look at and immediately say "I'm not driving that on the highway". You see where I'm coming from here.? I have to try to put something together in an attempt to keep non-mechanical people safe. Our climate conditions are HOT all year round, even winter lows are rarely below 65F. Oh, and it rains. Lots of it. When it rains it usually falls as thunderstorms and the average annual rainfall is somewhere around 100" with some parts of the year drier than others. The highway can be dry or it can be covered in standing water. Conditions on the dirt road can vary from a dust bowl to a mud bath to even a swimming pool in the most extreme circumstances. See below - there is a road under those 3ft of water...…!!
I have a less scientific method. When the tread wear gets to the point that I think it may fail me any place on the road irregardless of actual measured tread depth, I remove it. While I don't own my workplace, A lot of day's I could cost the company several thousand dollars if I am off on the side of the road changing a tire. Not to mention the hazard of being on the side of the road with a half million phone warriors passing you. When I was self employed, I did everything that I could do within reasonable economic reality to avoid down time. Losing a tire on the dump truck would cost two hours of billable time for the truck, two hours of time for the driver and possibly a road call on top of it. The margins in a truck made this all unacceptable. I would end up having worked that truck for most of a week for nothing because of a unscheduled tire failure.
I have been surprised with a tire worn to the belt on the inside of the tire. I looked at the tire several times, but didn't see the inside tire shoulder. It was hidden by the vehicle. In your checklist, a specific look or measurement at the inside edge might cover more than a generic "check tread depth"
I have a feeling that what's going to come out of this is that someone "in management" is going to expect us to train people to do the inspection in order that they fully understand what they are looking at. I was trying to avoid that if at all possible.
Good Tire = black, round, and symmetrical. Anything not meeting the previous, take out of service.
Around here if it’s got air it goes lol I’ve always found they get more susceptible to punctures with the diminishing amount of thread remaining. Two flats and out they get changed out Or plugged depending on the circumstances
Have you actually had tyre related safety incidents or is someone looking for the answer to a question nobody asked?
I’ve seen that happen.... Nige, you have a wealth of knowledge that you freely share and it sounds like you’ve maybe been given some idea already (or have a direction planned) that you’re holding close to the vest to not sway feedback here, so perhaps you already have an idea, but tagging on to Cmarks post: have you asked for specific management concerns? Also, what does shop history show for tire failures/issues (wear, damage, etc) and maybe vehicle incident history? Perhaps that could direct training focus. Darryl
Geez Nige after looking at the image above it may not be tire selection or fitness. Perhaps this may be something to consider: I have seen a few around
"It's only flat on the bottom"
Certainly true in my experience. I have had some pretty round rocks rammed right through a thin tire causing a flat where on a new one said rock would not have even made it to the bottom of the grooves. That is the price I get for being a cheapskate sometimes....
This wasn't a facetious question by the way. I've found from experience that with the strategic use of both a Risk Matrix and the Hierarchy Of Controls, the over enthusiasm of some of the more zealous Health and Safety types can occasionally be dragged back within the boundaries of common sense. Fighting fire with fire, as it were.
We've had a number of vehicles leave the road over the last few years, fortunately with no fatalities to date but is that simply down to luck.? No-one has pointed the finger specifically at tyres being the root cause, but the subject did come up in the conversation. As a result of the investigation into the last incident what came to light was that the checklist all drivers have to complete before they drive off for the first time each day was not fit for purpose and a decision was made to create a new one. Here's where I come in as supposedly the "technical person". Also you have to remember where I am. Location is everything and what would work in Europe, N America, or Oz won't necessarily work here. Now it's easy enough to pull a dipstick or look at the coolant level in the radiator expansion tank, but how does one decide whether a tyre is good to go or not.? That's the challenge, especially when we're talking about "Sandra from Accounts" or "Floyd from Warehouse" who because they drive a company pickup have to complete their checklist just like the heavy equipment mechanics do. The downside is that they are usually in town rather than on the job site so they have no-one readily-available to ask for assistance, and if their travel is on public highways the thought is that we should be attempting to keep them safe as far as practicable. As I see it they need something that is black or white because in general they don't have the knowledge or experience to make a judgement call. Speed is not generally an issue in this country, the national speed limit is 80km/h (50mph). I get the part regarding the tread wear bars, but they usually only indicate the legal wear limit (1.5mm, 1.6mm, 2/32", etc depending where you are in the world) but to me there's obviously a difference between "is it legal" and "is it safe?" bearing in mind the specific conditions under which our vehicles operate - and there's the dilemma. Regarding punctures, failures, etc, not so much, although we did have a spate of alloy rims splitting on Ford Rangers which led to a switch to all-steel, at least for on-site vehicles. I'll have to see if I can find some photos.
The way I handle the truck tires for the company is {ones satellite based that only get through once a month/get changed out slightly early} Trucks based out of company yard that are under the eye weekly I run down to 3/32- 4/32. The worst problem with any tire is leaving them on to get the last penny out of them and you end up with rock drilled casings and flats, you saved no money in the end. Pickup tires I would change out at 4/32.
We run more aggressive tires in the winter on the plow and shoveling trucks. They get ran down to the winter bars that are at 6/32 if i remember correctly. We also do the same for one truck we have that goes all over the place in the summer. After that they get burnt off on a truck that stays more local and does not go out in the winter. Maybe get tires with the taller bars at 6/32 makes it really easy to look at and say go or no go.
I wonder if for you nige, it wouldn't be easier to just set a mileage limit for the tires. In your extensive dirt/ rock roads and quarry environment, you aren't going to see tires make 50-60,000 miles, you are probably lucky to see 20,000 in the larger pickups. The smaller pickups hilux / ranger, maybe 30,000. No one can tell when a tire is about to let go. That's like asking when the engine trans, rear drives etc. are going to break. Sure, when they get worn a lot there is more danger, but with your poor road conditions, really anything under 4/32" is probably due to be changed. I wouldn't be interested in a 50 mile drive down dirt road in a wet rainforest with tires I can just see the pattern of. Corporate is just wanting to protect themselves and the employees, and the only way is to change them early. You aren't going to get the "most" out of your tires, but in a big set up like yours, I don't see a lot of alternatives. At any oil change if one tire is under your minimum, they all get changed. I don't know what the coinage is in your country, but here you can typically use a penny or such to check tread depth. Maybe something on the list they can use to check like this: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=51
Thanks for the link. I'm sure we could come up with something like that using local coins. Another thought I've had is that maybe we change tyres on vehicles that run outside the gate of the job site when the tread depth is, say, 50% of new tyre depth. Then we run the part-worn ones down to a somewhat lower limit on site where the max. speed limit is 25mph and I think a user would experience traction issues long before reaching anywhere close to the legal minimum tread depth This thing has blown up into a bigger production than Ben Hur…. but at the end of the day I'd like something that the maintenance department can actually handle rather than a bunch of ridiculous rules that no-one takes any notice of.