How old do you let a tire get?

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Not how many miles do you put on them, but rather how old in years do you let them get before replacing?

ABC News did a short piece on replacing old tires (i.e.: after 6 years) before they become a safety hazard. What do you think? The spare on my '95 Club wagon is oem...10 years old and I was considering replacing it with a newer tire.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/popup?id=791306
 
My 98 ZR2 came with BFG AT tires.

They wear like iron, and this year, around Christmas, they had about 47k on them, and had well over 50% of the tread left.

However, the rubber was starting to devellop cracks throughout the tread. Never caused air loss, or effected the characteristics of the tire, but my GF had a tire that looked similar and was badly dryrotted inside, causing an abrupt pressure loss, not quite a blowout, but close. I didnt want to take any chances with those big tires.

So I got new ones, and all was well.

The spare looks like new, likely because it never gets UV, so there is much less degradation.

the four regular tires should, IMO be changed about every 6 years. A spare can go indefinitely if kept from sunlight (maybe not the case if its always 100F or more in the desert).

JMH
 
My garaged 71 Cutlass got new tires last year after 19 years' use. They finally wore down to the bars. When I took them off I saw a lot of cracking in the tread, same as what I saw on the Firestone tires during the Explorer debacle... plus there was a bubble on the tread area! I do not recommend using a tire for 19 years.
 
My opinion would be that anytime cracking is observed, get rid of the potential death trap! My Dad rides this bicycle with tires that look like a dry lake bed! They must be fifteen to twenty years old. he rides this bike down hills going around 40mph!! I've warned him yet he "Knows all".
I think something to remember is that your whole life revolves around the integrity and quality of your tires.....so why even think of risking it? Even without cracking, 7 to 9 years max for me.
 
quote:

Originally posted by andrews:
My opinion would be that anytime cracking is observed, get rid of the potential death trap! My Dad rides this bicycle with tires that look like a dry lake bed! They must be fifteen to twenty years old. he rides this bike down hills going around 40mph!! I've warned him yet he "Knows all".
I think something to remember is that your whole life revolves around the integrity and quality of your tires.....so why even think of risking it? Even without cracking, 7 to 9 years max for me.


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On a bicycle, or motorcycle, with tubes, if the tube goes, the tire goes very flat very quickly.

I think I would worry about the tubes too. I assume the bicycle tires are the tube type.
 
k1xv,
Yes, most bicycle tires use tubes, but not all. All I know is that on any wheeled vehicle, If I see cracking of any kind, that tire gets replaced. I get the creeps just thinking about a blow-out going 60mph.
 
I've never have a tire last longer than 2 years. They wear out too fast.
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I also include the spare tire in the tire rotation, so it gets replaced on a regular basis, too. I wouldn't want tires older than 4 years on my car.
 
I replaced the original tires on my '95 Formula early last year. The tires had 48,000 miles on them and quite a bit of tread left. However, they were cracked REAL bad! I lost control of my car and almost killed me and my wife. The near miss was my fault too of course, but that was the catalyst for new tires for me.

My beater has tires that are 6 years old on them. The tread looks good on them though.
 
In the trunks of my 2 old cars, '76 Buick and '79 BMW, both have the original spares that look like new. Never considered them as threats to safety, but are! It's got alot of us to think about it. I don't think I'll replace them, I do check the air pressures routinely. For short low speed and temporary use, it's difficult to justify replacing them and the costs. But, if they fail, the costs could be much higher. Something to ponder.
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Thanks for all the feedback. It confirmed my feelings. I'm off to Sams Club this morning to replace the spare tire. I'd forgotten that it was the "best" factory tire left when I originally replaced them and put it on the spare at the time. So it has about 30K miles on it besides being 11 years old too. I looked up how to read the DOT date code on TireRack.

This is one of those things in life where you never will know if you do the right thing...only if you fail to do it.
 
srivett,
Trust me, I tried. He's a control freak times ten. If he thinks I'm going to replace his bicycle tires, he takes it as an insult because he said that they are safe. It was during this time that we had a huge falling out anyway, and we now don't even speak to eachother.
Long, depressing story, that nobody wants to hear!!
 
I just replaced 4 tires on my grandmas 1988 dodge aries. They were the stock ones from 1988!!!!!! The tire date was 1987!!!!! I ha da blow out with the car last night. 18 year old tires.....****
 
I totally agree, you should buy tires with the intention to wear them out by the end of 4th year, why buy a 80k mile warrantied tire and only can use 1/2 of that, and to suffer the poor handling and safety of it?

I rather enjoy my driving and don't have to worry about a tire cracking or blow out in the last 4 year.
 
I still have the OEM Goodyear Eagle RSAs on my 95 Nissan Maxima, coming up to 11 years old on October 1. They have 59,250 miles on them and are good for another 5 or 6K. They have no cracks and appear to be in OK condition, other than the tread is getting down.
 
bobo,

You need to get those tires off of there!!!!

11 year old tires are a safety hazard. That's why vehicle manufacturers have just announced their recommendations of 6 years as a limit.

BTW, the tires might not show signs of their age, but internally, they could be degraded.
 
was driving a 88 accord back in the day delivering pizzas. (still deliverying pizzas, different cars though)...

at the time, money was tight. very tight. I ran the crappiest set of tires I could buy all the way down the the metal. people at work were asking me if i thought this pizza delivery was "formula 1" or something. tires looked like slicks, lol...

I expected to have a blowout. so i was driving coutiously all the time. my delivery rgion never exceeds 45mph or so...

was going about 40mph. pop. (i didn't have any lifethreatening experience, just a little tugging to one side)

no biggy, pulled over, put on spare, drove to the tire shop the next day and bought michelin destinies. loved em, improved my wet/snow traction immensly.. and my dry pavement cornering was double what it was with a set of random crappy cheapos i can't remember the name of.
 
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