Marv

I am going on a trip to Florida soon and will drive the 1,000 miles to get there.

My question is, my current SO3s have about 0.140" tread left on them. New tires measure 0.290" deep. So I am a little under 50% tread left on these tires.

My question is, when should I pull them? My only concern is hydroplaning. I can't control the weather when I leave and I want to be sure that I have enough tread to prevent an accident!

What do you think?

pcar964

You'll be fine, nothing to worry about. Just don't go barreling through puddles at 80mph

carcommander

half tread depth tires should be fine. Just slow down in the rain. That said, I never take tires to the wear bars, My car and my a$$ are worth more than that.

jimbo3

If you 18" Turbo Twists, drive on down to Texas and I'll trade you those for my 17" Cup wheels with new Assimetricos!

Marv

Sorry, mine are stock 17" wheels, but I do have the raised painted crests!

Edgy01

One little tip for someone visiting Florida,--they make many of their road surfaces with crushed oyster shells,--when wet, they are very slippery!

Bins

tyres should be replaced at 3mm

Bull

Assuming you don't want to run the tires until they resemble slicks, you are past the 50% life remaining (different than 50% tread remaining). If you would replace them with 3mm of tread remaining, then you are done at about 0.120" of tread left on them. 50% life remaining would be at about 0.200" remaining, in the above case.

I would replace them, but I usually do so before some others I know......

TCallas

It's difficult to determine what you consider half worn out so here's my advice. Don't take a chance on tires. Replace them when they get to the wear indicator. It's not worth it. Also keep an eye on the age. Look at the DOT number, the last four numbers are in the smooth area. These numbers tell you the age (manufacture date) of the tire, ie the first two numers are the week and the last two numbers are the year. Make sure your tires are not more than 4-6 years old. They can get really hard and don't like to stick to the pavement very well.

Marv

Okay, so I am at 3.55 mm. Getting close.

Marv

Well, I am not close to the wear indicators. Conservatively, I have .140" left or about 3.55 mm.

Felix

New tires probably have 10 32nd's of tread. Legal limit is 2 32nd's in most states. For a tiny amount of margin let's set the wear limit at 3 32nd's. Your tires measure 0.140" which is 4.5 32nd's. So you've used up 5.5/7 = 79% of your useable tread depth if you give yourself some margin or 5.5/8 = 69% if you want to leave no margin. Check how many miles it took you to wear off that tread depth and you can get a prediction how much tread is left when you return home 2000 miles later. All things being equal tire wear slows down slightly as the tread wears off due to less tread squirm and if you're doing mostly steady speed highway miles that will slow the wear rate down a bit as well.

Marv

1000 miles. It is a one-way trip since I am moving there.

I think I have about 7-8K miles on the tires now.