How Old Are Your New Tires

[Uncle Jesse]

I have used up a good many tires and inspected the manufacturing facilities and warehouses of several of the major brands but I never knew the info exposed in this video. Lots of us probably are more exposed than the general public driving on narrow dirt roads with steep dropoffs.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

[Dave E]

See: http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/tire.../brochure.html

I'd bet that the most overlooked tire date on the majority of vehicles on the road, will be found on the spare tire.


Best, Dave

[PA Dave]

Interesting information. I immediately went out and crawled under my truck to find that my Firestone tires are three years old. I bought them about 3-4 months after they were manufactured. The tires on my son's Taurus, which he bought used nearly a year ago, are just over two years old. Good information to know. When I replace mine the next time, I will ask to know the age of the tires before they go on.

One detail was a little misleading in repeatedly showing what was obviously pieces of large truck retreads on the side of the road, which is a completely separate problem from what the news segment was discussing. I always wonder how many details in this sort of story are slightly off or unrelated.

[nighthawk]

This is a great thread to post Uncle Jesse.

There is another train of thought to this that is for every "X" number of widgets produced percentage "Y" are going to fail for various reasons. Age is only one reason those tires fail and most likely not the number one or even two reason why. Age is a contributing factor but not the sole reason why tires fail.

I sold a lot of tires to the trucking industry during my time managing truck stops that had truck garages. The number one enemy of any tire is heat. Even on the coldest winter day your tires heat up partly from friction with the road and partly form the heating of your brakes. The heavier the load on the tire the hotter the tire gets. Too low of pressure causes the tire to heat up (number one cause of tire failure by the way). Look at this site:

http://www.tire-information-world.com/tire-failure.html

You should be checking the air pressure in those tires a minimum of once a week. An out of alignment condition or poor vehicle maintenance will cause the tires to overheat.

Selecting a tire with a temperature rating too low for the conditions you are going to operate it in will cause that tire to overheat and fail. How many of you actually look at the tire temperature rating on that tire? Most people don't. I do.

A larger contact patch means more heat but running the minimum size or too small of a tire is even worse. How many vehicles do you see these days with "pizza cutter tires" on them? Unless it is a performance car or muscle car the manufacturer puts the smallest size available on them to save cost or increase profit margins. If you have a choice insist on a tire size that falls into the middle of the range recommended for your vehicle be it a new vehicle or if you are replacing your old tires. Tires are one thing that you do not pinch pennies on!

Look at the speed rating of your tire. The higher that rating is the tougher the tire carcass is. I am not advocating speeding nor am I saying that everybody should have tires with a speed rating of "Z" but think about your average driving speeds. Make certain your tires are rated a letter or two higher than your normal cruising speed. Over speeding (over rotation) of a tire will cause it to fail.

On the subject of rotation get them rotated and balanced every 3,000-6,000 miles. This is why I get the road hazard and balance/rotation package when I buy new tires. Even your old tires you can go to Wal-Mart Tire and Lube center, pay them a one time fee and get lifetime balance and rotation. this is a great time to get a look at those tires to see how they are wearing. That will tell you if you need suspension work, an alignment, if you are running the proper air pressure or if it is just time to replace the tires.

Never run the tires until they are bald or minimally acceptable tread levels. The tread helps the tire traction in adverse weather conditions but it also helps cool the tire. You can carry a tread depth gage or use a quarter (the new standard today. it used to be a penny) to check the depth while you are checking that air pressure. Insert the quarter upside down into the tread. If the tread lugs touch the top of Washington's head you are good to go for now but it is time to look for replacements. Here is a neat site about using a coin to check tread depths:

http://reviews.ebay.com/Measuring-Ti...00000004211704

I have had to run on worn out tires before. Personally you will never see me do it again. I will walk first. My family races late model stock cars on the dirt tracks in Pa and Ohio as a hobby. Even on packed clay if you want to win the race you better have selected the right tire for that track and then taken care of those tires during the race.

Recap or retreaded tires should be outlawed. Period. We didn't sell them in our shops. I would sell you a used tire for your 18 wheeler but only if it were going on an axle in a dual position where it has a buddy with it like the trailer or a drive axle. Steering tires were always replaced with new tires.

By the way did you notice that they didn't really clarify between a used or old tire? I know they are talking about new, unused tires that are old age wise but think about that a little just a brain teaser.

It is tragic that the young fellow lost his life but were I on a jury the lawsuit would have been tough to sell to me. As a juror you would have to prove to me that the tires were free of flaw in the manufacturing process, they were stored properly in the warehouse and at the POS (point of sale), they were initially properly mounted/balanced/inflated/installed. Most importantly that they were properly cared for with correct operator maintenance. Most reputable mechanics could take a look at the remaining tires on that vehicle and tell you if the tires and or vehicle were being properly maintained. I am not saying that I wouldn't find in favor of the plaintiff but there may be more that one entity responsible for the accident. Some of that burden probably falls on the plaintiff. All of it would factor into who pays and how much. I am pretty certain that was all taken into consideration because the settlement was out of court. It does bother me that the defendant still had old tires on the rack after a customer died and being sued.

I am just letting you folks know what I have seen and learned over the years. When it comes to tires I will admit that I don't always check the date code in my own area but that is because I personally got to know the reputable shops in my area. We used to keep track of the date codes in our shops. Anything older than two years of age was removed from our inventory. A little savvy, asking questions and proper tire maintenance will keep you safe. That puts the law of averages on your side. Age is a contributing factor but usually never the sole reason a tire fails. Poor operator maintenance is at the top of the list.

Tire technology has advanced rapidly over the last 15 years. I mean really how many blow outs or failures have you had in the last 15 years on good quality, well maintained tires? I have had valve stems fail but zero tire problems other than physical damage (punctures).

Sorry. Done rambling. I will pray for the family of the young man killed in the accident.

[Old #art]

Nighthawk--The below statement was in your post

>>>>Anything older than two years of age was removed from our inventory.<<<<<

Question I have is what happened to those tires that were pulled? Were they taken back by the manufacturer/supplier or did your company eat the loss? What were the chances those tires ended up in someone elses inventory? And I assume you were still talking about truck tires.

George

[nighthawk]

As the tires were getting near that date that we set with our company policy we would sell them at or below cost. Very hard to get a return or credit for them unless there is some defect in the tire. We kept really tight inventory controls, didn't stock pile a lot of tires. Lost a few customers because we either didn't have the tire they wanted or didn't have enough in stock and they didn't want to wait overnight for us to get them in. We didn't loose many customers, usually had customers waiting because we were so busy, but it does happen from time to time.

The few tires that absolutely did not sell and could not be returned were hauled off along with the old used tires to the local recycling center. Probably ended up as play ground materials or chopped up for asphalt from there. All I know is my shops did not sell tires that were more than 2 years of age. I never got sued for damages from a faulty tire. I have to give the credit to my garage Managers and their folks. They really worked hard at it for me. They are one of the very few things I miss about that type of occupation along with some really great customers.

Funny. Now that I think of it in a round-a-bout way some of those tires probably ended up being returned as materials for asphalt to our own refinery.

I suppose there may be chance that they ended up in someone elses inventory since that center also recaped tires for retail sales. I hope not though.