I know that this is discussed from time to time. Tires that still look new and show no signs of cracking, etc., but are 10/15 years old. Yes I have tires of this description on my F100 and I wrestle with replacing them because they still appear as new. Here is the result of a friends 15 year old tire after a few highway miles. He was lucky to not suffer any damage to his hot rod. Time to get new tires on my F100.
Wow. Thanks. The tires on my 55' are 12 years old with about 15K. They "look" good. Time to replace them. Thanks
From past experience I change at seven years. Got a buddy that got ten years on his, but is planning to change next spring if they last that long. I ask him if had some extra fenders. He replied that he did. I've seen what happens when a radial shreds to a '47 Chevrolet convertible rear fender and it's not pretty. Best I remember that tire was 12 years old.
All new tires are date coded. Depending on the manufacture, tire life is between 5 and 7 years regardless of miles.
I took no chances. I replaced my 12 year old fronts, and my 15 year old rears before a problem could arise. After the old tires were off, I discovered some damage to the inside of the left rear tire that happened when I had a rear fender break loose a few years ago. I was fortunate that I decided to replace the tires when I did.
Depends on where you live. Tire ageing is primarily caused by heat and is an exponential curve. For those living in the sun belt, it's a real issue. Live in a more temperate climate, tires can last much longer.
A few years ago on a trip to the Lone Star Roundup I was bragging about my Diamondback tires being 13 years old with 20,000 plus miles. I had a knot come up on one of them while we were in Austin and lost the entire tread off the left front going home. It happened in a rainstorm, construction area, in the outside lane next to an 18 wheeler. The tread punched out my complete headlight assembly and I lost a nice '57 Cadillac hubcap. I start thinking about changing tires at 7-8 years now.
Three out of four on my off topic small pickup are from 1989. I have two retreads on my '64 that must be from the 50s or 60s. My observations agree with Old Wolf's. I do live in a cool, wet climate however, and these cars are not driven more than 50-60 mph.
Sometimes I think I ought to replace the JCPenney's wide whitewall bias ply's on my '37. I'm willing to bet they haven't sold those for a while. At least I don't live in a hot climate or anything.
I looked at a nice original very low mile 1950 Cadillac in Northridge CA around 1996. It was still riding on it's original tires. They had quite a few checking cracks but nothing really bad. The guy who owned it at the time drove it all the way from Minnesota a year or so before! I don't know if it had tubes but the '51 I owned it's tires were tubeless.
I would be changing them as fast as possible if I were you. But I'm not you, so continue on your path, good luck.
The tires that came on my 47 are so old every bit of them is totally dry rotted, and yet they hold air
up here the road conditions cause more tread separation than age.you have to play wackamole driving anywhere trying to miss them
Six years from the DOT date is recommended time to renew radials but they say you can run up to ten years and then your risking death so it's your call and that is a warning you have showed us...there have been many who don't have the luxury of talking about it... @okiedokie...Your tire is proof that the data ain't hogwash...
That's the case with my 58 Nash original spare that holds air. The tire feels like petrified plastic! Years ago I bought a new VW Rabbit diesel pickup truck that had Michelin radials. Going to work one day I smelled rubber burning. Apparently the right rear tire was low on air and got so hot all that was left was a wire basket. Truck was so light it stayed up on the wires...rubber dripping off. As a kid Dad had a 47 Packard that had recapped bias ply tires that were bald. We went on a family trip Virginia to Niagara falls and back no problem.
Bias Ply different animal DOT or not. Coker says in warranty quoted... "Our tires are guaranteed to be free from defects in workmanship and materials for the life of the tread." NO timeframes specified...But from a Mechanically inclined point of view do periodic inspections on your own looking for cracking and anything else suspicious as it may prevent tragedy. This is actually a bonus for the Bias crowd as they are not cheap but give long life expectancy as most don't drive huge miles on these so 10 years plus is not a stretch.
The key word is highway driving. After six years they just don't remain as pliable to take the temps built up by highway (speeds) driving. Lots of guys using them to run around town have no problems
That just looks like the hot rod gods were upset with the choice of radials. You can't guard against that kind of wrath. Jokes.
If you look closely at the tread there is a place where the groove in the tire was worn away to no groove so it may have been thumping away as a bulge for quite some time. If you hear strange noise or your ride feels like it's going up and down at low speed don't ignore it...
I have had a lot blow out on me, once I use 4 of the brand new spares on one of my OT street car the spares were all of the same model car and went on the vehicle they belonged on after two went I learned my lessen. I just replaced a front tire on my 65 Olds that gets 100 miles a year and look brand new, it blew a tire just sitting there, they were 15 + yrs. old. I'm buying 2 new ones this weekend. Pat
As per the NHTSA recommendations, it's six years if you live in Phoenix, which is where the test that resulted in these recommendations was performed. Highest average daily temps of any urban area in the US. If you live in the sunbelt, this will be pretty close. But also included in the test data if you read the full report was the fact that tire ageing slows considerably as temps go down, and it's an exponential rate; i.e. as temps go up the ageing process accelerates. This has more to do with the manufacturers covering their ass than any imminent danger of exploding tires on a magical date. If you ask virtually any tire manufacturer if their tires become 'unsafe' after a certain time period, none of them will so state that. What they will tell you is 'have them checked by a technician' which will be the guy at the tire store who looks at the date only then pronounces them unsafe with no further exam.... I'll also point out that in the same report the NHTSA did a search of reported accidents over several years in all 50 states and was unable to find even one that could be solely attributed to tire age, and very few where it even may have been a factor. Excessively worn, road hazards and underinflation are the main causes of failure, with manufacturer defects accounting for most of the rest.
Tires are Russian Roulette in a sense...they get beat to death and neglected...in spite of occasional inspections on our own or at changeover time if you do that after six years inspection should be more vigilant and if your State says six it's generally for good reason and costed out six year old tires owe no one any apologies...if you get ten good. Lots of data on this stuff...but at highway speeds blowouts or tire problems could be disastrous and the same could said for anywhere it happens. You highlight many great points and I have witnessed many a time people driving on tires so low in pressure they are near on rims...and if it does disintegrate later after reinflation is it the fault of the tire...no. We gotta be vigilant.
Ok I found a old 8 ply rough tread in my hoard. I mounted it on a split rim with a new tube. Put it on the rear of my 66 GMC. Had it loaded to the gills with auction plunder. And the tread started coming off. But that old bias ply still made it about 25 miles home. The radial came apart setting. A radial is a blowout waiting to happen.
Well, isn't this a coincidence, I meant to post on this very thing today! I was up all night last night, my dog was coughing violently. First thing this morning I took him to the vet, 25 miles away. Noticed the truck starting to pull to the right but no time to stop. I have a boatload of used mag wheels I've bought for my hot rod trying to get the best combo of looks, stance, etc., many came with tires. When the tires on my DD wore out earlier this year I thought why not wear out some of those old tires. On the way home from the vet I took it slow, and also noticed the front wheel shimmying at slow speed. Got home, pulled the front wheels off. This is what I found. Two lucky things: First off my dog is doing better. Second, the tire held long enough to get home. I had about 1,000 miles on this tire over the last few months. It's probably 20 years old. Being from the bias ply era and poor (at that time), I've always had the 'run 'em till they pop' mentality. Lesson learned.
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