Does the age of your tires matter?

Yes!!

Some recent testing that we did reinforces that point. Check it out over on the Classic Motorsports site. 

Here's a picture because pictures of tire smoke are cool. (At least, that's what the cool kids tell me.)

I was going to reference those Tire Rack articles, but they're already in there. I use them in my suspension/steering classes. Cool use of data in the article too! And congrats on sweet new shoes.

Were the Michelin X tires that were put in storage for 30 years never used - was that intentional or accidental?

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

I believe it was for a restoration that was never completed, but don't quote me. 

It's critical on RV tires, especially on motor homes. 

I'm actually surprised how well the old tires performed in both sets of tests (Triumph and Porsche) relative to the new ones. I imaged 2-3x stopping distances. I can't help but wonder how much of the age of design/technology is a factor vs. the rubber simply being old. Perhaps 1/3 technology, 2/3 old rubber?

Shadeux said:

It's critical on RV tires, especially on motor homes. 

Yep. The tires on my travel trailer have a 2015 date code and lots of tread left. They are still getting replaced before we set out this summer.

My wife's 2005 Volvo S40 would do burnouts at stop lights with hardly any throttle pressure.  Tires looked great, had less than 30,000 miles on them.  Changed them, problem solved.  I thing they were as hard as granite.

Ask the families of Roger Rodas and Paul Walker if tire age matters.

As noted, old tires can 'feel' fine... Right up until they don't.

Tom_Spangler said:

Shadeux said:

It's critical on RV tires, especially on motor homes. 

Yep. The tires on my travel trailer have a 2015 date code and lots of tread left. They are still getting replaced before we set out this summer.

I usually run trailer tires 6-7 years and motorhome tires 5. 

In reply to Vigo :

I also used them in my suspension/steering and brakes classes.

The date code on the tires on my Triumph is wirtten in Sanskrit, but I find once the rubber has turned to hard plastic, mileage goes way up while providing a surface only slightly less adhesive than that of a greased mackerel.

The tires on my GMT400 are dated from 2013, installed in 2014.

They have plenty of tread, and I don't think they're unsafe, but I'm still going to replace them after this year.

Toyman01 said:

Tom_Spangler said:

Shadeux said:

It's critical on RV tires, especially on motor homes. 

Yep. The tires on my travel trailer have a 2015 date code and lots of tread left. They are still getting replaced before we set out this summer.

I usually run trailer tires 6-7 years and motorhome tires 5. 

I'm probably being overly conservative, but we have a pretty long trip planned this summer, and flats on a travel trailer can do some damage when they happen. Plus, the tires on it are the OEM China Bombs (tm), and I want to switch to Goodyear Endurance. I'll probably trust those a little longer.

FWIW, my car hauler has Carlisles from 2012 on it. I'll probably replace those this year, too, but the consequences of a flat with that trailer aren't as bad, and I can't remember the last time that trailer ventured more than 50 miles from my house.

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

Sounds reasonable. You are correct about the damage a blowout can do. My last one on the motorhome took out the hydraulic leveler controls. It made quite the mess. That was a 4 year old tire that apparently had impact damage from the PO. Two of them blew out, one separated, all on the drivers side. I ended up replacing the entire set just for peace of mind. 

Driven5 said:

Ask the families of Roger Rodas and Paul Walker if tire age matters.

As noted, old tires can 'feel' fine... Right up until they don't.

Yup. That's what we found here: The old tires were good up until we needed them to perform at 100%. 

Age doesn't matter nearly as much as GETTING THE NAMES RIGHT 

I called the Goodyear tech line once to ask about tire aging.  They put me on to an engineer who took the question very seriously. He used a lot of very long words, but the takeaway was that they recommend a ten year maximum because they have done destructive testing to ten years, but not beyond and there is no way to know what is going on internally without cutting the tire apart. So they may be fine beyond ten years. But they may not be. In the motor home community ten years seems to be the agreed upon number so others may have asked the same people the same question.

a surface only slightly less adhesive than that of a greased mackerel.

This and adequatesteer  have been the most memorable discussions of vehicle handling I've seen in a while. I love this place... 

In the motor home community ten years seems to be the agreed upon number

In my brain what happens to tires when they age mostly has to do with heat cycles  and uv exposure. I personally wouldn't generally be comfortable taking a trip on 10 year old tires, but if the rig was stored in climate control and out of the sun, i might be.. In general i think tire covers are a good idea for trailers/rvs that sit a lot.  

In reply to bearmtnmartin :

I think 10 years is the rule if you are running a heavy truck tire. It drops back to 6 years for LT truck tires. My class A is a older chassis with 16" LT tires. SanFord is on 22.5 HT tires, the tires I drove back from Wisconsin on were 12 years old. The rears are now 16 years old and still look almost new, I did replace the fronts before the first long trip.

Hello from the tire store! I recently had to valet the Civic Si, and it came back with a chunk missing from the left-front. 

Would you still drive on this tire? I elected not to.

It doesn't look like it down into the important bits of the tire. If it was mine, I'd drive it. For the wife, I'd replace it so she wouldn't worry about it.

Tires with that big rim protector lip are just made of 'extra rubber' in that area. I dont think it's structural but I also don't think most people would regret paying ~$100 for an unquantifiable amount of peace of mind. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

If it were my car the tire would probably have already gone flat, but if not I'd probably drive on it for a while, no racing though.

David S. Wallens said:

Yes!!

Some recent testing that we did reinforces that point. Check it out over on the Classic Motorsports site. 

Here's a picture because pictures of tire smoke are cool. (At least, that's what the cool kids tell me.)

That Linky give me the 404 blues.  I found it anyway.  Never knew our logins worked over there too.  How cool.