Sprinter van tire tread wear
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 tires with Firestone tires, driven to unsafe levels. This is what even wear looks like for high mileage tires.
How much tread is enough?
In the United States, tire tread depth is measured in 32nds of an inch.
New tires typically come with 10/32” or 11/32” tread depths, and some truck, SUV and winter tires may have deeper tread depths than other models. The U.S. Department of Transportation recommends replacing tires when they reach 2/32”, and many states legally require tires to be replaced at this depth.
In Europe, think metric. While the minimum legal tread depth for all passenger car tyres in Europe is 1.6 mm, it is safer to replace them at a depth of 2 mm at least. Weather considerations mean that the wear limit is set at 4 mm for winter tyres.
For reference
2/32” = 0.063’ = 1.59mm
3/32" = 0.094” = 2.38mm
5/32" = 0.156” = 3.97mm
The Penny Test
The idea of the penny test is to check whether you’ve hit the 2/32” threshold. Here’s how it works:
Place a penny between the tread ribs on your tire. A “rib” refers to the raised portion of tread that spans the circumference of your tire. Tire tread is composed of several ribs.
Turn the penny so that Lincoln’s head points down into the tread.
See if the top of his head disappears between the ribs. If it does, your tread is still above 2/32” , If you can see his entire head, it may be time to replace the tire because your tread is no longer deep enough.
When performing the penny tire test, remember not only to check each tire, but to check various places around each tire. Pay special attention to areas that look the most worn. Even if parts of your tread are deeper than 2/32”, you should still replace the tire when any areas fail the penny test.
Consistent wear around the whole tire is normal, but uneven tread wear could be a sign of improper inflation, wheel misalignment, or a variety of other things. If you see uneven tread wear, you should have a technician inspect your vehicle.
WEAR IN THE MIDDLE
If you notice your tires seem to have a lot of wear on the middle treads, this might be an indication of over-inflation. Over-inflated tires cause the center treads of the tire to bear the majority of the vehicle’s weight. Tire pressure tends to fluctuate often, so it is important to regularly to ensure they are inflated to the proper amount as to avoid this type of tire wear. With the Sprinter running E rated (10 ply) tires you can run these up to 80PSI. So this shouldn’t ever really be a problem. Check out this post on what we do run our tire pressure at. When and why.
WEAR ON THE SIDES
Wear on the sides of the tires can be an indication of under-inflation. Under-inflation causes the sides of the tires to bear the majority of the check your tire pressure vehicle’s weight. Consistently driving on under-inflated tires can cause this type of tire wear pattern over time. Ensuring your tire pressure is at the right level can help you to avoid this type of wear. There’s a way to tune your ride with the tire pressure on your Sprinter Van. But running the tires too low will indeed wear the edges like this. Check out this post on what we do run our tire pressure at. When and why.
SPORADIC WEAR
Sporadic tire wear tends to look uneven and patchy and can be a result of numerous issues including improper inflation, misalignment, rough driving, or even suspension issues. Generally, however, if you notice a sporadic wear pattern on your tires, it’s a good indication that you’re overdue for a wheel balancing to ensure that your vehicle’s weight is being distributed evenly to all wheels.
FEATHER EDGE WEAR
Feather edge wear gives a “feathered” appearance at which one side of the tread is smooth and the other is raised or tough. This may be an indication that your tires are misaligned and you’re due for a tire alignment. This is quite common for the front tires on a Sprinter Van however. Especially on heavy builds or RVs.
The front tires on Sprinter Vans can begin to cup or feather on the front tires. The cupping occurs on the inside of the tire and can begin to create vibrations and even misalignment. We have found a few reasons why this might be happening.
BFGoodrich TA KO2 245/65R16 with about 15,000
This example shows the areas where you’ll find cupping or feathering in the tread. This set of tires was on a 2013 NVC3 2500 144. They were rotated at about 7,000 miles from the front and now have seen another 7-8,000 miles on the front. This wear is something you’ll only find on the front tires of a Sprinter Van. Struts were replaced about 3000 miles ago with Red Koni units. So the wear in this case, though mild is not caused by failed struts.
Toyo Open Country A/T III with 10,000 miles
The front tire off of a 2013 NVC3 2500 144. You can see the cupping on the inner part of the tire. The struts in this case were 9 years old and had 110,000 miles on them. They hadn’t failed yet but were likely nearing the end of their life. We recommend replacing struts at about 60,000-75,000 miles. For sure at 100,000 miles.
Cooper Discoverer ATP with 15,000 miles
After testing these for 10,000 mile, we started seeing cupping occur on the outer edge of the tread, mounted on a 2020 VS30 2500 4x4 Crew Van with a very lightweight build only having a single bench seat, simple L track mounted bed frame and some camp/ski gear. No water or batteries. Van has only 30,000 miles and has had an alignment and the wheels and tires balanced recently. This wear is not caused by loose or work parts.
We have found that the cupping on tires, especially on All Terrain tires seems to be a common issue on NVC3 and VS30 vans. We feel this occurrence is caused by two things. The large blocky tread design of these types of tires and the general geometry of heavier vehicles with struts and single lower control arms. A similar design to this can be found on many vehicles. Owners of Toyota Tacoma or 4Runner as well as Chevy/GMC Duramax have found this to be a common phenomenon and will say the cupping is cased by bad shocks or loose ball joints. While this will absolutely cause uneven and rapid wear of tires, the cupping we have witnessed appears over the course of 5-10,000 miles and occurs on the inside of both front tires equally. When the wear is even across both left and right tires it’s extremely unlikely that the joints have failed on both sides. We have also witnessed this wear on low mileage OEM struts as well as newly installed KONI struts. The one possible reason could be alignment but we feel it’s the design.
As a heavier vehicle brakes or ungulates over different surfaces it’s weight and mass causes the front of the vehicle to dip and go through it’s suspension travel. Duh, this is what suspension is meant to do. As the suspension compresses, the wheels travel at an arc from something called the Virtual Reaction Point. The pivot point that the geometry of the suspension travels from. From this point the travel creates an arc and rolls the tire from it’s flat neutral position to it’s compressed position putting the contact on the tire primarily on the inside tread of the tire. This creates uneven wear on the inside part of the tire.
On compression the tire rolls in the Pivot Radius area (inside edge of the tire)
Flat even contact and wear
On compression and braking inside edge contact
So now what?
Short answer, there’s not much you can do other than to rotate your wheels/tires. When the cupping begins your tires will get louder on the front and you’ll simply be able to see the actually first signs of cupping. Don’t wait for it to get too bad. It’s generally good practice to rotate your tires every 10,000 miles. In this case you might find even rotating sooner might help. Rotating every 5,000-7,000 miles and allowing them to wear evenly on the rear might be the best solution.
However…
There are camber shims that help with this.
