I just replaced my 18 year old tires, they had 11,000 mies on them, garage kept out of the sun. After shopping around and finding a rebate, I had four new tires for less then $200. I then sold the 18 year old tires to painter to roll cars in and out of the shop with ( his wheels ) for $50, he was happy, and I came away with even cheaper tires! $150 and change for Hankook radials, rides much better, and piece of mind. I couldn't even purchase a fender for the price of 4 tires if one of the old ones came apart.
Although I have not researched it, a trusted friend recently told me that Michelin says that the life of their rubber is an expected 10 years. I have been a fan of the brand ever since my experience with a large number of company trucks that I was in charge of. Flats, blowouts, tread separations were a common occurrence until I switched to Michelins. Those problems became a thing of the past. Gonna put new tires on my F100 this next week.
Here's a good article from Edmunds. Thanks to the OP, food for thought. I just bought stock in Michelin! https://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html
I have a pair of "new old stock" cheater slicks. I finally got a couple of new rims to mount them on so I took them down to a local tire shop...they refused to mount them! The shop manager said they were too old and they couldn't accept the responsibility since they were so old. I offered to sign something to accept the liability myself but they still refused. Three tire shops later I found a guy who mounted them for me...for free (he didn't want any paper trail). I run them on my sedan from time to time and haven't had a problem but I wouldn't trust them on a long road trip. You have to be careful but even new tires can be a problem if not aired right or maintained.
All modern radial tires are date coded. All tires are not. Example I put brand new bias ply mud n snow tires the Willys pickup that the granddaughter and I put together. 7.50x16 interco tires, not interco super swampers. They were not date coded. Bought them new in 2010. Some of them come apart and some don't. Its a crap shoot. Some break plies and some don't same deal.
A friend of mine his wife was driving their cab over semi. She was in Calif and bought two brand new steer tires at Firestone they mounted and balanced them. Less than 100 Miles later going down a steep grade in low gear with the jake brakes on. the passenger front blew out. She couldn't hold it and over the guard rail they went. Becky eventually dies from her injurys. Her passenger wasn't badly injured. Firestone settled out of court. Even new tires can fail.
I’ve got some tires on a dump truck, non directional military, that are OLD, WW 11 I think. Very weather checked.When I built the truck 20 some years ago, I thought I would need new tires quick. It just runs on the ranch, but hauls ten tons. Tires still going strong. Last year had two year old tires with less than 5000 miles on them, Hercules, China made tires, while traveling in Maryland I blowed one on the front of the motor home at 70 mph on a curved overpass. ( had them on it when I bought the MH, I don’t buy China tires) Have had tires blow in the pasture on trailers , while they were just sitting there. Tires are a crap shoot! I use new American made tires on anything that goes down the hiway. Bones
When gas a $4 I wanted to drive a govt surplus OT 4 cyl ford ranger. I bought it for $150 . I wanted some 14 inch bias ply that had heavy sidewalls and where at least 6 ply. No one had any. Online If found some trailer tires that met my criteria. They where low priced. So I bought them. When I got them In raised letters on the sidewall it stated TRAILER USE ONLY. So I simply sanded that away and mounted them. Never had a flat and they are still on the truck still round & black. They have a very high tread wear rating. Ive been debating on pulling them off and installing two on the front of my 55 chevy wagon?
This has been a continuing debate ever since these 'recommendations' came out. Again, it's important to note that virtually NONE of the OEMs or tire manufacturers will unequivocally state that tires become 'dangerous' on some magic date; THESE ARE ONLY RECOMMENDATIONS! The tire retailers jumped on this bandwagon with both feet however, seeing it as an opportunity to force more tire sales. The tire manufacturers simply stay quiet, letting the retailers be point men while benefitting from the increased sales. This whole deal is much more about giving legal cover from lawsuits like what Ford/Firestone had to deal with rather than being a genuine issue. And in the Ford/Firestone deal, it turned out that too-low Ford-recommended tire pressures (to give a soft ride) was the real culprit, with Firestone not speaking up about it. So every so often a chicken little will come on here and proclaims 'Tire Age! Tire Age!' with the fervor of a new convert, a few more will pile on with antidotal stories with no more proof than it was old and it failed, reigniting this debate. Tires fail! That's been a given for years. I've had far more failures on relatively new tires than I've ever had on 'old' ones. Now, I will grant that radial (or the old bias/belted) tires are more 'fragile' than straight bias-ply, as they do seem to be more prone to 'bruising' and underinflation issues. And if they do deflate at highway speeds, by the time you get pulled over they've generally disintegrated as their 1 or 2 ply main carcass don't tolerate being run flat very well. I suspect that if you could get into every HAMBers garage and checked, that the number of 'expired' tires would be pretty damn big and not all of them would be on garage or trailer queens. Or how many motorhomes are out there with 'old' tires? If this was the epidemic that some make it out to be, collector cars and motorhomes with exploded tires should be as common as dead possums on the road. Tires are like every other part on your car. If you exercise due diligence in maintenance, you'll have fewer issues. Again, for you guys in the sunbelt, tire age is more of an issue, but tires don't age the same everywhere. Just like old cars; one out of the dry southwest will probably be rust-free but every soft part will be baked to a crisp. Go north into cooler climates, the soft parts will survive much better, but you'll probably find a rust bucket.
Thanks for posting the link. A very informative article. I’ve always been one to run older tyres, if they still have plenty of tread and look okay. I’ll think about this differently now. And just another point, It’s not just your own life that is at risk, but also that of other road users, coming in your direction.
I would dispute just how 'informative' this is. The Explorer... a used tire, with no history. Was it underinflated at the time? Had it been run underinflated previously? Had it been 'bruised'? A lot of used tires come from wrecking yards, so placing blame on 'age' only is a stretch. Paul Welker accident? The CHP merely said tire age 'might' have been an issue. That excessive speed was an issue isn't in doubt. Another stretch.... The one nugget of truth is they do point out that rubber does age faster with increased heat, which points out the lie in 'one size fits all' expiration dates. I suppose for the truly paranoid out there, the path to safety will be to replace the tires on any used car you buy regardless of tire age or condition because you might not know the tires history. Reminds me of a late '70s motorcycle I own (actually, I've owned multiples of them). The factory service manual 'recommends' rebuilding the brake calipers every TWO years, and replacing brake hoses every FOUR years. I have yet to run into any owner that did that, yet brake failures are extremely rare. Do the calipers eventually need rebuilding? You bet, but it's almost always due to neglect. Same goes the hoses. At about 30 years, guys started reporting hose issues, but years of being exposed to the weather will do that. It's no epidemic...
Just to give everyone another headache to consider, Craig's List tires. I work at a new car dealership and we sell lots of tires. We then pay a company to dispose / recycle the old dead tires. Not uncommon at all to find the CL pickers digging through the dead tire pile. I've ask them before if they ever considered their liability if someone were to die on the trash pile tires they sell. Answer, they don't care at all. Moral of this story, don't buy used tires. -Dave
Was gonna bring that up... What do people think happens to all those old tires with plenty of tread left? That's right, back on somebody else's car.
Its not been mentioned But directionof rotation is a importiant issue. I am of the opinion that when you change the direction of rotation it will increase the likely hood of the tire failing. And that applies doubly for radials. If you plant to use a take off you need to draw a arrow pointing in the direction of rotation. Sometimes I can close my eyes and feel the tread and determine the former direction of rotation. Some new tires have a arrow on them specifing the direction of rotation.
Just went out to my new car port to check on my F100's Tiger Paws. Just like I remember, the rears outsize the fronts by 25! (235 70 X 15, 210 70 X 15 respectively!) Got to check those date codes when young, trim wife gets home. That truck's too low for me to crawl under! My spare is a nice 210 75 X 15, on a reversed Merc wheel...(one of the reversed steelie set I ran with the Merc caps) About a month ago, there was a loud report, sounded like a small cannon. Went outside, looked around...Neighbors were looking in my direction, so I looked around my garage, for damage or...? Then I glanced in my pickup bed. The tarp was hanging in the garage, and there was the spare...nearly new tread split for 18", 'L' shaped...(considered it may have been installed 'backward' to its original use, as Old Wolf mentioned above. We were taught this in 'Tire School', as when rotating tires, the reason for specific placement on rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, etc. The spare was a new old stock my son had, wouldn't fit anything 'cool'...so it became my spare. Only used it once, when my Coker radial tube opened up from being 'pinched' on assembly. (Romeo Palemides 2 piece wheels) I only drove that spare less than 10 miles!
I remember when radials were getting more regularly available, bias ply tires were cheaper than radials. When I was a kid, one of my parent's car had sat several months without being moved. It had bias plys. My mom decided to drive it one day after my dad got it running again. She drove away while the tires went wop wop wop from the flat spots that developed sitting on the concrete driveway. It didn't take long before the flat spots separated off the tires. I think they were Sears tires and they couldn't have been more than 5 years old at the time. I still have the original spare tire in my 56 Fairlane and it still looks almost like new.
I've never had issues with rotating bias-ply, but I'll add a hearty Hell Yes! for radials. The first set I ever bought (BFGs, then-newly introduced Silvertowns) were going good... until I rotated them. I even asked if there were any special considerations before I did it, I was told no, just do a 'standard' rotation, direction didn't matter. Boy, did that go sideways... Within 5K miles they developed vibration and quit tracking as well. Several re-balances, alignment check, tried rotating them back, no dice. After screwing with them for a few months, I replaced them. BFG wouldn't honor their warranty as I bought them from a wholesaler.
When I picked up vehicles from the rear with the wrecker and towed them any considerable distance there was a good chance of ruining the tires. It got to where I put the dolleys under the front if I towed a vehicle backwards. I once picked up a wrecked 62 chevy car. Front end collision. Never checked the ignition because the driver had hit the windshield and there was blood everywhere. So I picked it up from the front. And that car when I got up to 50 MPH on I40 started up the throttle was jammed wide open and started pushing the one ton wrecker .I got stopped and the rig jack knifed. The tire smoke so thick I couldn't hardly see the 62. But I managed to turn off the key. The right rear was blown out and the left rear down to the cord. So I had to unhook raise the rear and set it in the dolleys. The state cop couldnt stop laughing
"...but they say you can run up to ten years and then your risking death..." "...your gambling more than average with You and everyone around you's life... "...we shouldn't be running deathtrap tires period..." "...but if this thread saves a life or a families life..." "...when they scrape the bodies up off the ground..." And now stay tuned for some hyperbole.
I’m interested to hear how many Hambers rotate their tires, be it on their rods or daily drivers. I have never done this, mainly due to time restraints, (read - can’t be bothered), but also in part to always having understood that tires shouldn’t be run for half their life in one direction and then in another/the opposite direction.
"So every so often a chicken little will come on here and proclaims 'Tire Age! Tire Age" You may consider me a chicken little but all I did was show the result of a 15 year old tire at highway speeds. This is not the first I have seen happen to friends but at least this time there was no body damage. If you chose to not believe there is reason to consider the age of your tires, I am fine with that. I won't call you names for believing so.
I go through more tires on my semi truck in a year than a lot of folks go through in ten years on a car. I run radials, virgin treads on the steer axle, caps on the drives. Michelin, who does the caps I buy, will not take a tire casing over 5 years old. I typically run down my virgins to 3/32" then have them capped one time, sometimes twice, usually by the time they are worn down that low again the 5 years is about up. Now I know this is truck tires and they are different, but the argument is the same, the lower number of belts and the difference in rubber compounds result in lower a timespan lifetime with the possibility of an increased mileage per tire. I have a 16" trailer that uses the oddball 14.5 tubeless mobile home type tires. I'd guess the tires on that trailer are 30-40 years old, hard as a rock, but they still are holding up. They are bias plys, have some small cracks in the sidewalls, but I still put a 3500 lb car on that trailer and they hold up. I've had a few of them start chunking tread, I just grabbed another from my stash and replaced them. Next set will be new pull offs from a trailer surplus, but they will be radials, they say they can't get the bias plys anymore. Now I don't use this trailer very often, it sits in the yard most of the time. If I used it regular I'd go ahead and replace them.
New vehicle purchased in July. Good road, highway speed. Sudden total loss of pressure, worked across to shoulder to stop, the result. Tire from major american manufacturer on a new Jeep. Even new tires aren't the perfect answer.
4 1/2 year old Michelin,s on my F150. When not in use spent most of it's life in the garage out of the sun. A lot of the cracks were over 1/8" deep. Michelin reps looked at the tires and labeled the cracking as COSMETIC. Had similar cracking on the BFG TAs on my Chevelle.
That's because they were still under warranty. I wonder what he would have said if they weren't, although most tire reps are loathe to admit that their product could be unsafe in any manner. One unmentioned byproduct of all this is those 'expiration dates' have proved to be magical... for the tire companies. Where once new tires were generally warrantied 'for the life of the tread', that's no longer true for all brands. Some have incorporated these expiration dates into their warranties (with varying conditions and time periods), so those 60K tires you bought, if they're not used up by the time the expiration date rolls around, too bad, so sad... it's magic; officially they're out of warranty completely... I suppose one could get a feel about a particular brand by seeing how long/how much faith they have in their product...
There is some data to substantiate that there have been death and injury attributed to tires although different agencies all hammer at numbers and cause so it's all hyperbole...of course. I'm sure they haven't done a study on Hotrod and Custom incidents and most of the problems presented here have very little to do with same. So enjoy your saving dollars on tires and remember Shoe Polish makes those shoes look good as new... http://www.thesafetyinstitute.org/safety-institute-study-shows-rise-in-tire-related-fatalities/
The Jalopy Journal
