Quote:
Originally Posted by Errowen
The wear bars indicate whether the tire is safe to drive on, but they don't indicate whether the tire will still do the snow job. I think a snow tire's grip is a function of the sharp edges on the hundreds of sipes in the tread blocks -- at the micro level, those edges slice the ice just like a skate blade. Once those sipe edges are rounded, the tire's icy road performance will be gone, regardless of how much tread is left.
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My winter tires have two sets of wear bars, 6/32" and 2/32". So did some Goodyear winter tires I was looking at. But others apparently don't have the 6/32" bars. The article on tread depth at Tire Rack says,
Quote:
Because tread depth is such an important element for snow traction, winter tires usually start with noticeably deeper tread depths than typical All-Season or summer tires. Some winter tires even have a second series of "wear bars" molded in their tread pattern indicating approximately 6/32" remaining tread depth to warn you when your tires no longer meet the desired tread depth.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=51
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