Check your tire tread depth. After a long summer of family road trips, you will need to determine if your summer tires have worn out. While obvious signs of damage such as cracks, splits and punctures can help drivers identify a problem, it's also important to check tire tread depth on a monthly basis. Tread depth plays an important role in how well your tires maintain steering control and traction when the road is wet, slushy, snowy, icy, muddy or gravelly. An easy way to check your tire tread is to insert a penny into the tires' tread grooves with Lincoln's head upside down. If Lincoln's head is fully visible, you have 2/32-inch or less tread remaining and it's time to replace the tire. Remember that tires depend on their treads to grip, so the deeper the tread, the better the tire will be in both rain and snow.