Tire tread on your vehicle is extremely important, both for legal and for safety reasons. And I think it would be safe to say that any police officer would agree that the safety element is more important than the legal. After all, unsafe tire tread could mean the difference between getting to your destination and getting there without an incident.
So what can happen if your tire tread is too thin? That depends a great deal on the time of year and the road conditions. If you are driving in the rain, low tread could cause you hydroplane and lose control of your vehicle. Snow and ice could cause sliding. Hot pavement or asphalt could wear the tires down faster and cause a blow out.
In most states, a tire is considered unsafe for driving if the tread is less than 2/32″ deep. That’s why a penny is a great field expedient method of measuring tire tread depth.
To measure the depth of your tire tread, place the penny in a groove of your tire and if Lincoln’s head is covered you have more than 2/32″ of tire tread. Do this in several grooves around your tire at about 15 inch intervals.
If you check the tire tread depth using the back of a penny, look to see if the Lincoln Memorial is covered. If so then you have more than 6/32″ of tire tread left. On a quarter, if Washington’s head is covered then you have more than 4/32″ of tread.
The purpose for tire tread is to give you traction in the proper road conditions. If snow is a condition where you live then you need to make sure that you have at least 6/32″ of tire tread so that the tread can compress the snow between the grooves. This is what gives your vehicle the traction it needs for driving mobility.
For rainy conditions, you should make sure that your tire tread is at least 4/32″ deep. Unlike snow, water doesn’t “grip” so any less than 4/32″ of depth can lead to hydroplaning and unsafe driving. If your tire tread depth gets down to 2/32″ deep then you are in critical need of new tires.