Pickup Truck Tyres

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.

Nige said:

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...snip

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.

Click to expand...

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

Nige said:

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.

Click to expand...

Have you actually had tyre related safety incidents or is someone looking for the answer to a question nobody asked?

Cmark said:

Have you actually had tyre related safety incidents or is someone looking for the answer to a question nobody asked?

Click to expand...

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