Tyre tread question

Lawless2k12

So I recently suffered a puncture and drove for a bit before I realised it was soft long story short I'm getting 4 new tyres as my front two are low and I only have one on the back now. Plus a spacesaver :P

What I'm doing is getting 4 new Hankooks at €290 fitted, balanced and all the works. The one good-ish tyre that I have I'm going to put on a steel wheel and put in boot as a spare instead of that skinny little sh!t of a spacesaver.

Anyway, all the above was useless backround info, if anyone has any comments on how spacesavers are actually okay I'd like to hear. From my experience they are nothing like a proper wheel.

So, when I went to a tyre place, the owner took a look at my tyre's and said that they were close to the indicator. He said the indicator is 1mm and that my tyres are actually illegal on the front because the front left is pretty much flush with the bump (Theres about .2mm left to the bump) and the front right has a tiny bit more but he said they're illegal and that I need them changed and yada yada yada. Now I am getting them changed, but not there as I was quoted a bit more. He also said I was mad spending money on changing the spacesaver for a steely as the spacesaver is as good as any wheel and could drive all over the place no problem, provided you dont exceed the 80kmh but I dont feel it is as good. Maybe he is right, but I just feel the car can slide a wee bit with the spacesaver.

Also its costing me nothing to swap the spacesaver for a steely as the place doing my tyres will throw it on and I'm getting a steely for free

What depth is the indicator? What are peoples views on spacesavers? I know the legal limit is pretty low at 1.6mm, but surely my tyres weren't illegal if the bump wasn't fully flush with the tyre? Or am I completely wrong?

Thanks for the help

finalfurlong

Going to be in same position in couple of months,rotated about 10 k kms ago when fronts had 3.5 and backs had 5 mm.Is the ridge on tyre at 1.6 mm -heard elsewhere its at 2 mm.Regardless at this time of year its best to maybe think that 3 is nearly point at which to change-know an Post and Gardai change at 3 mm.Id agree with you to put steel as spare-it has to be better than space saver.Dubious about that claim that space saver can do 80 km p h-had to drive section of M1 few years ago with one on front-vary dodgy experience.

Interslice

Space savers are just as good as normal tyre. Heard it all now!

ardmacha

If you are looking for advice
- put the space saver back in the boot
- if the tyres are such that you are arguing about whether they are legal or not then it is time they were changed.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

i have a real spare , but did what you did , put one of the old rears on the spare
as the spare had a cut in the side i didnt trust even though it was rarely used. ( must have hit a curb )

the tread was 4 mil on this old one though .

i think you are still better off with a real spare than an SS , even if the tread is marginal .


i also think you should always rotate tyres and change them once they hit 3 mil ,
i could def feel mine were gone when they hit 3 mil

no way id risk 1.6 mil on them . ( unless it was a spare for a trip to the tyre place )

Lawless2k12

ardmacha wrote: »

If you are looking for advice
- put the space saver back in the boot
- if the tyres are such that you are arguing about whether they are legal or not then it is time they were changed.

Oh yeah I'm definitely having them changed but he was claiming the bump is 1mm and that they were a fair bit below legal. I could feel at least .2/.3mm left before the tyre was flush with the bump though, which according to him meant I was still below legal limit. I was guessing I had 1.9mm left on the worst parts of the tyre but in his view I had at most 1.3mm. I wanted to change the fronts within the next week because I'll be travelling on the motorway for work instead of little trips around town so 2mm of tread wasn't keeping me happy

Tyres are being changed tomorrow though. All four

pred racer

Space savers are sh1t.

Grand if all you need is something to get you 10km to the nearest tyre place,
Fcuk all good on a sat night half way to Donegal!

pa990

The legal limit is 1..6mm

Most car manufacturers recommend 3mm

Just cos it's legal, doesn't make it safe.

Lawless2k12

pa990 wrote: »

The legal limit is 1..6mm

Most car manufacturers recommend 3mm

Just cos it's legal, doesn't make it safe.

Agree with you but as I was only tipping away in town and didn't have the money I couldn't get it done. But I was working for the last couple of weeks and have another, better prospect lined up I now have the moola And since I'll be driving an hour on the motorway I had best upgrade ASAP

VeVeX

The legal limit is the absolute minimum point a tyre should be allowed to wear to. Its absolutely not the point where a responsible motorist then decides to change their tyres.

Tyres at 1.6mm are significantly more dangerous in an emergency situation than tyres of 3mm and above. Tyres approaching, at or below the legal limit put you, your passengers and other road users at greater risk of injury or death.




Edit: Image added.