Do tires wear faster as they get to the wear bars?

[Kern Dog]

I have a curious mind and am always wondering about stuff like this.
Recently, I was at a car show and noticed that my front tires were almost bald on the edges. I had it aligned months ago. It steers, handles and drives great. I'm sure it had more tread when I brought it to that shop.
I've noticed that when using a cutoff wheel on a grinder, once I get to about 2/3 the original diameter, the wheel seems to wear faster to the end.
Does that same thing happen with tires?
These are a 200 treadwear model, Nitto NT 05.

The 200 treadwear rating means that they are sticky but they won't last long. They never seem to squeal even during hard cornering. They do grip well.
The worn set was put on 7 years ago so by some people's standard, they were ready to be replaced anyway.
What do you think? Do tires wear faster from 50% tread to zero than they did from 100% to 50% ?

 

[MarPar]

I have a curious mind and am always wondering about stuff like this.
Recently, I was at a car show and noticed that my front tires were almost bald on the edges. I had it aligned months ago. It steers, handles and drives great. I'm sure it had more tread when I brought it to that shop.
I've noticed that when using a cutoff wheel on a grinder, once I get to about 2/3 the original diameter, the wheel seems to wear faster to the end.
Does that same thing happen with tires?
These are a 200 treadwear model, Nitto NT 05.

View attachment 1505997

The 200 treadwear rating means that they are sticky but they won't last long. They never seem to squeal even during hard cornering. They do grip well.
The worn set was put on 7 years ago so by some people's standard, they were ready to be replaced anyway.
What do you think? Do tires wear faster from 50% tread to zero than they did from 100% to 50% ?

As to your tire question...I dunno. But I 100% agree with you on the grinder discs.

 

[R413]

I don’t think so. I had a car I ran a lot of freeway and would run them down to the wear bars often. But these were normal passenger tires with treadwear number 500-600.

the worn cutoff wheels are half the size or a new one and that’s why they wear out so fast when small.

 

[SlingLow]

Thinking about it I would say yes, slightly. As the tire wears the circumference decreases slightly meaning slightly more revolutions at a given speed, ergo quicker wear at the end. Same on the grinder disc only more exaggerated.

 

[Kern Dog]

Thinking about it I would say yes, slightly. As the tire wears the circumference decreases slightly meaning slightly more revolutions at a given speed, ergo quicker wear at the end. Same on the grinder disc only more exaggerated.

See, that is the crux of my question.....To maintain the same speed, the smaller diameter has to spin faster so it travels more revolutions per mile until they are too unsafe to keep using.

 

[eldubb440]

well.......it seems like the lower a fuel gauge gets, the faster it goes

maybe it's just a car thing

 

[Virg464]

I have a curious mind and am always wondering about stuff like this.
Recently, I was at a car show and noticed that my front tires were almost bald on the edges. I had it aligned months ago. It steers, handles and drives great. I'm sure it had more tread when I brought it to that shop.
I've noticed that when using a cutoff wheel on a grinder, once I get to about 2/3 the original diameter, the wheel seems to wear faster to the end.
Does that same thing happen with tires?
These are a 200 treadwear model, Nitto NT 05.

View attachment 1505997

The 200 treadwear rating means that they are sticky but they won't last long. They never seem to squeal even during hard cornering. They do grip well.
The worn set was put on 7 years ago so by some people's standard, they were ready to be replaced anyway.
What do you think? Do tires wear faster from 50% tread to zero than they did from 100% to 50% ?

If I remember correctly, there is a harder compound when you get to he wear bars, thus the louder tire noise.

 

[Kern Dog]

well.......it seems like the lower a fuel gauge gets, the faster it goes

maybe it's just a car thing

Here is some irony....
The wife's Honda CRV fuel gauge slowly moves from full to 3/4. From 3/4 to half seems to move at a normal rate but from 1/2 to empty, it is as if I'm towing a bunch of parachutes at 80 mph. The gauge drops like a rock. In clearer terms, if I'm getting 250 miles on a tank, the gauge makes it seem like I'm only getting 50 miles from half to empty.
Strange.

 

[Don Frelier]

Well according to my logic I would say
"Looks like I'm going to need new tires pretty soon,
might as well burn these up "

So yes they would wear faster

 

[Bighouse]

Here is some irony....
The wife's Honda CRV fuel gauge slowly moves from full to 3/4. From 3/4 to half seems to move at a normal rate but from 1/2 to empty, it is as if I'm towing a bunch of parachutes at 80 mph. The gauge drops like a rock. In clearer terms, if I'm getting 250 miles on a tank, the gauge makes it seem like I'm only getting 50 miles from half to empty.
Strange.

My Honda gets exactly 335 miles to a tank commuting. But everytime I fill up, its little computer says I have a 545 miles range. I wonder

 

[kiwigtx]

I've noticed that when using a cutoff wheel on a grinder, once I get to about 2/3 the original diameter, the wheel seems to wear faster to the end.

That is due to the distance travelled by the cut-off wheel itself.....smaller diameter equals less distance travelled, equals faster rotation equals faster (apparent) wear.

Myth Busted.

 

[dadsbee]

The wheels on the bus go round and round... round and round

 

[moparedtn]

I've never noticed if tires wear faster once the wear bars appear - I replace the damn things, since
that's what the wear bars are for.

 

[WileERobby]

WileERobby's First Law of Physics: Things get heavier as you get older.

 

[khryslerkid]

I've had sets of tires that seem to wear faster after a certain amount of miles, especially motorcycle tires. It must have been mainly the bias ply tires back in the day. Tires now days seem to dry rot before the tread wears off.

 

[Cranky]

Do the math..... measure the circumference of the tire (roll out) when it's new then measure it when it gets down to the wear indicators and see what the difference is.

 

[Kern Dog]

I truly do not know the answer to this. A yes and a no could both be possible.
It just seems weird that I was driving the car for over 6 years and didn't notice much wear, then within a few months the tread grooves on the outer and inner edges just faded away.
A tire company engineer should have some insight.
Anyone have contact info for the Michelin Man?

 

[WileERobby]

Yes, let us do the math ! To address the issue, using your cutoff grinder wheel as an example. The area of the disc is A = pi X r2 , or Area = 3.1416 X radius squared. Say you have a 6" disc (which is a 3" radius). The area is 28.27. Now, halfway used up, the disc is now 3", which is a 1.5" radius. The area is now 7.07. So, of course it's going to wear faster since it only has about 1/4 of it's original size.

 

[Cranky]

I truly do not know the answer to this. A yes and a no could both be possible.
It just seems weird that I was driving the car for over 6 years and didn't notice much wear, then within a few months the tread grooves on the outer and inner edges just faded away.
A tire company engineer should have some insight.
Anyone have contact info for the Michelin Man?

What does the rest of the tread look like across the tire to the inside and what is your camber like? I found that if you have more negative camber the car could use a little bit more toe-in to help it not wear so much on the inside.....

 

[Kern Dog]

The alignment specs:
.75 NEGative camber.
5.5 degrees POSitive caster.
1/8" toe IN.
The tire wear is even.
This was taken in early 2021 before I swapped in the Tremec 5 speed.

The tread grooves are only on the outside rib and the inside rib. Currently, the depth of the grooves is down to almost nothing. Performance is unchanged.