TITLE 92: TRANSPORTATION
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AUTHORITY: Implementing Section 12-405 of The Illinois Vehicle Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 95½, par. 12-405) and authorized by Section 49.22 of the Civil Administrative Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 127, par. 49.22).
SOURCE: Filed December 20, 1972, effective January 1, 1973; codified at 8 Ill. Reg. 1693.
Section 428.10 General
These rules supplement and comply with statutory requirements.
a) Effective Date: These rules take effect January 1, 1973.
b) Authority: These rules are established pursuant to the provisions of Section 12-405 of the Illinois Vehicle Code.
c) Purpose: These rules are established to facilitate compliance with the provisions of Section 12-405 concerning the sale, lease, installation, or use of unsafe tires and, thereby, to lessen the dangers of vehicle operation on the streets and highways of this State.
d) Scope: These rules set forth precepts, criteria, and standards for use in determining, by visual inspection, whether a tire shall be considered to be unsafe. Descriptions or examples of damage, deterioration, markings, lack of markings, tread conditions, and wear are included. Also included are summaries of statutory requirements and enforcement procedures.
e) Application: These rules apply to any passenger car tire listed either in the tables of Appendix A included herewith or in future revisions of these tables issued by the Director of the Office of Transportation Safety in the Illinois Department of Transportation.
1) These rules do not apply to any tire on a wrecked, damaged, disabled, or impounded vehicle being towed to a repair, collection, salvage, holding, or storage location either with a driver in the towed vehicle or by means of a vehicle, such as a wrecker, designed and equipped for this special use.
2) These rules do not apply to a spare tire.
f) Definitions
1) Standard Definitions: Unless otherwise stated, words or terms are used in the appropriate meaning defined in Webster's Third New International Dictionary.
2) Special Definitions
"Bead" means that part of the tire made of steel wires, wrapped, or reinforced by ply cords, that is shaped to fit the rim.
"Bottom of the tread groove" means the portions of a tread groove nearest the carcass.
"Carcass" means the tire structure, except tread rubber and sidewall rubber.
"Circumference of the tire" or "Tire circumference", in connection with the spacing of either tread wear indicators or tread wear measurements, means a closed line around the tire perimeter that lies approximately in a plane perpendicular to the axis about which the tire rotates when in use.
"Cord" means the strands forming the plies in the tire.
"Depth of tread" (see "Tread groove depth").
"Highway", or "Street", means the entire width between boundary lines of every way or place of whatever nature when any part thereof is open to the use of the public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular traffic, other than public ways for vehicular traffic within a park district for which the park district has maintenance responsibility, excepting the Chicago Park District.
"Install" (see "Mount").
"Lease" means granting the nonpermanent possession or use of and includes such acts as renting or lending.
"Mount", or "Install", means assembling a tire to a rim.
"Passenger Car Tire" means any tire of a size designation and type listed in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 109, as amended. (See Appendix A.)
"Ply" means a layer of rubber-coated parallel cords.
"Recut" (see "Regroove").
"Regroove", or "Recut", means either the deliberate deepening of existing tread grooves by cutting, burning, or other means or the deliberate forming, by cutting, burning, or other means, of a groove other than the original molded grooves made by the tire manufacturer or retreader.
"Retreaded" means manufactured by a process in which a tread is attached to a used tire.
"Rim" means the metal that supports a tire and that is located between the tire and the wheel disc or wheel spokes when in use on a vehicle. The rim may be integral with, permanently or temporarily attached to, or separate from the wheel.
"Roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder.
"Separation" means a parting or pulling away from the adjacent portion(s) of the tire structure or material.
"Sidewall" means that portion of a tire between the tread and the bead.
"Snowmobile" means a self-propelled device designed for travel on snow or ice or natural terrain steered by skis or runners, and supported in part by skis, belts, or cleats.
"Street" (see "Highway").
"Tie bar" means rubber that is molded across a tread groove and that braces or stabilizes adjacent tread elements.
"Tire circumference" (see "Circumference of tire").
"Tread" means the thickness of tire rubber that is located outside the carcass and that normally comes into contact with the roadway as the inflated tire wears during use.
"Tread element" means a distinct portion of the tread, such as a rib, lug, or knob, that comes into contact with the surface of a dry, paved road.
"Tread groove" means the space between adjacent tread elements.
"Tread groove depth", or "Depth of tread", means the shortest distance from a plane in contact with two adjacent tread elements to the bottom of the tread groove that is located between the adjacent tread elements.
"Tread wear indicator" means a molded lump that stands 2/32 (1/16) of an inch above the bottom of tread groove.
"Undertread" means the rubber between the bottom of the tread grooves and the carcass.
"Vehicle" means every device in, upon, or by which any person is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except devices moved by human power, devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks and snowmobiles as defined in the Snowmobile Registration and Safety Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 95½, par. 601-2.15).
"Visual Inspection" means a checking or testing by sight and includes the comparing of portions of tires with simple scales or gauges and the use and reading of such scales or gauges.
Section 428.20 Unsafe Conditions of Tires
A tire is considered to be unsafe if it exhibits any one of the following conditions or any combination of these conditions.
a) EXPOSED PLY OR CORD. A ply or cord is exposed when any portion of the ply or cord material can be seen by the person inspecting the tire. If parting or lifting the edge(s) of a crack, cut, snag, flap, or other tire surface interruption allows ply or cord material to be seen, the ply or cord is exposed.
b) BULGE, KNOT OR SEPARATION IN EITHER SIDEWALL OR TREAD AREA. These conditions indicate deterioration or internal damage of the tire structure. A bulge or knot usually indicates cord, sidewall, and/or tread separation, often accompanied by or caused by seepage of compressed air through the tire structure. A tire with any other condition that shows separation in sidewall or tread area or with any knot or bulge not accompanied by evidence of separation also shall be considered to be unsafe.
c) A MARKING THAT INDICATES THE TIRE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE ON PUBLIC STREETS OR HIGHWAYS. Some examples are: "Unsafe for highway use", "Not for highway use", "For racing purposes only", and "For beach use." These or other markings might be applied by branding, cementing, cutting, molding, vulcanizing, or otherwise generating or affixing depressed or raised letters, numerals, or other suitable characters, into or onto a tire, either when the tire is manufactured or subsequent to manufacture. Other examples and descriptions are given in Appendix B.
d) ABSENCE OF A READABLE MARKING SHOWING THE SIZE DESIGNATION OF A TIRE OR ABSENCE OF A READABLE MARKING SHOWING THE RELATIVE LOAD CARRYING ABILITY OF THE TIRE.
1) These markings are needed to minimize installation and use of tires of incorrect size or load carrying ability. Tire size markings are shown in Appendix A. Relative load carrying ability markings are:
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Load Range |
Ply or Ply Rating |
Maximum Inflation Pressure |
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B |
4 |
32 psi* |
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C |
6 |
36 psi |
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D |
8 |
40 psi |
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*Pounds per square inch |
2) The markings shown on each horizontal line in the above table indicate equivalent relative load carrying ability. The presence of any one of the three types, together with a size marking, is satisfactory.
e) TREAD WEAR INDICATORS FLUSH WITH THE TREAD OUTER SURFACE IN ANY 2 OR MORE ADJACENT TREAD GROOVES AT 3 LOCATIONS EQUALLY SPACED AROUND THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE TIRE. A tire is considered to be unsafe when the flush condition exists:
1) In the same pair of adjacent grooves at each of the 3 locations; or
2) In the same pair of adjacent grooves at 2 of the locations and in a different pair of adjacent grooves at the 3rd location; or
3) In a different pair of adjacent grooves at each of the 3 locations.
Note: Tread wear indicators were molded into the bottoms of tread grooves in passenger car tires manufactured in compliance with federal requirements after July 31, 1968. They were molded into the grooves of many tires manufactured prior to that time. Tread wear indicators might be molded into the grooves of retreaded or recapped tires.
f) A TREAD GROOVE DEPTH OF LESS THAN 2/32nds (1/16th) OF AN INCH MEASURED IN ANY 2 OR MORE ADJACENT TREAD GROOVES AT 3 LOCATIONS ESSENTIALLY EQUALLY SPACED AROUND THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE TIRE, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH IN THE JUDGEMENT OF THE INSPECTING OFFICER IS A LOCATION AT WHICH THE TREAD IS THINNEST, EXCLUSIVE OF TIE BARS OR TREAD WEAR INDICATORS. This rule is primarily for treads without tread wear indicators but, at the discretion of an inspecting officer, it may be used for a tread with tread wear indicators. When using this rule, do not measure on, or directly above, any tie bar or tread wear indicator.
1) Any tire without tread grooves (i.e. "slick" or "bald") either in an area covering 2 or more tread grooves or in an area covering 25 percent (¼), or more, of the tread width is considered to have a tread groove depth of less than 2/32nds of an inch in 2 or more adjacent tread grooves at the location of such area. Depth measurements are not necessary in such an area.
2) If the "slick" or "bald" condition of Section 428.20(f)(1) is not present, measure tread groove depths in at least 2 adjacent grooves at a location where the tread appears to be thinnest, i.e. where the tread grooves appear to be shallowest. If the groove depth equals or exceeds 2/32nds of an inch in either of the 2 shallowest adjacent grooves at this location, no additional measurements are necessary and tread groove depth is satisfactory.
3) If the groove depths are less than 2/32nds of an inch in the 2 adjacent grooves checked under Section 428.20(f)(2), above, take measurements at 2 additional locations spaced within 5 degrees of 120 degrees around the tire circumference from the first location, in each case measuring in at least the 2 adjacent grooves that appear to be shallowest. If the groove depths in 2 adjacent grooves are less than 2/23nds of an inch at both these additional locations, the tire is considered to be unsafe. Note that this requires three pairs of groove depths less than 2/23nds of an inch in adjacent grooves, but that the same pair of adjacent grooves need not be measured in each of the three locations (See Section 428.20(e), above).
4) Additional information, examples, and requirements concerning tread groove measurements are given in Appendix B.
g) REGROOVED OR RECUT IN ANY PORTION OF THE TREAD AND NOT MEETING ALL APPLICABLE REQUIREMENTS SET FORTH AND REFERRED TO IN SECTION 428.20(g)(2), BELOW.
1) Irregular or erratic tread grooves are evidence of manual regrooving. The irregularities might be evidenced by erratic shapes or depths of grooving or by erratic variations in rib width or the shape, location, or spacing of any pattern or design formed in the tread by the tread grooves. Straight grooves without any of the evenly spaced lateral offsets, undulations, or variations, usually formed in molded tread grooves could be evidence of machine regrooving. If grooves are cut by a machine that generates periodic lateral offsets, etc., the spacing of the offsets might be erratic where the end of a grooving cut joins the start of the cut.
2) A properly regrooved and marked tire may be sold, leased, installed or used. A tire that is branded "REGROOVED" on each sidewall in letters not less than one inch in height, and that meets all applicable requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Regulation for Regrooved Tires shown in (49 CFR 569) is not considered to be unsafe. The applicable requirements are shown and explained in Appendix B.