Tire Age

hooperswish · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 10:48 am

I was watching 20/20 on t.v. Friday night, and they had a segment on tire age and how a tire over 6 years old is not that safe, as the tread can totally peel off and send you into an uncontrollable situation on the road. The way you decipher the date code is: the last numbers after the series of small numbers on the bead close to the rim will read 3 or 4 digits. This is the date of manufacture code. i.e (4102) would mean that the tire was manufactured in the 41st week of 2002. (509) woulsd mean that the tire was manufactured in the 50th week of 1999- probably unsafe....
SO, when I buy new tires, I want FRESH and I now know how to decipher their intentionally confusing code...
Good luck, and happy trails

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 1:27 pm

When I was living full time in the motorhome we were advised no more than 5 years. But they are a lot bigger and heavier than a Jeep! The sidewalls blow out. I had one do that in the right front while going 65mph. Talk about filling your pants!!

Terry

Guest · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 3:45 pm

The rest of the DOT code can tell you where they were manufactured, too.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 4:35 pm

Fulltimer, I know EXACTLY what you mean. I've had one front peel-off on my RV, and a total of 3 failures in the back. The last 2 in the back were full-on blowouts, blew straight across the tread from wall to wall. Both were on the same trip, and inside tires. Took out the blackwater tank completely with one of the failures... But it got rid of the tailgator that had been 2 carlengths off the bumper for 100 miles or so! After he got 30 gallons of blue carwash... I wonder why he didn't stop to see if I was ok. :lol:

Those rear tires were ALL over 10 years old, and yes, RV tires age out after 5 years. Standard tires age out after 5 years too, but rarely last that long if the car is getting driven much.

InCommando · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 4:52 pm

I could have told you that they were going to be the inside dually tires. It almost always is when a rear tire blows. Not only do they suffer more heat build-up issues, they are by far the most likely to be neglected.

Too many people with dual rear wheels just do not know how to care for them and do not realize that a low inside tire will more likely be "held up" by the fully inflated tire next to it. Then you get the blow out.

geordi · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 9:02 pm

I agree about "most people" but I am not among that group. I have a dual-foot gauge, and I do not use extensions. I knew this was going to be a long trip after the RV had been stored for a long time, so I made sure that all 6 were at the same starting pressure, 110. I also changed the oil in the generator, and it then ran for a solid 9 days without being turned off. But I had no idea the tires were that old.

I disagree about which tire fails the most, if they are checked for pressure and matched with the outsides. Usually, the outside is getting beat on by the sun and the UV kills them by drying out the sidewalls. The inside should be protected from the sidewall cracking from UV damage.

InCommando · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 11:24 pm

Going to some hypothetical possibility instead of data even your own experience backs up?

Perhaps you are assuming that it applies only to RV's, which do tend to have a high percentage of time sitting and may be more susceptable to UV damage to the tires from not being moved ( same tires get same exposure over & over.) Normal movement limits repeated exposure of the same area of a tire to the sun. Most people move around to even a tan instead of just repeatedly sticking one arm out of the house, yes? Wouldn't the one arm then be subject to a greater amount of exposure vs. the enite body of someone who gains their exposure from normal movement?

Also, the inside tire is harder to visually "read". A low outside tire is much more visible than an inside tire. Leverage on the tires by the axle is also a factor in the inside tire being harder to "read" at a glance. Negelct of an issue is the consensus main ( but not only) cause of blow-outs, and both of yours were inside dually tires.............Hmmmmm. You had multiple blow-outs on what appears to be the same set of tires, yet kept using the remaining tires. :roll:

None of his sounds like the actions of someone with advanced tire safety and inflation knowledge.

Granted, many front tire blow-outs can be traced to road hazards striking the sidewall as those tires are more vulnerable when they are turned.

As someone who has owned DRW trucks, RV's, and worked in the family road service business ( although it was about 25 years ago), real world experience vs. some hypothesis shows that the inside dually tires blow more often. Just like yours did. Perhaps you park your RV in some unusual position (on its top, maybe?) that submitted those inside tires to greater sun exposure than the other four outside tires? Or maybe over-inflated tires building up heat on the inside wheel leads to blow-outs?

It seems that the care & treatment of the tire would have more to do with condition than just "age." A well cared for tire that is parked in a garage, maybe even a climate controlled garage, and is used in a mild climate probably resists aging much better than some sensationalist news program's general age figure would suggest. Would anyone trust a year old tire that had been thrown in the weeds & left there through summer's heat & winter's snow for that year over one that has been in a climate-controlled warehouse for two years? Again, simplistic & sometimes very arbitrary numbers are best taken with a grain of salt. Afterall, didn't 20/20 gives us the oh-so-scientific Audi unintended acceleration "facts?"

Guest · **Posted:** Sun May 11, 2008 11:38 pm

InCommando wrote:

Afterall, didn't 20/20 gives us the oh-so-scientific Audi unintended acceleration "facts?"

ROFL!!!

Was it them or Dateline that did the Chevy pickups exploding upon a broadside impact?

hooperswish · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2008 1:47 pm

InCommando wrote:

Going to some hypothetical possibility instead of data even your own experience backs up?

Perhaps you are assuming that it applies only to RV's, which do tend to have a high percentage of time sitting and may be more susceptable to UV damage to the tires from not being moved ( same tires get same exposure over & over.) Normal movement limits repeated exposure of the same area of a tire to the sun. Most people move around to even a tan instead of just repeatedly sticking one arm out of the house, yes? Wouldn't the one arm then be subject to a greater amount of exposure vs. the enite body of someone who gains their exposure from normal movement?

Also, the inside tire is harder to visually "read". A low outside tire is much more visible than an inside tire. Leverage on the tires by the axle is also a factor in the inside tire being harder to "read" at a glance. Negelct of an issue is the consensus main ( but not only) cause of blow-outs, and both of yours were inside dually tires.............Hmmmmm. You had multiple blow-outs on what appears to be the same set of tires, yet kept using the remaining tires. :roll:

None of his sounds like the actions of someone with advanced tire safety and inflation knowledge.

Granted, many front tire blow-outs can be traced to road hazards striking the sidewall as those tires are more vulnerable when they are turned.

As someone who has owned DRW trucks, RV's, and worked in the family road service business ( although it was about 25 years ago), real world experience vs. some hypothesis shows that the inside dually tires blow more often. Just like yours did. Perhaps you park your RV in some unusual position (on its top, maybe?) that submitted those inside tires to greater sun exposure than the other four outside tires? Or maybe over-inflated tires building up heat on the inside wheel leads to blow-outs?

It seems that the care & treatment of the tire would have more to do with condition than just "age." A well cared for tire that is parked in a garage, maybe even a climate controlled garage, and is used in a mild climate probably resists aging much better than some sensationalist news program's general age figure would suggest. Would anyone trust a year old tire that had been thrown in the weeds & left there through summer's heat & winter's snow for that year over one that has been in a climate-controlled warehouse for two years? Again, simplistic & sometimes very arbitrary numbers are best taken with a grain of salt. Afterall, didn't 20/20 gives us the oh-so-scientific Audi unintended acceleration "facts?"

I agree with you on the sensationalism. In the segment they showed sears and some other place selling "new" tires that were seven years old. My only point, and the purpose of the original post, was that if I buy NEW tires, I want NEW tires. I don't think older tires bother or scare me too much...but top $ deserves fresh in my book....

InCommando · **Posted:** Mon May 12, 2008 3:37 pm

Hooperswish, your are totally right: $$$ for new tires means fresh tires in my book. But someone replacing perfectly good & usable tires on their vehicle on the basis of age alone is as silly in my book as buying "new" tires that are 7 years old. Too bad that few people are educated enough on the matter to keep from getting stuck.

I am beginning to think that tires dealers are about the most corrupt retail deal out their anymore.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 06, 2008 2:39 pm

Understanding this is a month old thread here. I wanted to add that in trailers any tire over 5 years old [used or not] should be replaced because UV radiation can deteriorate the sidewall strength of the tire. And since a trailer relies on the sidewall more than a car, there is a great chance of blow out risk on trailers with old tires.

So - change your tires around every 5 years. It'll possibly save you a stop on the side of the highway!

Tire Age

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