The old trick with a 20p piece still works and it is worth knowing at one in the morning when nobody has a depth gauge. The outer band on a 20p is about 2mm wide. Put the coin into the main groove of the tyre and if the band disappears completely, you have at least that much tread. If you can see any of it, the tyre is close to the legal limit of 1.6mm and wants measuring properly rather than eyeballing.
At night the difficulty is not the coin, it is seeing anything at all. Kneel down with a phone torch held close to the tyre and put the light behind the coin rather than in front of it, so you are looking at a silhouette. It takes fifteen seconds per tyre and it should be done in several places across the width, because a tyre that has been scrubbing its shoulders in Camden traffic can be legal in the middle and finished at the edge. If it comes out marginal, that is worth knowing before you drive off rather than after. We are out across NW1 all night and we measure properly when we get there.
The call might come from Chalk Farm at midnight or from Camden Lock at six on a Sunday morning. If you are stopped on Camden Road in the dark, say so when you call and we will prioritise it. An Agar Grove cul-de-sac or a Camden Lock main road, tell us which. A tight terrace in Chalk Farm or a narrow bay on Kentish Town Road is usually workable. The NW1 postcode and a street in Primrose Hill: that is enough.
24-hour tyre callout in Camden Town is part of our wider mobile 24-hour emergency callout cover. For 24-hour tyre callout in Camden Town, call 07717 389637 or ask us for a quote.
Every side street around Camden Town is permit only and parked solid, which means cars here spend a lot of time being manoeuvred into spaces at full lock and very little time on an open road. That wears the shoulders first and hides it, because the part of the tread you can see from the pavement is usually the part that is fine. A coin, a phone torch and fifteen seconds a corner is a better check than a glance, and it is one you can do at any hour.
A quick check on a car off Kentish Town Road looked fine in the central grooves and was near the limit at the outer shoulder, which is the usual pattern here.
A driver near Agar Grove ran the check before an early start and rang us rather than setting off. The gauge confirmed what the coin had suggested.
A tyre that looked marginal by torchlight turned out to have more left than the coin suggested. Nothing was changed and nothing was charged for.
The outer band of a 20p is roughly 2mm wide. Push the coin into a main tread groove. If the band is completely hidden you have a reasonable amount of tread left. If any of it is visible, the tyre is close to the legal minimum and needs measuring properly.
1.6mm across the central three quarters of the tread width and around the full circumference. The coin test is a rough indicator that sits above that figure, which is the point of using it as a warning rather than a verdict.
In several places across the width and at a few points around the tyre. Cars doing a lot of low speed manoeuvring wear their shoulders first, so a tyre can look perfectly legal in the middle and be finished at one edge.
Yes, with a gauge, as part of the visit. If the one you called about is the only problem we will tell you that plainly rather than finding reasons to change more than you need.
★★★★★ 4.9 from 151 verified Google reviews.
Read all 151 reviews on Google →Prefer a callback? Send your details for a 24-hour tyre callout price in Camden Town.