Safe Minimum Tyre Tread Level?

vikingaero

I agree with bigjl and johnny roper regarding the fitment of new tyres to the driven axle. I believe that the advice given by the tyre industry to fit new tyres to the rear is partly to do with oversteer, but mainly to accelerate the sales of tyres: If you buy a brand new fwd car with 4 new tyres, drive for 20k, need new fronts, follow the industry guidelines and fit the new tyres to the rear and old tyres to the front, then in another 10k you'll need another set of tyres.

The reason I think it's wrong is that the majority of accidents I see are frontal impacts - car driving into the back of another. I bet everyone who follows the standard advice and has an accident regrets it when they've ploughed into the rear of another vehicle on low front treads with their brand new tyres on the rear axle. The rear wheel oversteer accidents are very rare in comparison to frontal impacts. We seem to forget that we live in a temperate and wet UK. I place front wheel braking, directional stability and resistance to aquaplaning over the possibility of oversteering.

What would you like in the next bout of snow? A front driven axle with 2mm of tread and a set of new boots on the rear or 8mm up front? Depth matters in the snow and wet.

jase1

In my experience the worst scenario is where you have differential grip between the driven wheels in the wet, for example if one tyre is a premium but the other is a ditchfinder, or a tyre with <3mm tread.

I always replace at 3mm, and always replace in pairs with tyres that have good wet grip.

As a rule of thumb, if the (FWD) car starts wheel-spinning coming out of T-junctions in the wet, replace the tyres ASAP. This usually starts around 3mm. If the tyres can't retain traction under load, they won't grip in an emergency situation either.

And never have mismatched tyres on the driven or steered wheels.

Inactive

mrblake1 wrote: »

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