How to use a tire tread gauge
If you drive carefully and maintain your tires when you need to, you might not need to change your tires more than a couple of times in a decade. But still, even due to these major tech advancements, you need to change your tires in time.
So how do you know when it’s time for new tires?
There are some basic steps you need to take when you want to check the condition and life of your tires. Based on some of these considerations, you could change the tires of your vehicle even if the date they should expire has not come yet.
For people that have the DIY spirit, here are things you need to know.
Check the minimum tread depth
Surely even though it would take a long while, as you use the vehicle for a long time, the tires would wear and tear and become shallower. The depth tread is known as the measurement between the top of the tire tread and the major grooves channel of the thread.
New treads vary to the design and purpose of the tires. Imagine if daily your tire has an 11/32-inch of depth tread when it is new. Regulation checks for a minimum of 2/32-inch of depth thread for it to be used legally.
Make sure you wear bars and let simple measurements for the tread to get reached. These are ways you can easily evaluate the tread depth before the point. More ways you can do this and to get accurate results is by using the tire tread gauge and the penny tire test.
Check tire tread gauge
You need to know the circumferential grooves of the tire. This refers to the primary channels that are located in the middle of the tread and it runs through the entire part of the tire. It has grooves and they are the main depth tread for it to be measured.
You can use it to take a lot of tread depths and insert the gauge into all the grooves of the circumferential.
If you are not in a great position to check the reading, you should check the wheel wells to look at tires that are mounted. You need to be careful not to hit the gauge and stress its reading as you get rid of it to look properly.
The penny tire test
If you don’t have a tread gauge then you could make use of a pocket change.
Put a penny into the tread grooves of the tire while it is upside down. Then make sure the tire is in a strong condition.
If the tire has started eating up and losing its alignment, then this is a sign you need to get another tire.
If also you find yourself in the mechanic shop now and then, always trying to patch your tires, it could be a sign the old tires need to go.