The American Penny; we use it everyday to help pay for things. Most of use remember buying a piece of candy for a penny. But it was a very nice older man that had an auto repair shop near my home. I learned many things from him regarding auto repairs. I went to his church several time. had classes with his daughter and son in school.
One day he asked me if I thought a Penny could save a life. I was about 13 years old. I replied "I have no idea.....maybe not." He showed me that it was a real penny and placed the penny in a car tire. He told me that the penny told him that the car tire tread depth was a critical depth and needed to be replaced. I asked him to show me further. As I was young and so was my mind. I needed to gain as much knowledge as possible regarding this "TRICK"
Your car tires are manufactured by a company and there is a tread depth to each one. Most tires are manufactured with a tread depth around 8/32 to 10/32 tread depth. Most of use driving do not even know that info just they look at the tread and think......:it looks like they might be getting thin and might need new tires.
So when you go to the tire shop you ask for them to balance and rotate your tires. If the repair shop is a good shop the tech's will tell you your tire tread depth and about when they might need replacing. They should record the tread depth on your paper work and explain what can go wrong if they exceed a minimum tread depth. Manufactures will have a minimum depth before failure.
I stated that when you buy a new tire it can have between 8/32 to 10/32 tread depth. This will depend on the mileage of the tires you are buying. The higher mileage will have more tread depth......lower mileage tires will have less tread depth.
Now to the Penny and how it can save your life!
The Penny. You know what it is and what its used for but there is another use for this one cent piece. You can use it to check your tire tread depth.
> Insert the Penny in the tire tread with President Lincoln heads upside down.
> If you see his hole head and nothing is obstructed by the tire tread then you are below a minimum standard set forth by the FHSA (Federal Highway Safety Administration) of 2/32 tread depth.
> If you cannot see the top of his head and at the point of the ear to top of the head is not shown by the tread depth you have between 2/32 and 4/32 seconds of tread depth.
You need to check the tires for the following > bald spots missing tread, steel belts showing these are early signs of tire failure. If these are on the steer tire and failure happens it can cause an accident. If you have a tire fail on you while you are driving not only will it cause an accident but it will cause major damage to your car.
By using a penny and inserting it upside down with the head inserted into the tread depth and seeing the top of President Lincoln head you are below a minimum of 2/32 tread depth and the tires need to be replaced. Always have the tire properly inflated to the pressure on the tire. Some will want to do what the vehicle says. But you are not buying the same tire that it was transported from the factory with.
I hope you can take from this that a penny is not a useless piece of money.
Good rule of thumb > > no less then 6/32 tread depth on the steer tires, 4/32 on the drive. DO NOT use when the tires are at 2/32 or blow. Tire failure is lurking around the corner. It may happen at the wrong time and place (raining, snowing, fog or side of mountain.)
Finally a small note > when you buy tire make sure that the tire sidewalls are not closed. You need the tire to be able to expel water, snow/sleet & freezing rain from the center groves to prevent HYDROPLANING!
I hope you have learned how a penny can save your life and vehicle repairs/maintenance.
Be safe,
Roy
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