Tires question

Since we have a few DOT guys here, and inspections have been mentioned recently, I'll ask my question.

When you have tires that are worn with a wavy pattern (the out of alignment stuff), you can end up where most of the tire is fine, but the low points on the wave are almost no tread.

For the tread depth requirements, do you look at the majority of the tread or whatever the absolute lowest point you can find is?

Obviously, if you flat spot a tire, that can leave the majority fine and the flat spot is showing belts. I'm basically asking at what point I need to bug the company about crappy trailer tires.

 

Not all tires have wear bars. And what about when you have an edge of the tire that's worn to almost no tread (less than 1/32) but the rest of the tread is fine? the wear bars say there's plenty of tread but would an inspector agree?

 

Which part of that reg specifically are you using to make your judgment?

The part that seems applicable to me reads "tires shall have a tread groove pattern depth of at least 2/32 of an inch when measured in a major tread groove" (emphasis added)

 

Don't even get me started on that. I'm trying to make sure I run legal and when a mechanic blows sunshine up you know where I can identify it and not fight them over a legal, but shabby looking, tire.

You need to go reread the question anyway. I know flat spot doesn't fly. But how much tread is enough? Across how much of the width of the tire? If tires always wore evenly across the width, I wouldn't be asking the question.