How many miles did you get out of your OEM tires?

Got a tread-gauge?

 

i have 28,000, they look good. i think 55,000 is very good for oem. do you rotate every 5k?

 

55k isn't terrible. There are some on here that have been getting much more though.

 

FYI, Costco has a deal for $70 off a set of 4 Michelins. Executive members should have received an e-mail with a code that also waives the $60 installation fee, which expires this weekend. Energy Savers would be $381.96, Defenders $393.96, and Premiers $437.96 (+ tax of course). The Executive membership is $55 more than Gold membership, so it's really a no brainer.

 

55000 miles is a goodly distance. Get one of these, report back with remaining tread depth, maybe full name of tire too.

 

Too fancy;
My tread gauge cost me 1¢




measuring tread from bottom of groove to top of Lincoln's hair line.
yes - the penny has to be upside down.

.

 

That gauge is no good here, in Mendel's and my climate zone. A good one will cost at least 25¢.
[insert image of George Washington quarter]

But even that gives just a go/no-go answer. Being an engineer type that makes use of numbers, I've switched to the same gauge that Mendel pictures. It allows me to better track tire wear progress.

My OEM Prius tires are now at 5/32" with 34k miles, and are already becoming a problem on our rainy winter roads. It isn't getting used much in our foul weather, another vehicle with better tires gets that use. These should get me through much of next summer, but will need replacement before next winter.

 

Replaced the original Yokohama Avids at 72k - they were at 3/32nds. Tires can legally be run to 1/32nd, but you have less wet weather performance at such low tread depths....

 

... in California.

My state of Washington requires twice as much tread depth. As do 41 other states and all of Canada, according to a local tire shop.

But even that is pushing it on our wet roads. Many sources are now recommending 4/32nds, hence the advice to gauge by George's head on a quarter, not Abe's head on a penny. And I'm already feeling sharply reduced rain traction at 5/32nds.

 

if we're talkin' a REAL winter - well in Montana, then THIS is how we (can't believe I'm saying this) roll;



of course, not all states let you chew up their roads the way Montana does. Nice thing about a separate set of winter tires is that your summer set lasts 2x as long.1
.

 

Out here, we can use those for only the coldest 5 months of winter. They must be taken off for the other half of winter, even while summer tires or 2/32nds treads are still too hazardous for our wet roads.

 

Studded snows are very rare here. On the wet coast, snow is another endangered species. I dutifully put our snows on every November, take them off sometime in March, but we get very little snow, some years near nil. Temperatures go below freezing, but as often as not in tandem with clear skies.

 

When the tire feels like a baby's butt, you have gone way too far on them.

 

Studded tires get banned because they chew up the roads, but then they get legalized again due to safety. Every state and province seem to have their own ideas.

 

There are numerous posts regarding these tires (mostly positive I believe). Some folks are willing to take a small mileage hit for the longevity of the Defenders, and a larger hit for the dry/wet grip offered by the Premiers. My brother-in-law changed the stock Yokohama's to the Premiers, and noticed superior grip and handling at the expense of 3 mpg when pumped up to somewhere around 42/40.

I do mostly city driving, so higher grip limits don't mean so much to me. I'll wait to see how long my Yokohama's last before deciding on which tire to buy.

 

I'm unclear about a few details regarding when to replace the tires.

Is is when any part of the circumferential tread grooves are at or below 2/32nd? Or is it when all of the grooves are below 2/32nd or average below 2/32nd? Does only the central groove count or the more peripherally ones?

No snow issues for me and I also have the Yokohama Avids.

 

City driving is where I most notice degraded traction. Yes, speeds are lower. But hills are steeper, and surface conditions are more variable, with more metal covers and smooth paint and polished tar. And, the event horizon where new hazards appear is much much closer than out on the highway, so surprises requiring prompt response are more frequent.