306 OperationTires and wheelsDOT (D
epartment o
f T
ransportation)
A tire branding symbol1 (
page 305)
which denotes the tire meets require-
ments of the U.S. Department of Transpor-
tation.
Manufacturer’s identification mark
The manufacturer’s identification mark2
(
page 305) denotes the tire
manufacturer.
New tires have a mark with two symbols.
Retreaded tires have a mark with four sym-
bols. For more information on retreaded
tires, see (
page 281).
Tire size
The code3 (page 305) indicates the
tire size.Tire type code
The code4 (
page 305) may, at the
option of the manufacturer, be used as a
descriptive code for identifying significant
characteristics of the tire.
Date of manufacture
The date of manufacture5 (
page 305)
identifies the week and year of manufac-
ture.
The first two figures identify the week,
starting with “01” to represent the first full
week of the calendar year. The second two
figures represent the year.
For example, “3202” represents the 32nd
week of 2002.
Maximum tire load
1Maximum tire load rating
The maximum tire load is the maximum
weight the tires are designed to support.
iFor illustration purposes only. Actual
data on tires are specific to each vehi-
cle and may vary from data shown in
above illustration.