Sandman GTI
Drag Race Newbie
- Location
- Tennessee USA
Tread wear - Bridgestone RE-11's. Summer Tires. 235/40R18".
On OZ Leggera HLT 18" x 8" wheels.
Total package is 5lbs lighter at each corner compared to OE.
Last summer I ran my new RE-11's for 8 months.
I did not track the car and for a GTI owner I am on the conservative side with driving. What is conservative? On the interstate Tennessee speed limit is 70, I run 75 but will go up to 80 if traffic flow is 80 and normally is even thru the mountains. I rarely spin wheels, which the LSD helps to limit anyway, plus I have respect for tires due to my daily job. I drive my GTI daily but share time with truck, driving to work. Miles driven were a little over 10,000. Measured depth with Tirerack gauge, which even measures in 1/32" increment.
The RE-11's have 9/32" tread depth when new according to Tirerack.
I think this depth is from surface to bottom of grooves and not to the top of the wear indicators. The wear indicators show when there is 2/32" tread left. So the safe usable tread is 7/32". For this post I will reference measurements to the bottom of the groove in relation to the 9/32" new tread depth.
Tread left after first season. Location is where I put the tires this time.
Front Left - 7.5/32"
Front Right - 8/32"
Rear Left - 6/32"
Rear Right - 6/32"
Based on above you see the rears from last year are now on front. Rears wore 1/32" in 10,000 miles. Fronts wore 3/32".
So after this season I should have 5/32" left on fronts and 5/32" left on rear. After the 3rd season I should be close to the 2/32" wear indicators.
3 years would be great and more than I thought I would get. But the third year will be interesting when heavy rains occur. With only 5/32" and limited siping hydroplaning could be an issue. Will need to test and watch.
My car has 35,000 miles on it so 10,000 on the RE-11's and 25,000 on the OE RE-97 A/S tires.
One of the all season tires was replaced when a pot hole took it life so one tire is only half way worn. One other tire is worn to the wear indicators and the other two are 1/32" to 2/32" from the wear indicators.
At the half way point the tires wore even. The tire that is worn out has more wear on center rib. The set is getting noisy so I think between now and the fall I will look for a new A/S set and maybe keep the 1 tire still with tread as a pot hole spare if needed. So to compare at this point the RE-11 summer tires may out perform the A/S tires. I think this speaks a lot for the RE-11 set.
The Firestone Indy 500 has a tread depth of 10/32" so wear might be similar but I am sure compound is different. FYI.
Hope this info helps.
Suggest you buy a tread depth gauge if you swap tires. I mark my tires when I remove them telling me the location they need to be installed next time they go on the GTI. Over the winter I removed these tags to clean and wax the wheels. In doing this I must have tagged two incorrectly. Only by checking the tread depth did I catch this error. You can sort of tell which had more depth and needed to go on front but with a depth gauge I was 100% sure.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
On OZ Leggera HLT 18" x 8" wheels.
Total package is 5lbs lighter at each corner compared to OE.
Last summer I ran my new RE-11's for 8 months.
I did not track the car and for a GTI owner I am on the conservative side with driving. What is conservative? On the interstate Tennessee speed limit is 70, I run 75 but will go up to 80 if traffic flow is 80 and normally is even thru the mountains. I rarely spin wheels, which the LSD helps to limit anyway, plus I have respect for tires due to my daily job. I drive my GTI daily but share time with truck, driving to work. Miles driven were a little over 10,000. Measured depth with Tirerack gauge, which even measures in 1/32" increment.
The RE-11's have 9/32" tread depth when new according to Tirerack.
I think this depth is from surface to bottom of grooves and not to the top of the wear indicators. The wear indicators show when there is 2/32" tread left. So the safe usable tread is 7/32". For this post I will reference measurements to the bottom of the groove in relation to the 9/32" new tread depth.
Tread left after first season. Location is where I put the tires this time.
Front Left - 7.5/32"
Front Right - 8/32"
Rear Left - 6/32"
Rear Right - 6/32"
Based on above you see the rears from last year are now on front. Rears wore 1/32" in 10,000 miles. Fronts wore 3/32".
So after this season I should have 5/32" left on fronts and 5/32" left on rear. After the 3rd season I should be close to the 2/32" wear indicators.
3 years would be great and more than I thought I would get. But the third year will be interesting when heavy rains occur. With only 5/32" and limited siping hydroplaning could be an issue. Will need to test and watch.
My car has 35,000 miles on it so 10,000 on the RE-11's and 25,000 on the OE RE-97 A/S tires.
One of the all season tires was replaced when a pot hole took it life so one tire is only half way worn. One other tire is worn to the wear indicators and the other two are 1/32" to 2/32" from the wear indicators.
At the half way point the tires wore even. The tire that is worn out has more wear on center rib. The set is getting noisy so I think between now and the fall I will look for a new A/S set and maybe keep the 1 tire still with tread as a pot hole spare if needed. So to compare at this point the RE-11 summer tires may out perform the A/S tires. I think this speaks a lot for the RE-11 set.
The Firestone Indy 500 has a tread depth of 10/32" so wear might be similar but I am sure compound is different. FYI.
Hope this info helps.
Suggest you buy a tread depth gauge if you swap tires. I mark my tires when I remove them telling me the location they need to be installed next time they go on the GTI. Over the winter I removed these tags to clean and wax the wheels. In doing this I must have tagged two incorrectly. Only by checking the tread depth did I catch this error. You can sort of tell which had more depth and needed to go on front but with a depth gauge I was 100% sure.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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