9/16ths of an inch sure sounds off. I would have sworn that the tires came with about 5/8 inch of tread or a hair more. I just measured from the bottom of the tread to the top of the lug not counting the wear indicators or other molded bits sown between the tread lugs and have 14/32 to 15/32 left depending on where I measure- front/back of lug or center/edge of tread. With those numbers I shouldn't have to change the tires until almost 95k miles! Something sounds wrong, I doubt it's with the vernier calipers or machinist ruler.

 

I don't know if NJTEX is in New Jersey or Texas or what but here in Texas it's not uncommon to log over 20,000 miles a year. I will log almost 12,000 just going to work this year and when hunting season comes around I normally go twice a month to the ranch and that's a 350 mile round trip plus some miles to head down by Austin or up around Dallas for some wheeling or visiting family and you start adding them up pretty quick. If the national average is about 14,000/yr before a car starts to be considered high mileage, in Texas it's about 18,000/yr before you even start wondering if it was all city or highway miles. I'll take 20,000 highway miles over 14,000 city miles any day!

 

Just reposting what Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co has listed. YES, that is to the wear bar when new. Once you get to the wear bar Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co (as well as most tire companies) consider the tires spent. Usually you will have a 3/16ths depth wear bar. Measure your tires in the center of the trerad from the wear bar to the top of the lug. I use a simple tread depth gauge from Cooper tire, not sure about your fancy tools but it seems you are not measuring from the proper point (tread wear bar) to the top of the tread in the center of the tires tread lugs.

 

Just kidding with you. I wish I could reduce my yearly mileage but no such luck just yet. I have BFG AT's that I put on about 30K ago. About half of the little rubber pieces that connect to the outside of the tread blocks when the tires new, are still there. It hardlyy looks like I've put any miles on them at all. I dont think they are the best tire for the H3 but I am very happy with the way they are wearing. I have no doubt I will get 75-80K out of them.

 

Okay, re-measured from the tread wear bars and all is now good. I'm still about 1/2 way down after all.

 

Yep, you're almost dead on with our mileages. Its wifey's daily driver, she's in field sales with her office almost 50 mi away to boot. The truck is doing great from the repair side of things and the body/interior is holding up better than any other vehicle we've ever owned.

 

I didn't rotate the original Wrangler 265's and they cupped and got noisy at maybe 25k miles. It was a drag having an nice new truck with noisy/rough riding tires, handling really wasn't an issue. After that I rotated them but the damage was done and they never got better until 2 of them wore out at about 65k miles. At that point I replaced all 5 tires with 285 Duratracs.

I suppose in today's economy, I would also have considered just picking up two used Wranglers to get the truck to about 85k miles before all new tires were needed. On the other hand, we're in Northern NJ so we would have been taking a chance with winter driving.

Regarding rotation, it's the first 20-30k miles from new that are the most important. I do it myself with a nice floor jack and 40 year old Sears 1/2" electric impact wrench so it only takes a 1/2 hour while I'm waiting for the oil to drain from the pan.

 

Awsome 122K and still running strong! Great to hear that since we are keeping the 2 we have now!

 

Necropost, I know.. But I have a question and rather than start another thread, I thought I'd ask it here..

I've got the 285-75-16's on my H3 and it's almost time for a new set of shoes and I'm looking at Duratracs.

I've always been a sports car guy, so the tire naming nomenclature when getting into 32's, 33's and 35's hasn't sunk in yet.

I don't think I want 35's. Just too much meat and from what I understand, I the 285's are basically already 33's, is this correct?

 

265 = 32"

285 = 33"

315 = 35"

You still have to look at the tire mfg info, but the above #s are the rule of thumb. 315s are actually 34.5" for most mfgs, others are closer to 35, and some are even a bit more.