Thoughts on running 10 year old tires?

[80BrownK10]

I mean...... i run tires until the cords are showing or they explode.

Im a CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP bastard when it comes to tires.

Minor cracks? Hell yeah.
Heavy cracks and dry rotting? No.

Leaned back packed with crap rolling to Myrtle Beach at 80mph in the 101F August heat , right?

 

[80BrownK10]

Btw nice wheels. I have the same ones in 5 lug.

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My best buddy in college had I believe a 91 4Wd suburban that his wife drive usually daily. He sometimes did. That think was a beast. It also had those rims.

 

[80BrownK10]

Back a year and a half ago when I was on my renewed hunt for a set of BFG AT tires for my 16.5" aluminum slots, I ended up finding a set of 16.5" aluminum turbine wheels that come to find out turned out to be off of a guy I grew up with's grandpas '76 K20 and they had a set of Mud King XT's on them that were literally brand new. The guy said they had less than 1,000 miles on them before he took them off when he converted the truck to a dually, and they were stored and forgotten about in a back corner of his shop that is climate controlled under an old blanket. My buddy had just bought a '79 K20 (in hopes of reliving his youth as well) that just so happened to have 16.5" American Racing wheels with a like brand new set of 33" BFG AT's where the truck he bought had been inside a farm shop for the last several years and was climate controlled (mostly) as well so I went ahead and acquired the turbines with the mud kings from guy #1 and horse traded guy #2 for the AR wheels with the BFG's so I could put the like new BFG's on my Aluminum slots. Took all above stated tires to the tire shop close to here that's been in business since before I was born, asked him to demount, inspect, and give his honest opinion of all the above tires and if they were good to make the remount on the appropriate wheels. Called me a couple hours later and said they were all done and ready to be picked up. Got there to pick up said tires and he said they were in actually in pretty good shape with just a little minor dryness at the base of a few of the treads, in nice shape inside and out, but overall he said they were all good and he wouldn't be scared of any of them. But he did say point blankly after telling him the story of how they all came to be that the reason the tires were in such good shape could be attributed to the fact that they were all older compound tires and were also inside and not exposed to the sun, elements, and hot and cold temp swings for all those years. He said they'd be junk if they were and he'd have had some reservations on remounting them. So there's my take on it, if you drag something out of a field that's been sitting for a whole bunch of years I don't know if i'd trust it to go for ice cream, but for something that has sat inside of a building for most of it's life being protected from mother nature.. probably won't scare me as much. I will add that all 12 tires/rims we brought the tire shop were clean and still all had air in them and none were off the beads. But The aluminum slots I wanted new tires for so badly? when I first bought them for my truck out of a cattle barn I am ashamed to admit I probably shouldn't have driven them to the end of town but I put some miles on them anyway while on the hunt for good ones. They had enough dry rotting and big cracking across all the treads that I was literally scared to put air in them half the time! lol I've put more miles on the truck now in the last 4 months than I did in the previous 4 whole years of owning and haven't been scared of my 15ish year old tires since.

Yea old tires were way different. Rubber was better. I work with a guy that hauls all kinds of junk and cars and you name it random stuff all the time. He is in his mid 50s I think. He has a trailer he and his dad built in his teens. It's a tube rail type HD utility trailer, big enough to fit a car on. Has fold up ramps and is tandem axle. Up untill last year or the year before it had the same bias tires that they either put on it or shortly after. And I can't remember but they may have been used from a utility company, not sure why I think that, probably made that part up though??? Anyway if they were new the tires were put on let's say when he was 15 and he is 55 now, so say he replaced them 2 years ago that's 38 years! This trailer as far as I know was outside 90% of the time. Last I paid attention there was plenty of tread on those tires, not bald or anything. But no way tires today would last that long. This guy lived in a HOA subdivision and couldn't have the trailer sitting in his drive, so to get around it when it's not in the back he would drag the thing to work every day that week sometimes. Sometimes multiple days loaded with whatever random crap he had squires that week. So it had lots of miles on it, not like he only put 10 miles a week on it. I see the trailer at work all the time, no telling how much he uses it when I don't see home as well.

 

[Vbb199]

Leaned back packed with crap rolling to Myrtle Beach at 80mph in the 101F August heat , right?

******* A right buddy

 

[Vbb199]

Leaned back packed with crap rolling to Myrtle Beach at 80mph in the 101F August heat , right?

Oh and then getting trapped in a hurricane.

Check, check, check.

 

[bucket]

Yea old tires were way different. Rubber was better. I work with a guy that hauls all kinds of junk and cars and you name it random stuff all the time. He is in his mid 50s I think. He has a trailer he and his dad built in his teens. It's a tube rail type HD utility trailer, big enough to fit a car on. Has fold up ramps and is tandem axle. Up untill last year or the year before it had the same bias tires that they either put on it or shortly after. And I can't remember but they may have been used from a utility company, not sure why I think that, probably made that part up though??? Anyway if they were new the tires were put on let's say when he was 15 and he is 55 now, so say he replaced them 2 years ago that's 38 years! This trailer as far as I know was outside 90% of the time. Last I paid attention there was plenty of tread on those tires, not bald or anything. But no way tires today would last that long. This guy lived in a HOA subdivision and couldn't have the trailer sitting in his drive, so to get around it when it's not in the back he would drag the thing to work every day that week sometimes. Sometimes multiple days loaded with whatever random crap he had squires that week. So it had lots of miles on it, not like he only put 10 miles a week on it. I see the trailer at work all the time, no telling how much he uses it when I don't see home as well.

I have a '67 camper and I'm nearly certain the tires are original. Very little dry cracking and they hold air too, without leaking down over time.

 

[RecklessWOT]

I've ran some pretty damn old tires in my day and never specifically had any issues, and I drive pretty fast. I've also had a BFG M/T KM2 that was less than a year old de-tread itself on the highway. Tires are weird.

It's all case by case, it they're dry rotted and cracked and have steel fraying, drop them like hot potatoes. If they seem like totally normal tires and just happen to have been produced on a date that was a long time ago, I wouldn't be worried at all.

 

[shiftpro]

Ten years in the sun = done.

Parked in the shade, you got it made...

I haven't balanced tires (actually the wheels) for oh... some decades for sure. I'm still alive.
My diesel jetta just got used winter tires mounted, by me and my arms and tire irons, and I just did a little jetting driving half hour at 140Ks
(86 mph) and I lived.

 

[Frankenchevy]

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...actually I replace tires out of boredom and drive in the slow lane on the freeway.

I get my kicks with off-road toys, but I’m grandpa on the street.

 

[WFO]

I'm buying new tires for my motorcycle trailer next week. They finally gave up the ghost. Been on there since the trailer was new in 1976.
They've been from Florida to Utah, and many trips to the mountains in New Mexico and Colorado.

 

[Bennyt]

When buying new tires, make sure you look at the dates as well. Some shops don't turn their inventory that fast on some of the less common sizes and I've seen tires that were 3-4 years old when put on. Shouldn't really be a problem as the tire hasn't seen any heat yet but when spending a $1000 on tires I like to be a bit picky and get ones made the same year I'm buying the tires.

As a side note, one of my cars uses a 355/25zr19 that costs $450-550 a tire. There are only 2-3 manufacturers that make this size and usually only every 2-3 years or so will they make a batch so it's hard to find a fresh one. Not a very calm feeling at speed knowing your new tire is 4 years old.

Most manufacturers will cover warranty from date of purchase but in some situations that go by manufacturer date.

 

[Copymutt]

Here’s an interesting tid bit concerning weather checking.
Mid 90’s i had a set of Cooper Discovers, 10 ply on my K20.
This truck was basically relegated to a plow and wood truck. Try as i may the Colorado sun destroyed the sidewalls, severe weather checking due to the sun and lack of use. I replaced them and kept the damaged tires, used them for such things as tomato planters or just left them behind the tractor garage.
This summer while cleaning up the property I took the tires for recycling to Big O, my current go to for tires. The tech looked them, quick mounted one of them. All the weather checking was gone! Non existing. They looked near new and even had a few mold nipples on the tread. My guess is being unmounted and in the sun for 20 yrs. the rubber and what ever chemistry in the tires reflowed and filled in all the damage. Still didn’t trust them and left them w/ Big 0.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Here’s an interesting tid bit concerning weather checking.
Mid 90’s i had a set of Cooper Discovers, 10 ply on my K20.
This truck was basically relegated to a plow and wood truck. Try as i may the Colorado sun destroyed the sidewalls, severe weather checking due to the sun and lack of use. I replaced them and kept the damaged tires, used them for such things as tomato planters or just left them behind the tractor garage.
This summer while cleaning up the property I took the tires for recycling to Big O, my current go to for tires. The tech looked them, quick mounted one of them. All the weather checking was gone! Non existing. They looked near new and even had a few mold nipples on the tread. My guess is being unmounted and in the sun for 20 yrs. the rubber and what ever chemistry in the tires reflowed and filled in all the damage. Still didn’t trust them and left them w/ Big 0.

i have 2 tractor tires serving as a sand box and a flower garden and both tires look remarkable and they have been there since the 90s. they would be like the rear tire on a ford tractor from the 40s