Your Tires..Are They Safe ??

[Paps]

It is the present day manufacturing technics which dictate a shelf life on tires. Old vintage tires ??? As you say, correct inflation, etc., determine their longevity. I own tires that were manufactured in the 40's. Isn't anything wrong with them at all. No dry rot cracking, no wear. No wear is lack of miles though. Tires were a lot harder back then too. Paps

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

Interesting and I have three vehicles that I recently bought complete sets tires for with-in the last year and a half, two trucks and one motorcycle all at different times at different locations.


Vehicles:

1998 S-10 Chevy (mini) P.U. (Michelin's)
1994 C1500 Chevy (Full Size) P.U. (Dunlops)
1974 XLCH Harley (Avons Mk11's)

I'm going to go check all the codes on the tires and match then up with the dates of purchase receipts. I'll post my results later. Hrdly

[Hrdly-Dangrs]

Interesting and I have three vehicles that I recently bought complete sets tires for with-in the last year and a half, two trucks and one motorcycle all at different times at different locations.


Vehicles:

1998 S-10 Chevy (mini) P.U. (Michelin's)
1994 C1500 Chevy (Full Size) P.U. (Dunlops)
1974 XLCH Harley (Avons Mk11's)

I'm going to go check all the codes on the tires and match then up with the dates of purchase receipts. I'll post my results later. Hrdly

Well, I checked the XLCH's Avon motorcycle tires. The code numbers are:

Front Tire date Code: 4106 which equals the 41st week in 2006
Rear Tire date Code: 4806 which equals the 48th week in 2006

I purchased the tires from J&P Cycles back in September 6, 2007. I guess that's not a bad turn-over time since the Avons are Made in England and would have shipped to the US importer (J&P Cycles themselves??) in late 2006 or more likely early 2007. Hard to say cause these being the early style MkII's for vintage bikes they probably don't move as fast as the new style Avon's.

The Michelin tires on my 1998 S-10 were dated:

Front pair tires: 5306 which equals ?? (didn't know there were 53 weeks in a year??) in 2006
Maybe I read the #three digit wrong...maybe it was a #two. Was raining hard earlier today by me when I went outside to check the numbers.

Rear pair tires: 4006 which equals the 40th week in 2006.

I purchased the tires two separate times. The first pair in early December of 2006 for the rear and the later pair for the front around April 2007. It checks out because I rotated the tire twice since new.

Not too long of a shelf life for these tires either.

The C1500 Chevy truck's Dunlops have no code that I could find on the raised white letter side of the tires....got to crawl under and check the black wall side to see if I can find a code for them. I'll do that this week once my driveway (grass type) drys from all the rain I'm getting here right now.

Anyway...my tires manufacture codes are pretty close to date of purchase. Should get a few years out of them before having to buy new ones. Well under the Special Reports 6 year recommended safe lif span. Hrdly

[Coolbreeze]

Here is something else to consider: I have heard that tires age more quickly when they sit on concrete. Tires hung on the wall or stored on a wood floor (all out of sunlight) tend to remain pliable longer. I have not noticed this, but my vehicles usually get enough road time to wear down rubber chemically aged by contact with concrete.

Is there any truth to this old wive's tale?