New Jersey Studded Tires: Legal Only November 15 to April 1

New Jersey answers the studded tire question by regulation rather than by statute. A full-text search of the Revised Statutes turns up no section that mentions studs or studded tires at all. What Title 39 supplies is the rulemaking hook. R.S. 39:3-72 forbids driving or moving any motor vehicle or trailer on the public highways "unless such motor vehicle or trailer is equipped with tires in safe operating condition in accordance with requirements approved by the director," and directs the director to promulgate rules of safe operating condition "capable of being employed by a law enforcement officer for visual inspection of tires mounted on vehicles including visual comparison with simple measuring gauges." The Motor Vehicle Commission wrote N.J.A.C. 13:20-32.19 under that authority, and subsection (g) is the calendar window.

The Commission defines both of the words it uses. A "stud" is a pin type device prepared for installation in the tread of an automobile, consisting of a tungsten carbide core bonded to an outer casing or shell of plastic, aluminum or steel. A "studded tire" is an automobile tire fitted with studs in the treads in openings molded for that purpose by the tire or tread manufacturer. The molded-opening requirement carries real weight. Screws or spikes driven into a tread that was never manufactured to take them are not a studded tire in New Jersey, so they never get the benefit of the November to April window at all, and the tire is judged instead against the condition standards in the rest of the same section.

Those surrounding standards are where a New Jersey tire actually fails. Tread on each tire must be at least 2/32 of an inch deep, and at least 4/32 of an inch on the front tires of a vehicle registered as a commercial motor vehicle under N.J.S.A. 39:3-20, a bus carrying passenger, governmental, no fee or commercial plates, a taxicab, a limousine or a jitney. Tread depth indicators are read in any two adjacent major grooves at three locations spaced approximately equally around the tire. Tires must be free from chunking, bumps, knots or bulges evidencing cord, ply or tread separation, with no exposed cords or belting. There may be no mismatch in nominal tire size, construction or profile between tires on the same axle, and tread must not protrude beyond the fenders. Tires marked FOR FARM USE ONLY, OFF HIGHWAY USE ONLY or FOR RACING USE ONLY may not be run on a vehicle registered for the public highway, while a tire originally built with extra undertread and marked REGROOVABLE may be regrooved below the original tread depth.

Subsection (g) also names the one enforcement route it closes off. Certification of a commercial motor vehicle "shall not be refused because of the improper use of studded tires," and the inspector's only obligation is to advise the motorist to have the condition corrected. The inspection sticker is therefore not the lever, even for the commercial fleet that still passes through an official inspection facility. The live route is roadside. R.S. 39:3-72 lets any law enforcement officer, on reasonable cause to believe a vehicle is unsafe or equipped with tires in violation of that section or of the rules promulgated under it, require the operator to stop, submit the vehicle to an inspection, and issue a summons if the inspection discloses a violation.

The money involved is small. The equipment article that holds R.S. 39:3-72 is capped by R.S. 39:3-79, which provides that any person violating any of the provisions of that article is subject to a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars. The neighbouring mirror requirement at R.S. 39:3-71 points to that same section for its own penalty, which is how the article's ceiling is identified.

One date is worth noting. New Jersey rules run on a seven-year cycle, and the December 6, 2021 adoption that installed the current tire section carries an expiration date of September 9, 2027. The November 15 to April 1 window is current law today and will have to be readopted before that date to stay in force.

N.J.A.C. 13:20-32.19 carries no penalty of its own. Enforcement runs back through R.S. 39:3-72, which lets any law enforcement officer with reasonable cause to believe a vehicle is equipped with tires in violation of that section or of the rules promulgated under it require the driver to stop and submit the vehicle to an inspection, then issue a summons if the inspection discloses a violation. The fine for that equipment article is capped at $25 by R.S. 39:3-79. A commercial motor vehicle presented for certification at an official inspection facility outside the window is not failed for studs: the rule directs the inspector to certify the vehicle and to advise the motorist to correct the condition. Tread depth is the standard that actually stops a vehicle, since a tire under 2/32 of an inch, or under 4/32 on the front of a commercial vehicle, bus, taxicab, limousine or jitney, is rejected outright.