Mercedes-Benz 2009 GL320 BlueTEC Operator's Manual page 292

Operation
Tires and wheels
In addition to tire load rating, special load
identification may be molded into the tire
1
sidewall following the letter designating the
Y
tire speed rating ( page 287).
6
No specification given: absence of any text
R
(like in above example) indicates a
standard load (SL) tire.
XL or Extra Load: designates an extra load
R
(or reinforced) tire.
Light Load: designates a light load tire.
R
C, D, E: designates load range associated
R
with the maximum load a tire can carry at
a specified pressure.
DOT, Tire Identification Number (TIN)
U.S. tire regulations require each new tire
manufacturer or tire retreader to mold a TIN
into or onto a sidewall of each tire produced.
The TIN is a unique identifier which facilitates
efforts by tire manufactures to notify
purchasers in recall situations or other safety
matters concerning tires and gives
purchasers the means to easily identify such
tires.
The TIN is comprised of "Manufacturer's
identification mark", "Tire size", "Tire type
code" and "Date of manufacture".
290
DOT
1
Manufacturer's identification mark
2
Tire size
3
Tire type code (at the option of the tire
4
manufacturer)
Date of manufacture
5
i For illustration purposes only. Actual data
on tires are specific to each vehicle and
may vary from data shown in above
illustration.
DOT (Department of Transportation)
Tire branding symbol denotes that the tire
1
meets requirements of the U.S. Department
of Transportation.
Manufacturer's identification mark
Manufacturer's identification mark
denotes the tire manufacturer.
New tires have a mark with two symbols.
Retreaded tires have a mark with four
symbols. For more information on retreaded
tires, see ( Y page 272).
Tire size
Code indicates the tire size.
3
Tire type code
Tire type code may, at the option of the
4
manufacturer, be used as a descriptive code
for identifying significant characteristics of
the tire.
Date of manufacture
The date of manufacture identifies the
5
week and year of manufacture.
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.
2