Thoughts on running 10 year old tires?

[MikeB]

There are several pictures on the Internet of old tires with the tread separated from the sidewall, or where the sidewall itself simply cracked all the way through. And sometimes that happens with the car just sitting in the garage! Doesn't matter how much tread the tire has, or how many miles are on it. I wouldn't take a chance at any speed, or you could find yourself with one wheel on the pavement and what's left of the tire flopping against the inner fender.

I cut this from a classic car website:

"It might be heartbreaking to throw away what looks like a perfectly good set of Pirellis or Goodyear Eagles, but consider the fact that tires are made of rubber and rubber rots over time, like an old rubber band that cracks and breaks when you try to stretch it. This is one of the facts of life when it comes to classic cars and other vehicles that are infrequently driven, such as motorhomes and campers, and that old pickup truck you leave up at the cabin. Time and dry rot are tire killers that can’t be avoided, and while the tires might not have too many miles on them, they still need to go."

 

[skysurfer]

Buncha *******. Got these Michelins on my sports car, gonna put some silicone in the cracks and run these puppies another five years.

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[rt66paul]

I would use them around town or in the dirt. I would not run them at highway speeds, especially when it is hot. I have peeled treads from tires and they can do body damage as well as damage power steering.
Good luck on getting them balanced or having a flat fixed. The tire stores around me check date of manufacture and act like you were bringing in a split ring wheel for them to fix, they will not even check pressure, much less add air.

 

[SquareRoot]

Tires dry rot in far less than 10 years down here in the desert. I would use them off-road at low speed but not on the open road. I've seen too many squares (and others) driving around with wrinkled up fenders and wheel well openings to take the chance.

That leaves you two good options:

1. Buy new tires and you have 4 good spares.

2. Sell them to AuroraGirl and she'll have something new to talk about.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Buncha *******. Got these Michelins on my sports car, gonna put some silicone in the cracks and run these puppies another five years.

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That.... 1998? 88?

 

[AuroraGirl]

Tires dry rot in far less than 10 years down here in the desert. I would use them off-road at low speed but not on the open road. I've seen too many squares (and others) driving around with wrinkled up fenders and wheel well openings to take the chance.

That leaves you two good options:

1. Buy new tires and you have 4 good spares.

2. Sell them to AuroraGirl and she'll have something new to talk about.

i would use the tires off road, but not on road. that goes for anything safety device related. if its a mechanical part, old but still works is OK, old, hard to get to to replace is not. Old, but age could be a factor in part failure, meehhhh, but if part failure would be catostrophic or dangerou,s probably wont chance it. If its a wear item but maybe not big safety or integrity wise,... think about the cost of a new one vs used etc.

like these tires, came from my stepdad on his truck he DD and sat in my yard for a while under mostly shade but water and sun still had access - PLOW TRUCK TIME
plow truck time has taken its toll on the tires and its been a year and minimal use, so definitely a good thing i didnt road use

 

[skysurfer]

That.... 1998? 88?

Near as I can recollect, that would be ‘78.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Near as I can recollect, that would be ‘78.

i have one too but its not touching asphalt lol

 

[80BrownK10]

Talking about running on 10 year old tires, y'all need to watch some of Vice Grip Garage episodes on YouTube when he does his resurrections or rescues or will it run and drive shows. He will buy a car out of a field that ran when parked or something 20 to 30 years ago. Get it running and drive it home. Most of the time on the tires that are on it . Some of these episodes are some really sketchy setups. He will drive some as far as 700 to 800 miles. And some shorter tips are 2 or 3 hours.

I had a cooper AT3 blow out on me on the front of my Highlander this summer. It was aired up fully, I was pulling a mostly empty 4x8 trailer. I can't remember what was on it besides about 150 pounds of firewood maybe, maybe a tote full of tools? The tires were about 3 years old. I was in the passing lane passing a semi at about 75mph. I went to get over and it felt like someone was yanking the wheel to the passenger side. I quickly realized I had a flat. If the front didn't blow out it went flat in About 2 seconds or less. Tire ended up having a huge tear in the sidewall. But I got off gas got over infront of the truck I just passed making him go not to pass me as I eased on the brake, fighting the wheel and easing into emergency lane trying not to hit the gaurs rail that happened to be along that stretch of interstate. I didn't want to drive to the end of it before I changed the flat. Was on a slant and didn't set brake or chock tires like an idiot. It shifted a tiny bit due to road crown. I ended up folding up the factory jack. Lucky I had a bottle jack in said tote. It's a small HF model. I had to lift and then use firewood and bad tire to hold vehicle as I found a broken pallet board to use as a spacer to take up the space to get the car high enough that the spare would go on. All the while cats going by and whole car would rock from the wind. It was sketchy. I was not under it ever and tried to catch a brake in traffick to put it all the way up put tire on get 3 nuts on it and ease that Jack down a bit. It was the sketchiest jacking of a car I ever done. Glad that's behind me and it turned out ok. I replaced the front 2 tires, they were almost to the wear bars anyway.

 

[80BrownK10]

That.... 1998? 88?

They didn't use the tire date code system before 2000 so that is just some random number they used, nothing related to the date.

 

[AuroraGirl]

i thought the DOT 3 digit code(before 2000) was last number mean the year in the decade it was made, so a 1978 and 1988 would not be discernable without knowing the age of the tire generally

 

[skysurfer]

You’re right AG, tires typically wouldn’t last ten years so the manufacturers didn’t bother with the extra digit.

 

[Vbb199]

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.

 

[Vbb199]

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

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[QBuff02]

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.