Tire wear, like brake pad wear, is not linear. As the tire wears down the wear rate decreases. Early tire wear is greater than it will be later in the tire's life cycle. So you can't accurately extrapolate tire tread life based upon early readings. In other words, when you have 1/2 of the tread gone, you still have more than 1/2 of the total mileage that the tire will run.
:agree: - for
most tires anyway! And the tendency of the tread depth to 'pack down' thru its initial use doesn't help that either - it makes it
look like your tire's 1/4 worn in just the first couple of thousand miles when the reality is that there's actually been very little wear/loss of tread material, it's just compressed the tread layers a tad, cos it's started being used & is now carrying a load!!
However, there are a few tires where the way the manufacturers have built up the various layers of tread & vary the compound etc, somewhat differently to others, and some of those tires seemingly take aaaaggggess to
start to wear, then seemingly suddenly, the tread just starts to peel off! :shocked: There was a time when Continentals had a bit of a reputation for this, and some Michelins too! And there are some other brands & types of tires that work the other way, too! Not so much lately tho, the materials used & the construction/manufacturing processes tend to make that less of an issue, but there are still
some manufacturers out there that deliberately build one or the other of those wear patterns into some of their tires, and a few where it still happens purely as a result of 'less than ideal' manufacturing processes or a lack of quality control!
Regardless, you've gotta look after your tires from when they're first fitted; and that includes running them at or at least near the right pressures for the load
from the word GO!! Running them at too high of a pressure 'until you start to see the abnormal/undesired tread wear pattern' is a mistake, maybe even self-fulfilling prophecy!! :banghead: Do that, and you
WILL have started the wear pattern that'll be virtually impossible to safely change much at all; at least, not without shaving the tire & losing
LOTS of potential tread life in the process! :gaah:
) and even then, there's a very good chance that the OEM Kendas will still wear excessively in the middle of the tread!! :gaah: :banghead:
