aged tire

I think it's hogwash - but I'm probably wrong.

I have not seen oil oozing from tires.

I have heard of tires "flat-spotting" from sitting in one place.

I was under the impression that ozone in the atmosphere, as well as ultraviolet light from the sun attacks / cracks / hardens / deteriorates the rubber, and that is a primary cause of the tire deterioration due to age.

But this is probably hogwash too.

Or maybe its a mixture of all these causes?

Rocky

I'm with Rocky on this. Ozone, light, sun and age all affect tire life but that being said leaving them set loaded doesn't help either. I would never trust a tire over 8 years old under a heavy load or hp application.

Take a look at the condition of the sidewalls on recaps. Those these days are limited to tractor tailor use.

The airlines were using them too.

There is an anti-oxidant agent all new tire manufacturers use. Some use more than others.

There are a bunch of reasons why but one reason is they don't want unsold new tires cracking on the shelf before they are sold.

The other is, they want them to crack so you will come back and buy more.

Ironincally the tire treatments used to make them look shiney new, expedites the sidewall cracking.

The danger in the cracking is that it encourages the large pure tire "rubber" like the treads to separate from the structure of the tire.

Some of the more expensive tires like the Pirelli, are among the worst offenders to the cracking issue.

Flat spotting happens more on fabric belted tire, least on the steel belted. It's really the belting that is flat spotting, but even so, most tires will normally tend to flat spot over night and loose the flat spot as it warms up.

The moisture that is in the compressed air used to mount the tires new has a detremental effect on the inner part of the tire and the rim as well. I don't think anyone uses nitrogen to mount with, just when the top off the tire pressure when they are done? The compressed air contains lots of compressed moisture vapor that solidifies inside of the tire and that deteriorates the inside of the tire.

Tires have a very tough life.

Store your car up on jack stands and let the suspension hang, unloaded. Turn the engine over so the valve springs don't rest in the same spot and prime the carb every week to ten days. Then you should be good to go.

The is part of an artical from Hagarty insurance.

LESSON: There are no hard and fast “expiration dates” on tires, but because rubber begins to crack and deteriorate over time, most experts suggest that eight years is the maximum safe life expectancy of a tire. If you don’t drive your classic at all and it just sits on display, you can get away with keeping the original tires as they’ll hold air. But if you drive the car at all, you need to know how old the tires are. The U.S Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that all tires manufactured since 2000 have serial numbers, and those numbers easily identify their age. Using the last four digits, the first two numbers will reveal the week and last two the year. For example, a serial number ending in 4905 tells you the tires were made during the 49th week of 2005. If there are no recognizable serial numbers, you already have your answer – the tires were made prior to 2000 and need to be replaced.


Different environment but SCTA requires tires no older than 5 years be used at Bonneville.

There is a reason why you often spot cars with trailers and a ripped apart tyre.

The average trailer doesn't make much miles, is often parked outside (in the sun), so people don't see the need to replace the tires, even not after many years, because the at first sight still look good, but are in reality not...

The tires on my 76 olds Cutlass are getting older then they need to be. When I take it out after sitting, the car vibrates bad for a while. After driving for an afternoon it smooth's out as the tires even out.

Truth is they need to be changed and will be changed soon.

On my 73 TA, I had good tires around 7 years old. I ran a trip about 20 miles down the interstate. One return, about 3 miles from my house the tread separated from the rest of the tire and I was damn lucky I was doing less then 40mph. New tires.

Every time I have borrowed my fathers trailer, to pick up a car or a piece of equipment guess what? Yes, I get a flat. Always a good looking tire but always and old tire.

Getting our RV ready for a trip it had 7 year old tires which look new. YEP-straight to the tire shop for new tires. I know the owner of the tire shop and he confirmed they were due and he would not make much of a trip on them. He says when they come apart they usually destroy the RV wheel wells.

Steve, one thing you can check is the durometer of old tires. A tire durometer gauge is pretty cheap compared to premium tires. As rubber ages it gets harder so you can gauge the progress of aging this way if you start with new tires. This will NOT tell you if a belt separation is about to occur, but the good part is, in my experience separation mostly happens in the heavier-loaded rear tires on a Pantera.

AS far as storing tires, wrapping them with brown kraft paper seems to work best. It lets air circulate, does not hold moisture and the brown paper contains anti-oxidents from the paper's manufacture. Years ago, all tires were wrapped in kraft paper.... until the prices went up. Now they come naked. FWIW, I just threw away four 16" Kumho tires from Taiwan for cracking after 10 years of light use. Tread looked like new but the sidewalls looked like a roadmap.

quote:

Originally posted by Bosswrench:...one thing you can check is the durometer...

quote:

Originally posted by comp2:...On my 73 TA, I had good tires around 7 years old. I ran a trip about 20 miles down the interstate. One return, about 3 miles from my house the tread separated from the rest of the tire...

The 2004 Monte Carlo SSSC I bought for the wife only has about 7K (and the original W rated tires). I don't need a durameter as a moderate take off now causes the traction control to kick in. I definately keep my distance for braking. the only driving it now gets is a 5 mile round trip to town with a top speed of 45mph.

I guess I better heed comp2's experaince and get some new rubber (wife won't let me sell the car)

I don't have any old tires but was just curious about what I had been told. The gist of the conversation was that as long as tires were kept resonably in use then they would last longer than a tire that is sitting for an extended period of time because the natural oils in the rubber "worked" through the tire resulting in keeping them more pliable rather than age cracking, drying out and deteriorating.

Steve

Sunlight is by far the worst offender, with over or under inflation right behind.
I always thought that the paper wrapping was to prevent white sidewall markings from getting stained black by contact with other tires in a stack.

I'm a bit confused on this matter of how tires age, because I just had two very different experiences. When I got my Pantera home from California with Michelin Pilots, it was sliding all over the place if even a drop of rain on the road. I got new tires, exact same brand, and now it sticks to the road very well. So aged tires are useless, right? But last month I bought winter wheels for my Cadillac STS, they had been stored at the dealer since 2007 with new (then) winter tires. I bought them really cheap, because both the sales guy and me agreed that winter tires 7 years old would be useless, I would have to buy new ones. I put them on just to test, and they're fine! So age is perhaps not a problem if kept in nice storage and never gotten hot/cold/hot/cold...?

quote:

Originally posted by No Quarter:
I'm a bit confused on this matter of how tires age, because I just had two very different experiences. When I got my Pantera home from California with Michelin Pilots, it was sliding all over the place if even a drop of rain on the road. I got new tires, exact same brand, and now it sticks to the road very well. So aged tires are useless, right? But last month I bought winter wheels for my Cadillac STS, they had been stored at the dealer since 2007 with new (then) winter tires. I bought them really cheap, because both the sales guy and me agreed that winter tires 7 years old would be useless, I would have to buy new ones. I put them on just to test, and they're fine! So age is perhaps not a problem if kept in nice storage and never gotten hot/cold/hot/cold...?

Two things to mention here that I have experienced and could be something that you are also. 1) you can not put any kind of tire/rubber treatment on the tires, i.e., Armorall. All it will do is permanently "grease" the tire. It will modify the coefficient of friction of the rubber permanently and just make the treads slick.

2) "summer" tires also refer to the operating temperatures of the ROAD and the tread rubber compound. Tires made for use under "summer" conditions are made for PHOENIX ARIZONA at the height of the summer operating temperatures.
Try about 135 F AIR TEMPS. God knows what kind of road surface temps?

That compound formula will loose it's grip somewhere around 40 degrees F. Under that the tire will slide around like it is on ice.

If you are going to drive the car in cold temps (northern Europe winter) you need WINTER tire just for the tread compound formula alone.

A summer compound is just not going to get hot enough to work.

This situation is just exasperated by the size of the tire contact area and the load on the tire.

I learned here centuries ago, that if you want to live through the winter and drive ANY car you have to put the skinny tires on the car.

These are my experiences here in NY. The winter road conditions here CAN resemble those of Northern European winters.