More than a decade ago, the Penny Test for tires was born. This is the quickest way to determine the tread wear of a tire. You only need to place the coin upside down on a tire’s tread channels. The condition of the tire can be indicated depending on Lincoln’s visibility. With that simple step, you would know if it is time to give your vehicle a new set of tires.
On a standard basis, if the penny still shows the top of Lincoln’s hair, it only means that the tread has worn to less than 2/32 of an inch or 1.6 mm. This condition has been accepted before. However, Tire Rack says that in order to have a safer driving during wet weather, the Penny Test should be raised to the Quarter Test. The Quarter Test raises the 2/32 of an inch to 4/32. This could be known when the amount of rubber upon placing a quarter in a tire’s channels still shows Washington’s scalp.
The 2/32 state of the tire is indeed dangerous because there is little rubber to be used for gripping in emergency situations. In fact, some states here in America had made driving with tires in this condition to be illegal. It is also stated that at high speeds, the resistance to hydroplaning (this is the condition where the tires float over water on the road rather than gripping on the pavement) is reduced and stopping distances is increased.
As compared to the 4/32 condition, the small amount of extra rubber that is present makes a great difference in terms of stopping distances. When you only have 2/32 of an inch tire depth, you are sacrificing a lot on wet stopping ability.
With this, I guess there is nothing wrong in adopting the Quarter Test. You know, you would surely be replacing your tires frequently than usual. But the safety that such offers to you is the best thing you could get. It would really be practical to spend for replacement tires rather than anything else.
