South Carolina Studded Tires: Legal All Year, 1/16-Inch Projection Cap

The rule sits in Section 56-5-5040, in Article 35 (Equipment and Identification) of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways. Read in order, the section is a prohibition with a narrow dimensional carve-out rather than a grant of permission. Its operative sentence bars any tire moved on a South Carolina highway from carrying on its periphery any block, stud, flange, cleat or spike, or any other protuberance of material other than rubber or other resilient material, that projects beyond the tread of the traction surface. Studs are lawful in this State only because the closing sentence excepts them, and that exception is measured in fractions of an inch, not in months.

The measurement matters more than most drivers realise. One sixteenth of an inch is the ceiling, and the statute specifies that the projection is judged "when compressed", which means under load rather than on a free-standing tire lifted off the pavement. Factory tungsten carbide studs seated to specification sit inside that figure; studs that have worked loose, or a re-studded tire with pins set proud of the rubber, can fall outside it while the tire still looks ordinary. South Carolina has not revisited the number in more than half a century. The section's history line runs from the 1949 traffic act through a single amendment recorded as 1968 (55) 2518, so the one-sixteenth figure has stood unchanged since 1968 while other states have added and repealed seasonal windows around it.

Tire chains are treated separately and conditionally. Section 56-5-5040 permits chains "of reasonable proportions" on any vehicle when required for safety because of snow, ice or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid. The trigger is the road condition, not the date, so a set of chains carried through an Upstate ice storm is lawful to fit while conditions warrant and not otherwise. Farm machinery gets its own exception for protuberances that will not injure the highway.

The metal tire ban is absolute. No motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer may be operated or moved on a highway with any metal tire in contact with the roadway, and Section 56-5-320 defines a metal tire as one whose surface in contact with the highway is wholly or partly of metal or other hard, nonresilient material. Solid rubber tires, defined at Section 56-5-310, must carry at least one inch of rubber on the entire traction surface above the edge of the flange, and Section 56-5-1570 caps any vehicle running on solid rubber or cushion tires at ten miles per hour.

Enforcement is entirely roadside. Title 56 of the S.C. Code has no vehicle inspection chapter: its chapters run from driver's license through registration, traffic, financial responsibility, dealer regulation and criminal penalties without a periodic safety inspection scheme, so no lane technician ever measures a stud here. Instead the duty is continuous. Section 56-5-4410 makes it unlawful to drive or move a vehicle that is equipped in any manner in violation of Article 35, and Section 56-5-5310 requires that equipment be in good working order and adjustment and the vehicle in safe mechanical condition at all times it is on the highway.

A tire violation is charged as a misdemeanor. Section 56-5-6190 supplies the general penalty for Chapter 5 offences where no other penalty is fixed: a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days. On the licence side, the point schedule at Section 56-1-720 assigns two points for operating a vehicle in unsafe condition. Twelve points is the threshold at which the Department of Motor Vehicles may suspend a driver's licence for up to six months under Section 56-1-740. Section 56-1-750 counts points at full value for twelve months from the last violation, at half value from twelve to twenty-four months, and not at all beyond twenty-four months, and Section 56-1-770(A) removes four points for completing the National Safety Council Defensive Driving Course or an approved equivalent after the points were assessed.