Tire tread depth and tire life. Is there a connection?

When buying tires, the resource is one of the most sought-after characteristics. However, the criteria by which buyers try to choose tires are often not related to the resource. First of all, it is not suitable for our conditions and often simply misleads buyers, and it may simply be absent. Then car owners pay attention to the tread. It is logical to assume that the more tread, the longer it will wear out. Maybe it's logical, but it's not true.

The tread has no connection with the resource. You can often find tire models where manufacturers claim to increase the resource, but at the same time reduce the tread depth. There is no trick here, manufacturers just pursue several goals when designing the tread depth and often reduce it when updating. As you know, noise directly depends on the tread and its depth, and noise is a much more important parameter if the tire is to be installed as original equipment on a car. In this case, engineers reduce the tread depth, but at the same time maintain the resource or even increase it by adding modern technologies in the form of complex components and elastomers to the rubber compound.

As you know, the composition of the rubber compound is not disclosed to us, and even if it were, few people would understand it. But when choosing tires with a high resource, you should not rely on the tread depth, but on the manufacturer's comments, if they exist, of course, because guaranteeing the resource is a risky business, and much depends on the conditions in which the tire was operated.