Tire Tread Depth Gauge

Welcome to our tire tread depth gauge page! In most of the US the law requires that motor vehicles have at least 2/32 inch of tire tread left on their tires in order to be legally roadworthy (don't take this as legal advice, check with your state's motor vehicle department). And that is where a tire tread depth gauge comes in, because it is really hard to measure the remaining tread on your tires with a ruler. A tire tread depth gauge is a tool used to accurately measure the depth of tread on a vehicles tire, and a quality gauge will measure in increments of 1/32 inches.

A good practice is to check both the inner and outer grooves on your tires, that way you will be able to tell early if there is some kind of problem with the way the tire is wearing. Also don't check just one area of the tire, pick 4 places to check the groove so that you can detect a potential problem. Although 2/32" is the legal requirements, for snowy conditions 4/32" is recommended.

As you can imagine there are a variety of tire gauges available. Some are combined with a tire pressure gauge, and some are digital. Lets look at some of the popular ones.

Milton S448 Tire Tread Depth Gauge

This is your basic tread gauge, it has a round aluminium indicator bar that is calibrated for measurements from 0" to 1" by 1/32" markings. The contact tip is profiled to work in narrow spaces between tread. And although it is very basic, it does what it is designed to do, as these customer comments indicate: "What's to say? It's a tread depth gauge, it either works or it doesn't...
this one works. It is built well,easy to use and the price is right." and "I was looking for an easy way to measure tread wear on a new set of tires. This is a cheap and easy way to do so." and "Good quality. Does the job. Well oiled when first out of the package. Also since I couldn't find them at any of the three auto stores locally it was a good value."

x Tread Digital Tire Gage

This is one of the fancier digital models of tire tread depth gauges, which features a measuring range of 0-1.0 inches (0-25mm) with a very fine resolution of .0005 inches (.001mm) or 1/64". The battery is a 3V type CR 2032 Lithium Battery 1 year battery life. It is a great tool to quickly and accurately measures tread depth in one easy step. One happy customer says: "I have no faults with this product because it does perform more precise than most consumers need it to be. This gauge measures down to .001mm which is much more than an average everyday consumer will need when calibrated properly. The unit does have a 'zero' out function so that you can zero out the tool. nice little feature."

So there you are, go ahead and make sure your tires are road legal or safe to go in the snow before winter.