Needs some opinions on some sidewall cuts. Replace tire?

Hi y'all. Myself and a few others ran the Elephant Hill trail this last weekend in Canyonlands and one of the trucks in the group got some sharp cuts to the sidewall of his tire. We wanted to get some opinions of those who may have a better working knowledge of the inner carcasses of tire construction to know whether this is something of concern. He has intention to continue to run trails, even some rated as difficult and he's always deflated. This isn't just a highway used vehicle.

Now the pictures certainly do not do much justice as is the case often so I figured I'd describe it a little. Now obviously you can see how long the cuts are. The cuts are pretty clean as if it was done by a razor blade...must of been quite a sharp rock. It's a bit difficult to spread the cuts open to give a good idea of how deep they are but we estimate at the deepest part of the cut we're about 3mm deep.

What do you guys think? Reason for concern? Replace the tire? Good excuse to upgrade to bigger?

TIA.

 

I'm not an expert in tire construction, but that is just something I would keep an eye on. If the tire is relatively new and he has a full-size matching spare, maybe swap them out.

 

As long as its not cut to the cord, I would drive on it. Make it a spare if it bothers you.

 

I suggest to take the tire out of service for now, run on the spare. Take the tire to a real tire shop. Have them inspect the tire. Sidewalls are thin.

Sidewalls undergo many forces with bumps, braking, cornering, acceleration, speed........... A sidewall blowout can be catastrophic if it happens at highway speeds.

This isn't a place to pinch $$.

Look up the Ford Explorer rollover issues. All stemmed from under inflation leading to sidewall failure.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

I can't tell how deep they are but no way would I drive on that... That cut is subject to flex with every revolution.
Tires are cheap compared to hospital bills or worse.

Edit.. I put a bold on my first statement. Are they .010"? Maybe ok... Are they .200 deep?

 

Um, that tire is fine.