Watch your tread

Tyre treads are designed to give good wet grip but the road surface condition play a major part in tyre to road adhesion.

In general, wet grip decreases as tyre tread patterns wear down or as the depth of surface wear increases. Motorists should take this into consideration and reduce speed when it is wet. Most car tyres have tread wear indicators in the tread grooves which show when the tyre is worn to 1.6mm remaining tread.
The appearance of these indicators, level with the tread surface, should be taken as a sign that the tyre is ready for replacement.
The legal limit of tread depth for car tyres in Ireland is at least 1.6mm throughout a continuous band comprising the central three quarters of the breadth of tread and round the entire outer circumference of the tyre.

It is important to understand what the law requires in regard to the condition and care of tyres. Regulations govern many aspects of tyre condition of which the following are the principal points:

1. Tyres must be suitable (ie of the correct type and size) for the use to which the vehicle is being put and must be inflated to the vehicle or tyre manufacturers' recommended pressures.
2. Tyres of different types must not be fitted to opposite wheels of the vehicle (for example, radial-ply tyres must not be fitted to a wheel on the same axle as wheels already fitted with cross-ply tyres and vice versa, and a two-axle vehicle with single rear wheels must not have radial ply tyres on the front axle if cross ply tyres are fitted to the rear axle).
3. No tyre must have a break in its fabric or a cut deep enough to reach the body cords. No cut must be more than 25mm or 10 per cent of the tyre's section width in length, whichever is the greater.
4. There must be no lump, bulge or tear caused by separation or partial fracture of its structure, neither must any portion of the ply or cord structure be exposed.