Often Overlooked But Important

[DriVer]

You know something ever since we've gotten on the road and began scrolling up the thousands of miles that we've run I only recently have begun noticing how much tread we had left on the "toad" tires. Although we only show 15,000 miles indicated the actual rolling mileage of the Vue is probably approaching 25,000 miles.

My wife being concerned about our tires suggested that we go to the Wal*Mart to check out a new set of tires and they measured all the tires to 6. I believe that this was probably 60 thousandths of an inch. The man did say that the state of Nevada considers tires that measure 3 are considered to be bald.

Now here's the next issue, no one had the P235/60R17s that we needed, not even the local Goodyear.

Now what am I gonna do? We had to run with our bad tires and all into Las Vegas and found the Tire King we had researched for that happened to be a Bridgestone dealer. They had the tires in stock but they had to go to another store to pick them up. We got a set of 4 OEM Duelers, no substitutes available in that size.

Some $649 later we had 4 new tires, valve stems, disposal fees, taxes and a front end alignment!

Well one thing for sure I can tell immediately that the new tires are holding through the corners soooo much better than the old ones. With 75 MPH speed limits folks are running 80 here like its nothing at all. The ride is also generally better.

Do yourself a favor keep an eye on your toad tires as a matter of safety. It's easy to loose sight of every little detail but each is important in their own right.

[DriVer]

You know something ever since we've gotten on the road and began scrolling up the thousands of miles that we've run I only recently have begun noticing how much tread we had left on the "toad" tires. Although we only show 15,000 miles indicated the actual rolling mileage of the Vue is probably approaching 25,000 miles.

My wife being concerned about our tires suggested that we go to the Wal*Mart to check out a new set of tires and they measured all the tires to 6. I believe that this was probably 60 thousandths of an inch. The man did say that the state of Nevada considers tires that measure 3 are considered to be bald.

Now here's the next issue, no one had the P235/60R17s that we needed, not even the local Goodyear.

Now what am I gonna do? We had to run with our bad tires and all into Las Vegas and found the Tire King we had researched for that happened to be a Bridgestone dealer. They had the tires in stock but they had to go to another store to pick them up. We got a set of 4 OEM Duelers, no substitutes available in that size.

Some $649 later we had 4 new tires, valve stems, disposal fees, taxes and a front end alignment!

Well one thing for sure I can tell immediately that the new tires are holding through the corners soooo much better than the old ones. With 75 MPH speed limits folks are running 80 here like its nothing at all. The ride is also generally better.

Do yourself a favor keep an eye on your toad tires as a matter of safety. It's easy to loose sight of every little detail but each is important in their own right.

[Cruzer]

That's a good point. I make notes in my maintenance logs whenever I make a 4 down tow of any serious distance. I find that my Grand Cherokee has about 20,000 miles on the odometer but when I check the logs there's an extra 15K on for flat towing so those tires really have 35,000 on them. I stick them for tread depth twice a year and it looks like those original Goodyear Wranglers are going to need replaceing at 45,000 miles.

It is important to keep in mind that the flat tow miles don't get recorded on the odometer. We need to consider that in other areas as well, such as ball joints and front end alignments, when we are looking at scheduled maintenance for these vehicles.

[Gary RVRoamer]

And don't forget the brakes - if you have a toad braking system, those pads and rotors are getting worn even though the miles don't show on the clock.

[rvr2352]

I log the miles towed to be added to my miles driven in the toad so that I rotate each 6K miles. The tires don't care where the miles come from i.e. driven or towed. Steve

.....2/32'nds is the minimum on X-way....all tires are measured in 32'nds....geofkaye

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by KAYERIVERCITY:
....all tires are measured in 32'nds.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>geofkaye, Thank you for that! So my tires measured 6/32nds.

[JanBCarter]

DriVer: Always look forward to your posts and appreciate your sharing with all of us. In my last life, I was involved in the tire industry, and just wanted to point out the "6" is probably 32nds of an inch; the usual unit of measurement for tread depth, as in 6/32". Most tires today have wear bars incorporated into the design to indicate when you're "running out" of tread, but in many cases, you'll notice it in the handling before they begin to show.