Bias Ply tire dates for judging

[Gary H.]

Are the date codes on original bias ply tires judged or is the date on the spare the only one judged?

I am being offered a set of original like new original firestone white stripes. I figured I would possibly go this route versus buying repros for a few hundred less figuring they could be sold after judging. Any opinions?

The dates are as follows:

000LA155
001DL927
VHU2DXM331
VHU2DXK202
000JL945

What do these dates translate to?

Thanks for your help.
Gary

[Dave S.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

Are the date codes on original bias ply tires judged or is the date on the spare the only one judged?

I am being offered a set of original like new original firestone white stripes. I figured I would possibly go this route versus buying repros for a few hundred less figuring they could be sold after judging. Any opinions?

The dates are as follows:

000LA155
001DL927
VHU2DXM331
VHU2DXK202
000JL945

What do these dates translate to?

Thanks for your help.
Gary

Gary,
Firestone (as opposed to Goodyer) Nylon cord tires cannot be judged for dates if they have the pre 71 coding system. Three of the tires you a considering have that early dating method nd shoud work for our 169 car.
The other two have the long date (1971 and newer) and the dates can be judged. The third tire down the list is th 3rd week of 1971 and the fourth tire down the list is the 20th week of 1972.
Depending on the judges they can find and judge those dates.

[John H.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

Are the date codes on original bias ply tires judged or is the date on the spare the only one judged?

I am being offered a set of original like new original firestone white stripes. I figured I would possibly go this route versus buying repros for a few hundred less figuring they could be sold after judging. Any opinions?

The dates are as follows:

000LA155
001DL927
VHU2DXM331
VHU2DXK202
000JL945

What do these dates translate to?

Thanks for your help.
Gary

Gary -

The tires with 8-digit DOT codes were made after 1968, but before May, 1971; the tires with 10-digit codes were made after May, 1971. The code ending in "331" is the 33rd week of '71, '81, or '91, and the code ending in "202" is the 20th week of '72, '82, or '92. The 8-digit codes were used for the first three years of the DOT marking, and the codes were proprietary to the manufacturers; that changed in 1971, when the DOT code format was standardized and the last three digits became the date (last four after 2000).

[Rick B.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

Dave, could you help educate the uneducated quickly here. How does one decipher the early method.....15th week of 65?

[Dave S.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

Dave, could you help educate the uneducated quickly here. How does one decipher the early method.....15th week of 65?

Rick,
Pre 1971 Firestones can't be de-coded to the best of my knowledge.
Pre 1971 Goodyears can be de-coded. I'm not the guy to do it but others can help.

[Clark E.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

John...I read through your detailed response regarding the Firestone DOT codes and have a question regarding the code on the Wide Oval spare on my 1970. I'm not certain if the spare is original to the car but it was in the carrier when I purchased the car in 1972. The code is 001HA671. Is this the 67th week of 1971? Gotta admit, I'm a little confused. Appreciate any info you or others can provide. Thanks...Clark

[Dave S.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

John...I read through your detailed response regarding the Firestone DOT codes and have a question regarding the code on the Wide Oval spare on my 1970. I'm not certain if the spare is original to the car but it was in the carrier when I purchased the car in 1972. The code is 001HA671. Is this the 67th week of 1971? Gotta admit, I'm a little confused. Appreciate any info you or others can provide. Thanks...Clark

Clark,
As I menioned above any Firestone tire made prior to early 1971 cannot be decoded or dated to the best of my knowledge. Yours has a code prior to the long codes that started in early 1971 therefore no infomation is available.

[Rick B.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

This a really interesting stuff.....Based on John's decoding info I get a little hung up on the 71 or 81 or 91. And it begs a question......

Based on the brand of tire one was examining could you pinpoint the year just by understanding when the tire introduced and when it was discontinued......that of coarse is assuming a specific brand or type of tire did not run more than 10 years.
John, Dave, correct?

[Dave S.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

This a really interesting stuff.....Based on John's decoding info I get a little hung up on the 71 or 81 or 91. And it begs a question......

Based on the brand of tire one was examining could you pinpoint the year just by understanding when the tire introduced and when it was discontinued......that of coarse is assuming a specific brand or type of tire did not run more than 10 years.
John, Dave, correct?

Rick,
That is correct as far as I know. I think most tire types were less than 10 year durations.

[Terry M.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

Rick,
That is correct as far as I know. I think most tire types were less than 1 year durations.

Maybe most, but Goodyear Wide Tread F70 x 15 ran for about 5 years, give or take.

This link is geared toward more current tires, but the pictures will help none the less -- and the before 2000 paragraph also works back to Spring 1971:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11&

[Ronald L.]

Re: Bias Ply tire dates for judging

With sufficient sample size any of the pre DOT can be decoded, especially when triangulated with known original build date cars.

After all it is plant, line and date. Pretty sure the Chevy site has Goodyear all figured out. Have not yet seen the data for Uniroyal, General, BFG, nor Firestone, but might be worth checking out other car club data.