Chile 2026: Article 63 Tests Condition, Not Millimetres

Chile is 4,300 kilometres long, runs from the driest desert on earth to Patagonian ice, and its Traffic Law handles tyres in a single sentence that contains no numbers at all.

Article 63

Law 18.290, the Ley de Tránsito, states at article 63:

Motor vehicles must be equipped with tyres in good condition. Those whose tread bands are worn, or which have lost their conditions of adhesion to the pavement, may not circulate, nor those with repairs that affect traffic safety.

Three separate tests sit in that sentence, and only the first is about wear:

1. A worn tread band — the ordinary wear case.
2. Loss of adhesion to the pavement — which catches a hardened, aged or glazed tyre that still measures acceptably.
3. Unsafe repairs — which catches the sidewall plug and the improvised patch.

The second test is the interesting one, because a tread gauge cannot detect it. A tyre six or seven years old in the Atacama sun can have depth and no grip, and Chilean law has language for exactly that situation.

Where the measurement happens is set by article 94: municipalities may not issue a circulation permit to a vehicle without a current roadworthiness inspection, and that inspection covers in particular the steering, braking, lighting, tyre and combustion systems.

For a working target, the international reference is 1.6 mm in the main grooves, from Council Directive 89/459/EEC — the depth your wear indicators are moulded to. It is a floor, not a standard to aim at.

There is no winter season in the statute

The Traffic Law contains no provision about snow and none about chains. That absence is meaningful, because Chile obviously has both.

What operates instead is per-route control. In winter the Andean crossings are restricted, closed or made conditional day by day, and the requirement attached to an open pass is normally chains, not a tyre marking. When the road clears, the order lifts. The crossings this affects most:

• Los Libertadores, above Los Andes, on the main route to Mendoza. The busiest Andean crossing in South America and the one most often shut.
• Cardenal Samoré, in the lake district, towards Bariloche.
• The southern crossings into Argentine Patagonia, which add wind to the problem.

For a visiting driver the practical rule is simple: if your route crosses the Andes between roughly June and September, carry chains and check the pass on the morning you intend to use it.

Four Chiles, four tyre problems

The ripio on the Carretera Austral deserves its own mention. Sharp loose stone cuts sidewalls, and a cut sidewall is not repairable. Recovery distances in Aysén are long enough that a second spare is a reasonable thing to carry.

Wind is the other Patagonian factor that catches people out. Crosswind on the routes towards Punta Arenas can move a high-sided vehicle across a lane, and low pressure makes that considerably worse.

Studs

Studded tyres are treated as seasonal equipment rather than an everyday fitment. For most drivers they are the wrong tool: a good winter or all-season tyre plus a chain set covers every situation the pass orders are built around, and does not damage the surface on the long dry approaches.

Three neighbours

• Argentina — the whole eastern frontier, over the Andes, with more than a dozen crossings and most of the winter closures.
• Bolivia — northeast, on the altiplano at Chungará/Tambo Quemado.
• Peru — north, at Chacalluta/Santa Rosa near Arica.

Speed limits, fines, tolls and documents are covered in the Driving in Chile guide.