Afghanistan Tyre Law 2026: 1.6 mm, Snowbound Passes

Afghanistan’s traffic rules restrict studded tyres rather than banning them, and set no winter tyre requirement at all. The number that is actually enforced is a 1.6 mm minimum tread depth.

Read that as a description of the law, not of the country. Afghanistan is landlocked and mountainous, split by the Hindu Kush, with a continental climate: long freezing winters at altitude and fierce dry heat in the southern lowlands. The absence of a winter tyre rule does not make a January crossing of the Salang any easier.

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Minimum Tread Depth in Afghanistan

The legal minimum is 1.6 mm, measured across the central three-quarters of the tread surface and right around the tyre.

That is a floor, not a plan. Tread shallower than about 3 mm has little capacity left to clear water or slush, and on the routes where Afghan driving is hardest — melt water on a pass road, a rutted unsurfaced diversion — that capacity is the whole point of the tyre.

Winter Is the Real Constraint, Not the Rule Book

No Afghan regulation tells you to fit winter tyres, and none sets a season. Geography does the job instead:

• Altitude. Kabul lies at roughly 1,800 m; much of the central highlands is higher still, and freezes hard from December to March.
• The passes. The Hindu Kush crossings, the Salang route above all, are closed or restricted by snow and avalanche risk for long stretches each winter.
• Recovery. Getting stuck on a pass is not a roadside-assistance problem. It is an overnight problem.

Chains, carried and practised with, matter more here than the tyre label. Studded tyres sit in a restricted category and are not the default answer.

Heat and Distance in the South

South and west of the mountains — Kandahar, Helmand, Nimroz — the failure mode reverses. Summer road-surface temperatures are extreme, distances between towns are long, and an under-inflated tyre run hard is the classic blowout.

Practical checks:

• Read the DOT date code, not just the tread; heat ages rubber on its own schedule
• Set pressures cold, in the morning, before the sun is on the car
• Carry a working spare, a jack you have actually used, and a compressor
• Reinforced sidewalls are worth the money on unsurfaced routes

All-Season Tyres

All-season tyres are accepted, and for a country with this much spread between its winter and summer extremes they are the usual compromise — adequate at both ends, optimal at neither. If a winter mountain crossing is on the itinerary, the compromise stops being enough on its own.

Penalties

Non-compliant tyres draw a roadside fine at a police check. The wider risk is the same one everywhere: after a collision, tyres below the legal minimum shift the argument about fault before anyone looks at the circumstances.

How Afghanistan’s Neighbours Differ

Afghanistan borders six countries, and the tyre rules change at several of those frontiers:

• Iran: winter tyres are required in mountainous regions from November to March; studs allowed seasonally; 1.6 mm.
• Tajikistan: winter tyres are required when conditions demand; studs allowed seasonally; 1.6 mm.
• Uzbekistan: no winter tyre requirement; studs allowed seasonally; 1.6 mm.
• Turkmenistan: no winter tyre requirement; no published stud rule; 1.6 mm.
• Pakistan: no winter tyre requirement; studs not a category; no published tread minimum.
• China: no winter tyre requirement; studs restricted; 1.6 mm.

For speed limits, traffic rules, and licence requirements in Afghanistan, see our Driving in Afghanistan guide.

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