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I didn't look at the article but yes - tire tread is no indication of tire quality; in particular, the sidewall of any tire may or may not wear, deteriorate & collapse prior to any signs of tire tread wear.
I am not sure of the date restrictions here in Denver but finding anyone to mount old tires is so difficult. For good reason. If a tire shop mounts old tires and something happens they are held liable.
Last edited by no1oldsfan; Jul 6, 2023 at 12:41 PM.
truck tires they say no more then 7 yrs.i just replaced all 6 on my camper 24575//22.5 at close to 400 bucks per tire.the old ones were right at 10 years but only had a little over 15k miles.
Yeah, it is a tough call and expensive. The Olds oldest tires are 6 years old. I plan on pushing the Challenger's Winter tires maybe one more year, will see if I regret it, 10+ years old. The Summer tires, no issues with aging out, won't make a 3rd year. The tires on my Dakota were 9 years old and boy were they done in every way. Tread worn out, sidewalls cracking, so much one wouldn't hold air.
This happened last year on our way to the St Ignance car show. The tires were 4 years old. I was in construction when the tire blew. Concrete K barricades with no place to stop. I had to drive 4 miles before I was able to stop. The tire destroyed the fender, tore off the license plate, and the taillight. I bought the road hazard warranty. When I took the trailer in for tire repair they found a splitbelt on another tire, and a piece of rebar in a 3rd. Fast forward a month, the last tire shredded.
I know first hand having a tire do what's in the above trailer picture. I bought my wifes 07 Mustang with only 7500 miles on it 5 years ago with its original Pirellis. The tires were 11 years old and looked brand new, so I figured what the hell. Driving back from Dallas to Mayberry 1 blew out with my wife driving at 70mph. She was able to maintain control and get us to the shoulder and luckily by the sheer grace of the car gods the only damage was the tire. Believe it or not Pirelli warrantied the tire as they do not have an age limit to their warranty (another story all together) so I only ended up buying 3.
Were those standard tires or specific for trailers?
They were Carlisle 10 ply trailer tires. As I mentioned, they weren’t that old. I have plywood I cut to fit over the fenders to protect the tires from the sun, I check tire pressure every time I use it (which isn’t all that often) and still only got 4 years out of them.
Guys this is a true story. I tell it so maybe it will prevent somebody from making the same mistake. A couple years ago there was a guy headed to the TriFive Chevy meet in Tennessee. He had a 55 Chevy with 16 year old tires on it. His friend was behind him. He blew a tire and rolled the car. He was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car and killed. I saw it posted on the website and a picture of the car. Most of us will never wear the tread out on our collector cars. We look at the tread on the 8-10 year old tire and it is difficult to say it is time to replace the tires. When they are taken off, make sure they are not reused by someone else.
My guideline is 6 years for passenger car tires, 4 years for cheap Chinese trailer tires. For the Goodyear Endurance tires which I have on my enclosed trailer I will go 5 or even 6 and that is only due to the fact I store the trailer out of the sun. I have seen several instances of trailer tires blowing out on someone else's rig, was not a pretty sight.
Jesse,, at least you don't have to replace 1200 tires like Leno. But then, Jay can easily afford it. Jay will spend over $1 million on tires. Such a problem to have.
Yeah, Jay Leno has so many cars he must always be replacing tires as preventative maintenance. Not only that, but I'm sure he has plenty of cars that take specialty tires (wide whites, Z rated, or odd sizes).
Back in ‘99 when I got my Cutlass I had about a 30 minute freeway drive to get it home. Went without a hitch. Just a few days later right after leaving the house for a drive I was hearing this bizarre rotational hissing noise, pulled over and the right front was flat. Inner sidewall split from the rim to the tread. I realize now how lucky I got! Turns out the tires were from 1981!!
I remember discussing this a few years ago. I agree that tires will age and even though they look good will still be unsafe to drive. But I have to think there's something different in the way tires today are made than back in the 1960's. I paid $100 for my first car with bald tires that I drove to school and work and when a tire went flat I'd buy a used tire for a couple bucks because that's all I could afford. Attached is a photo of a tire that was on a 1955 Olds 88 parts car I drug home about 10 years ago. The tire is clearly falling apart now, but it was holding air when I got the car. I do not think todays tires would last long enough to wear the tread completely off like this one has!
When I bought my 69 Cutlass Vert in 2019 the car was redone in 1998 and the tires were date coded to 1998 and the odometer was at 2700 from the redo ... tires looked NEW but I sold the 14" Olds 14 x 6 rims Rally lll (?) rims & tires (Dunlop GT Qualifiers) for $200. Sadly - the buyer said he was going to drive the tires until they were worn out - 15 x 7 Rally's are now on my car
I do not think todays tires would last long enough to wear the tread completely off like this one has!
That's one BALD tire!
I bought a used 16 inch tire for the spare on my 86 F250. The guys at the used tire shop cut the sipes on the tire a bit when they mounted it to my rim.
I bought a used 16 inch tire for the spare on my 86 F250. The guys at the used tire shop cut the sipes on the tire a bit when they mounted it to my rim.
A sipe, also called a “kerf” is a small slit in the tire's tread block that creates additional tread surface area for increased grip in wet, icy and snowy ...
When we bought my sons 92 Yukon we thought he really lucked out, the tires were new. I mean they still had the little nipples on the sidewall. It wasn’t until we started cleaning out that we realized the truck hadn’t been driven in over 20 years.
The tires WERE new, they only had 3400 miles on it. Too bad they were installed in august of 2001. We also found a receipt for a tire rotation in March of 02. It had only been drive a couple hundred miles after the rotation.
A few weeks back, maybe a month ago, I was driving my '75 Ninety-Eight up by Racine Wisconsin coming home from a show.
Picked up a big honking nail on Hwy 20 somewhere and the nearly new tire went flat almost immediately. I of course didnt have the plug kit i always carry, because in 16 years of carrying one, i didn't need it until the day I forgot to toss it back in the trunk after cleaning it.
Needless to say, I drove the 65 miles home to Chicago on back roads, at ~35 or less MPH on the original JR-78/15 spare. Thankfully no further issues, and I patched the tire, and bought a brand new one, and relegated the patched one to the spare position. The 49 year old firestone is a garage decoration now lol.
I've showed this pic before but it's always good to show it again when the subject of old tires is brought up. 18 year old Dunlops that were always garaged. Luckily car was just sitting in the garage when this happened. No damage to vehicle. Just a reminder to take your car out and burn them tires up before they age!
