Hot Rods Death due to tire

Texas Primary Enforcement September 1, 1985 Age 8+ in all seats (under 15 not liable) this is USAGE, all vehicles built or ASSEMBLED after 1965 have to have at least front passenger lap belts.. to each their own.....I bet if your insurance company found out you did not have seat belts and you were ejected and injured they would have a right to deny your claim.

 

Running seventeen year old tires is like playing Russian Roulette. Pretty dumb in my estimation. Needless tragedy.

 

This has come up before, and the answer is still 'it depends on where you live and how the tires have been used'. These 'tire expiration' numbers should be taken with a grain of salt as they have more to do with limiting liability for the tire makers/auto makers than actually protecting the motoring public. If you live in Phoenix Arizona (where the study was done or someplace with equally hot average daily temps), then the 6 year number is reasonably accurate. But for every 19 degree F reduction in average temps, the tire will age just half as fast (as per the original DOT study that generated all this). The DOT also studied accident data from all fifty states and was unable to find even one accident that they could conclusively attribute to only tire age. The vast majority of tire-related accidents were found to be due to underinflation (particularly in the sunbelt states with the higher ambient temps), with road hazards accounting for most of the rest.

 

This case may be the one where ALL vehicles must comply. Some day........Hans Device.

 

The Hans device is a race car safety item, not for street driven cars, lets not be stupid in all this.

 

Although this is a bit off topic it still applies.
This was a trailer tire that was 8 years old and never touched the ground. I was in the house and hear a BANG! It exploded right there on the tire rack. The next day the left rear tire blew while sitting in the driveway.
Old tires are no joke my freinds.

 

So you can conclusively state that these tires failed strictly because of age? What's your evidence? The one pictured is certainly used; if 'it's never been on the ground', where's the little 'tits' that you'll find on new tires? How come the tread depth looks to be about half?

 

I find it hard to believe and can't understand how someone could argue over replacing tires because of age. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know outdated tires are dangerous.
I guess not everyone was able to comprehended the title of the original post. It clearly stated Death Due To Tire.

 

I also have to believe that 17 yr. old tires, irregardless of what temperatures they've been exposed to, are an accident just waiting to happen.

 

When I bought the camp trailer used it had a cover in the spare tire. It was falling apart so I tossed the cover. Attached to the tire was the sticker they come with when bought new. The Other 4 were purchased the same day according to the supplier receipt from the previous owner. Three more failed within two weeks, two on the road and one more in the driveway.

 

Yes, Gimpy, we can extrapolate all sorts of statistics regarding safety which if used as a deciding factor in legislation will have you suspended from a harness and wearing a helmet while you shower. As a freedom loving person I should have the right to decide what personal safety measures I follow. Now, back to the subject: I had a tire shop put a set of tires on rims for a trip that I thoroughly looked over (no I didn't date them). They looked great and had been stored inside out of the sun. They didn't make it two hundred miles before they failed completely or started cracking up. They weren't that old. I wonder if these new road deicers have any negative effect on tires. Dry the rubber out maybe?

 

For you guys that live in the sunbelt, checking tire age is a good idea. Am I advocating that you ignore this? Not at all, simply that everyone should understand where these 'recommendations' come from. I live in the Northwest, and my average temps are 20 degrees below Phoenix, so by the DOT data, my tires should be good for 12+ years. So when some pimply kid at the tire store tells me my 8-year-old, garage-kept tires are no good I have to call BS. Particularly when asked 'why' his answer is 'corporate says so..'. I've had tire failures over the years, but can only recall one that could be attributed to age, and that one was probably nearly 20 years old (desperate times... LOL). Given the number of collector cars out there, if this were as true as some make it out be, we should have an epidemic of tire failures but that hasn't proven to be the case.

And Timbofor, you should have mentioned that those are on a camp trailer. Yep, those are generally crap tires and I've seen new ones do that.....

 

When we do NSRA inspections now we check the DOT codes. I'm thinking the setting in one spot might be part of the problem. My car sets for a week are three at times. I just put new tires on not long ago. Code says eight years ago. New tires are ordered. Sorry to hear of the gentlemans death.

 

Damn, I just checked the front tires on the '29 I'm building, and they're 12 years old and look like new, rears are 5. Front tires are going on the list................... I know Hwy 27 well, it's a beautiful road that makes you want to haul ass......
on another note, SLAMMED, your avatar could give me a broken neck...........anytime!

 

Tires on my Roadster were 8 years old. Date code 3707. I just bought a 1000.00 worth of new tires. They had 2/3rds of the tread left. It makes no sense to risk your life. Buddy of mine lost his 34 coupe last year because of a blown 10 year old tire.

 

My father-in-law bought a new Nissan Frontier pickup in 2006. It came from the dealership with BFGOODRICH Long Trail TAs. He has to replace them in 2013 with only 24,000 miles on them because the sidewalks had deep cracks by the tread that went all around, all 4 tires. I pointed them out to him almost 1.5 years earlier, but he just couldn't believe that he had to replace the tires with so few miles! The tires did still have a lot of tread left.

 

I hope you have life insurance.

 

A fellow club members front left tire came apart on the way to Knoxville,Tenn. last month and fortunately he was able to keep the car in the road and believe it or not no damage to his 34 Chevy sedan.

He was running Goodyear tires,,,guess what,the front tires are less than 2 years old. HRP

 

Soo how come 40 yr old bias ply tires are made so well they still hold up but yet this day in age with much better science ect it's impossible for a tire to last longer than 7 yrs ? It's not In company's best Intrest to make a good product anymore ...tires go bad ... We buy more I believe failure is engineered into these products and THAT should be looked into aswell

 

There you go.... no 'age' involved. This makes me wonder how many rod-related tire failures can be traced to the wrong tire for the use? How many of us select a tire size based on how it looks/fits without actually checking to see if the tire is rated for the load? And are you inflating them enough? Again, the DOT found that most tire failures could be traced to underinflation, particularly when coupled with high ambient temps....

 

A large V8 over a pair of 4.50-5.00-15" or 16" tires is a possible recipe for short tire life.

 

Age of a tire is only one component in deciding whether or not to replace them, but it is an easily checked part of the equation and one I will continue to use when deciding if I will trust them or replace them.

 

Everything is riding on tire pressure.............hopefully correct tire pressure.

 

How many of these threads are we going to have? I've read this exact same thread probably 20 times.

 

Great article. Tires should be exercized , this works the oil in the rubber to the surface and keeps the rubber pliable. Thin cracks will appear in the sidewall. Any tire that has these crack deeper than 3/32" is ready for replacement . If the tire is 10 YO or more is ready for replacement.
This topic is discussed endlessly on the IRV2.com forum.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html

 

how do you read (decode) a date code on a tire?

 

You actually read them all? learn anything?

 

I am going to replace the tires on my 53 f100 soon, not only are they 11 years old, but I need a new size on the rear due to ratio change. They still look like new, my question is what will happen with them after the tire store has them? I am sure they will sell them as used tires because they look new. Then the poor guy that buys them because they are cheap will be at risk due to the age. I certainly don't want to keep them as I have several good rollers now. What do you all do with the old ones?

 

There's probably more than a bit of truth about this too. So, now that 'tire expiration' is viable, will the manufacturers cheapen their product to match? You would think that the technology available would mean that the product would improve, but longer life means fewer sales. I'm on a motorcycle board, and it's been interesting to note that a very favored tire with very good mileage has been noted recently that mileage has plummeted to less than half with no decrease in price...