Tire life in years

[Richard S.]

In 2004 I did a frame up restoration on my 60' and replaced the original FireStone tires with Diamondback Radials. Now seven years and 4500 miles later one of the white walls has seperated. I called Diamondback and was told to replace all four tires because of their age. Is 6-7 years the shelf life of radials?

[Edward J.]

Re: Tire life in years

Rich, Being in the automotive trade tire life can be 5/6/7 years as rubber ages they can dry rot before there useful life with most corvettes, and who knows there maybe a date code on the tire that may even show them to be older. sometimes they sit in warehouses and then the tire stores before there sold.

A few other factors to consider is white wall cleaners, sunlight, and humid climates shorten there life to.

[Duke W.]

Re: Tire life in years

There's no simple, definitive answer. The issue has been discussed, in detail, numerous times.

Do some archive searching.

Duke

[Michael G.]

Re: Tire life in years

Knowing what a blow-out can do to a fiberglass body SHOULD keep you at the short end of the spectrum.
5 yr. old tire + 45 m.p.h + pothole =

[Pat M.]

Re: Tire life in years

Richard, I'd change them all. I had 5 year old radial tires on my 70 when I brought it to the painter. A month or so later one of the radials blew just sitting there, causing no damage. I didn't have replacement wheels, and since I only lived a few miles away, I foolishly thought I could at least get home with the three other radials and a spare.

Can you guess the rest? Another tire blew 2 miles from my house, shredding the last original rear quarter panel, with brand new paint. Fortunately my painter is a wizard, and with lacquer paint and all the broken pieces you cannot tell there was any damage today.

But the moral of the story is, why risk it? Good luck.

[Ken P.]

Re: Tire life in years

Watch this video.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=698343n&tag=related;photovideo

[Rich W.]

Re: Tire life in years

Gees..I have heard of this..haven't seen it happen before..I guess my almost 11 year old tires need to go! Hmm is that another one of those what tire should I buy threads?

[Dick W.]

Re: Tire life in years

Radials are way more prone to failure than are fabric tires.

[Phil D.]

Re: Tire life in years

I'm sure plenty of people have had blowouts with old tires, but I've only ever had sidewall defects on brand new tires. Given my experience and yours, I'd go ahead and replace all four but NOT because of age, rather, I'd be thinking to myself the other three may be prone to the same damage. In fact, I'd get a different type or brand next time.

[Dick W.]

Re: Tire life in years

Usually the top belt of the radial turns loose with the tread staying mostly intact.

[Bruce S.]

Re: Tire life in years

Here's a link that I had saved to determine the age of a tire.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...2&AID=10398365&

[Richard S.]

Re: Tire life in years

Thanks for all of the information and advice. I have elected to replace all four with new Firestone whitewall radials from Diamondback. For some reason I thought that newer tire technology and radial design had eliminated the aging factor.

[Ken P.]

Re: Tire life in years

Here's a better report.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDgSk5xWkrI

[Paul J.]

Re: Tire life in years

Rich,

There's no set life for tires. I have tires that are 37 years old, and they function fine. I also have tires that have failed in two and three years. Tire life depends on the construction of the tire, the quality of the materials, the workmanship, how it's used, the temperature and environment that it's exposed to, and how well the inflation pressure is maintained.

Below are some pictures of a classic belt separation. There is a low spot on the left and raised bump on the right. This tire was recently way overloaded while it was overinflated. A sure recipe for tire destuction. The tire is 8 years old. It will blow if driven very far, but it was easy to detect in the behavoir of the truck.

Over the hundreds of tires that I have owned, I have never had one blow, although I've had belt separations occur on the road. I don't have very old tires on anything that I drive fast, and the tires on those vehicles are expensive tires. I also don't have very old tires on any of the classics that can get damaged by a tire failure.

Paul

[Dick W.]

Re: Tire life in years

Rich,

There's no set life for tires. I have tires that are 37 years old, and they function fine. I also have tires that have failed in two and three years. Tire life depends on the construction of the tire, the quality of the materials, the workmanship, how it's used, the temperature and environment that it's exposed to, and how well the inflation pressure is maintained.

Below are some pictures of a classic belt separation. There is a low spot on the left and raised bump on the right. This tire was recently way overloaded while it was overinflated. A sure recipe for tire destuction. The tire is 8 years old. It will blow if driven very far, but it was easy to detect in the behavoir of the truck.

Over the hundreds of tires that I have owned, I have never had one blow, although I've had belt separations occur on the road. I don't have very old tires on anything that I drive fast, and the tires on those vehicles are expensive tires. I also don't have very old tires on any of the classics that can get damaged by a tire failure.

Paul

But your 37 y/o tires are probably not radials. They are way more prone to failure. I have a pickup here that one of the tires was made before the standard date coding, sometime in the '60's and it looks fine. Would I drive it out on the highway, not on your life