Getting worn Swampers inspected

ManglerYJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Lexington, NC
I have a set of worn Swampers on a little truck that I rarely drive. They are worn in the center (looks like they were overinflated in their previous life), but still have a little "tread". They are not racing slicks, but I was wondering what the official inspection rule is on tires.

For instance, the fact that they have side lugs with a ton of tread left, would I be able to make a case that the tread should be measured there, or are they required to measure it in the center of the tire?

When the snow melts, I can snap a pic of the tread if that helps.
 
by law on the street anything under 3-32nds will not pass nc state inspection. thats is in any two spots on the tire may it be center of the tread or on the outer sides of the tread.
 
A lot of people incuding tire shops regroove tires because of wore center's. I would find someone to cut the bars back on those swampers and let them ride. Inspectons must be getting pretty tough, I've never had anyone check my tires.
 
Here are some pics I just snapped:

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It only looks like one tire would be questionable but seeing the outer lugs I would cut those wear bars out and get a lot more life out of the tires. Has someone already failed the tires? If thats the case its in the system and DMV already knows and everywhere you take them will check your tires.
 
I'd grove them...but remember...the more you grove..the thinner the tire gets. The will puncture alot easier in the groved areas
 
So far, I haven't even tried getting it inspected. It's not due for a couple months. But the tires aren't goiing to get better by themselves. Doe anyone in the Lexington area have a groover I could use?
 
Flip the penny over if you can see all of abe's hair it will fail if part of his head is cut off it SHOULD pass but if its close an inspector with the actual tire measure tool may fail it
 
Try 64 auto on highway 64, good place to get inspected.
 
Unless you know someone at the shop.....I'd say that those won't pass insprctionn. You might wanna see if you can borrow someone elses tire for the inspection
 
x2 on Abe's hair. I think all will pass except the last one. I was failed for tires, the inspector told me he had to measure at a certain number of spots (3x maybe) across the tread do that in at least 2? places per tire.
I've also had some pass that had exceptional wear on the outer edges, it seems to be hit or miss, just depends on the anal retentativenss of the inspector.
 
Are you required to have a spare tire? If not, I could throw the spare on in place of the bad tire and probably be fine.
 
If thats the case its in the system and DMV already knows and everywhere you take them will check your tires.

Are you sure that's true?

I know the subaru I bought last year didn't pass inspection, it was purchased from SC and the woman at the office gave me the title without asking about inspection (she was supposed to, but hey. I got the plates).

The point being, I've literally never had the car pass inspection, have had it fail inspection because of an exhaust leak and I've never heard anything about it from the DMV.

Is there actually a "system" that inspection stations log into, you come in for an inspection, they run your plates or vin and the reason the vehicle has failed inspection comes up? That sounds pretty far-fetched to me. Maybe in counties where they have more than just a safety inspection?
 
Are you required to have a spare tire? If not, I could throw the spare on in place of the bad tire and probably be fine.

^^^That is your best bet to have the tires pass inspection. I would also suggest you invest in a little tire tread guage. For less than $7 or so you can pick up one from a local parts shop. Stay away from the "Tire pressure guage/tread depth gauge" combos, they don't give an actual 32nd reading. So you can know for sure if the tires will pass or not.

A heated knife/tire grooving iron will run you about $60. If you weren't 2 hours away I would let you borrow mine. I actually keep it in my truck in case I run into someone when working on vehicles etc that wants to groove their tires (actually have had 2 people use it so far). Grooving out the wear bars isn't that bad of a job, just time consuming.

There is a guy out here in Matthews that inspects my truck that would pass it, but again that is a long drive and will eat up some tread on those tires. And oh yes if your truck fails it goes into the system when the shop enters your trucks information (tags etc). Depending on what it fails for some shops won't even touch it because of the red flag that pops up. In a lot of cases you will have to take it back to the shop that failed it to get it re-inspected. So when you go get it inspected make sure you're ready.
 
And oh yes if your truck fails it goes into the system when the shop enters your trucks information (tags etc). Depending on what it fails for some shops won't even touch it because of the red flag that pops up. In a lot of cases you will have to take it back to the shop that failed it to get it re-inspected. So when you go get it inspected make sure you're ready.

That's crazy, I must just have gotten lucky. All 3 of my vehicles required multiple attempts and different shops to pass inspection, never once was there any mention of previous failures. Exhaust leak, bad cat, and no parking brake were the reasons for each one. Maybe those aren't bad enough to raise a red flag?

Mangler, throw on that spare and cross your fingers. For counties that don't have emissions checks the standards are fairly gentle.

If they do fail you, and you're on the books for insufficient tread depth, that's not really a hard one to fix...
 
one tire does look questionable... stations cant tell if youve had it inspected at another shop. DMV can but most time might not do anything about it. you wont get in trouble but the station will. worst case scenerio, you fail, you get 60 days to get a passing tire. try and see what the station does. Try to get away from a busy road not on a main street state doesnt watch them as much, sometimes they let stuff pass let them know its not used much, that helps.
 
I think the "If the stations can tell or not" etc is based on where you go and what county you are in. Took the 626 to get inspected one year a while back and it failed because the Cat. had been tampered with. Someone had tried to steal it/cut into it. So we took it by a local shop where we knew the guy, he showed us on the computer it came up red flagged. So we had to take it back to the other shop after getting the cat fixed.

I wouldn't worry too much about it all. If you swap the spare tire on then you will have done all you could. If you grab the tire tread depth gauge before hand and check it, then you will know if it will pass. Up to you.
 
I'll probably do as suggested, swap the spare on. If it fails, I'll look at that point for someone to borrow a set of tires from. No sense dinking with all that if it's not needed.

Eventually, I'll need to buy new tires for it, but for as little as I drive this thing, the tires do just fine as is. Plus, they look kinda bad ass for such a little truck.
 
If ya know someone getting it inspected is easy, just know if you get pulled over and the cop decides to ask, you had better tires on when it was inspected :)
 
If ya know someone getting it inspected is easy, just know if you get pulled over and the cop decides to ask, you had better tires on when it was inspected :)


very true, even with tint:popcorn:

DRaider90, Ive never seen that flag so i shouldnt say that they cant. I have failed a vehicle and they took it somewhere and they passed it. so I have no idea. Im in Gaston county aswell
 
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