It's October, which means the return of Tyre Safety Month. And while it’s best to keep on top of you tyres conditions all year round, this is a great opportunity to brush up on your tyre safety knowledge and ask yourself if your tyres are up to the task of keeping you and your loved ones safe.
Whether you love driving on the open road or it’s just a way to get from A to B, your vehicle’s tyres need to be in roadworthy condition. Anything else is a non-starter and could land you in trouble with the authorities or increase your risk of losing control of your vehicle.
Observe legal tyre tread limits
Tyre tread depth below the legal limit is not only illegal but dangerous.
A tyre that doesn’t have the correct tread could fail and put your car at risk of veering off the road at high speed or into other parked cars or traffic alongside you.
As covered in our blog on dashboard warning lights, the tyre pressure symbol on your instrument display will tell you if your tyre is flat or below the desired pressure: this is a symbol of two curved vertical lines with a horizontal bottom line and an exclamation mark in the middle of them, imitating a flattened tyre on the pressure point touching the ground.
Another risk of poor tread depth, especially in Britain and Ireland where wet-weather driving is a frequent challenge, is that it allows less water to pass through the tyres when driving in puddles or road depressions, or when fording bodies of water in rural areas. This could cause your vehicle to ‘aquaplane’ and lose grip of the tarmac, an unstable and downright scary situation for both drivers and passengers.
Tyres in proper condition
Cars, as well as light vans and light trailers, have to have a minimum tread depth of 1.6mm by law. However, the advisory depth is 3.0mm. This is to be across the central three quarters of the breadth of the tyres and its whole circumference.
General tyre condition
You’re looking for abnormalities in the tyre such as:
- Cuts and abrasions
- Bulges, areas of lower or higher pressure
- Embedded objects, such as stones, wood, nails or glass.
Checking your tyre tread depth
One of the easiest and most reliable ways to check your tyre tread is to use a tyre tread depth gauge, or, if you don’t have one of those and you’re in the UK, you can use a 20p piece.
The outer rim found on each side of a 20p piece is around 2.0mm, so, if you can see the rim of the coin, the tyre’s tread level may be too low.
Tyre safety and real-world driving
What difference does it make to have a set of tyres with 3.0mm tread, as per the guidelines, and 1.6mm minimum as required by law? More than you might think. Your car could be almost 50% less responsive in a hard braking situation with the bare minimum tread compared to tyres with 3.0mm.
Being involved in an accident with defective tyres could land you with a £2,500 fine and three points on your licence. That is per tyre, which means if you have four illegal tyres and you’re stopped by the police, you could be hit with an eye-watering £10,000 fine and 12 points on your licence.
But helping ensure your safety and those in the cabin with you is the most important reason of all for keeping your tyres in the best condition they can be.
Think your tyres might need a change? Check out our range of tyres and tyre care products.
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