Are your new tires Old?

[leehljp]

Here is an eye opener for me. I never gave it much thought.

Click here for a video.

Tire mfg date is similar to the way the BT3000/3100 is dated.

xx week of xx year.

[Black wallnut]

As is usually the case I do not think 20/20 is telling the whole story. Funny how the gators they keep showing sitting along side roads come from truck tires. Back in my container days I had so many recaps peel off that I can not even count. Many of those times I did not even hear it, I do not think I ever felt it. However my experience is not an apples to apples comparison in that mine were on trailer tires and usually on a 40' container chassis. So being dualed out and trailing may be why the vehicle remained stable.

[Richard in Smithville]

A few years back there was big news up here how "7 out of every 10" trucks pulled over had to be taken off the road for safety problems. The public was terrified to even get close to trucks on the highway until it came out that they were only pulling over one out of every 40 or 50 trucks. In other words, the numbers were made to look worse.

[LCHIEN]

i had a car that in its second life did not get driven that much (5K miles per year). After 5 years on a set of tires the dealer told me i should change tires as i was getting microcracks between the treads and on the sidewalls even though the tire still had a lot of tread.

I did some internet research and found that the life of a tire when installed is about five years regardless of miles, because the sun exposure (UV) and weathering breaks down the rubber. So I had to change a set of tires that were about 6 years old and had plenty of tread left and looked good from about 5 feet away, just get closer and you could see cracking in between the tread and in the outer wall.

So depending upon whether the old but unused tires were stored in a warehouse under controlled conditions or on some dealers outdoor display rack exposed to UV 16 hours a day, they may be totally unfit for use after 5 years. let alone sell by 6 years for another 5 years or use.

If your tires are more than 5 years old you should have a good look at them for microcracking/dry rot, esp. if they have been sitting on the shelf before you bought them but even if you know they were "fresh".

[cabinetman]

Video doesn't play.
.

[cgallery]

The last pair of tires on the Caravan has terrible sidewall cracks. I only had them 2.5 or 3 years. They were about the cheapest tire Goodyear sold.

So when I replaced them I did some research online first and picked a better quality tire (Dunlop SP60)

I've gotten better at checking the tires.

Those cracks were scary.

[eezlock]

new tires old?

As is usually the case I do not think 20/20 is telling the whole story. Funny how the gators they keep showing sitting along side roads come from truck tires. Back in my container days I had so many recaps peel off that I can not even count. Many of those times I did not even hear it, I do not think I ever felt it. However my experience is not an apples to apples comparison in that mine were on trailer tires and usually on a 40' container chassis. So being dualed out and trailing may be why the vehicle remained stable.

Mark, I remember those days of pulling those same old containers. The railroads,
and steamship companies, don't put on expensive quality tires on those chassis
to roll down the road. The tires they put on will barely hold air, and if you look at them hard enough you can see the air inside the tire!

[leehljp]

I noticed immediately in the video that the treads on the side of the road were truck tires also. I remember - as a kid of about 12 - 13 years old - a funny incident with a truck tire. I lived on a farm and the farm house was about 1/2 mile from a major highway. It was a hot summer day. I could hear a truck about 2 miles away - specifically the tires "singing" and they were LOUD! It was getting closer. Then "POW" and it stopped! I knew what happened! (My dad had two 18 wheelers so I was very familiar with trucks and the works.)

As to car/van tires, I will be checking those for my girls and have their husbands check the age from now on. While I think 999 out of 1000 ten year old tires will not separate like that, 1 in 1000 it still too high a chance to take with family. This boils down to a percentages (actuarial) game. A tire or two here there and yonder will separate on occasion due to mfg glitch or other problems, but add the micro cracks due to age/UV and the percentages will go up. Most tires will be replaced before 10 years, so the odds are increased. But still, if the percentages get smaller with age, it is good to 'watch' the age of the tires.

I used to not worry about this, but with LOML, my girls and grandkids, I will be more careful and recommend to them to be more careful too.

[LCHIEN]

I dealt with two cars that the tires got old and cracked before they were worn out.
One case was my old Maxima which I gave to my son for high school for a couple of years and he didn't drive much miles in HS and then as Freshman they were't allowed cars at the dorms so it averaged bout 5000 miles a year for five years.

The other car i had to deal with was my Mom's Lexus ES300 which accumulated 16,000 miles between 1999 and 2009 driving to the bank and grocery store, when she finally sold it to my sister. I think I put a good fraction of those miles on driving her around and using on the car to try and keep the battery charged....