Tire life?

[Stan E.]

I have a set of Coker 670-14 tires on my car that I purchased in 1990. The car as been driven 165 miles on these tires and has been inside and heated with no direct sun light. They have never been outside overnight except for the Windsor Nationals and not outside for more than one hour at a time except for Windsor. They show no signs of checking. are they SAFE?

[John D.]

Re: Tire life?

stanSounds like you may be finished with judging for now and want to drive. Why not get some modern radials and not have to worry about those 25 year old carcasses ?

[Ralph E.]

Re: Tire life?

I have a set of Coker 670-14 tires on my car that I purchased in 1990. The car as been driven 165 miles on these tires and has been inside and heated with no direct sun light. They have never been outside overnight except for the Windsor Nationals and not outside for more than one hour at a time except for Windsor. They show no signs of checking. are they SAFE?

Stan, it sound like the only driving is on and off a trailer, so I would assume you are safe to go!

[Stan E.]

Re: Tire life?

John, I Duntoved the car. I don't drive it except to loosen it up and oil things. I don't drive it because even with steering and brakes I DON"T LIKE IT! It is ready to judge and has not been washed since the 60's. I wish that I had driven a midyear before spending fourteen years restoring it.

[Stan E.]

Re: Tire life?

Thanks Ralph!

[William F.]

Re: Tire life?

Make me a price on that dirty old car that you don't like to drive!

[Dennis O.]

Re: Tire life?

Just for reference, I have a 1948 Seagrave fire engine that has the original B.F. Goodrich Silvertowns on it. The truck is always kept inside and a preservative is used on the tires on an annual basis. The truck has less than 5000 miles. Every year, I inspect the tires, and they look good and need minimal air. The truck is used for local parades, and is driven a few miles at a time. Tires of this size are difficult and expensive to come by. Plus, the originals look terrific. 66 years and still rolling!

[Troy P.]

Re: Tire life?

Do not drive on tires older than 10 years. Tire experts often say 8 years. I am not the only vintage Corvette owner that found out on the road.

In my case I had tires with essentially zero miles on them but they were about 10 years old. A separation occured between layers in the rubber inside the tire and it filled with air. With the tire well out of round it gave a really, really bumpy ride all of a sudden. I drove slowly to the nearest tire shop and they found the problem.

Just last week there was an article on the Haggerty Insurance website about a midyear that blew an older tire and destroyed a lot of the rear fiberglass around the wheel well.


The tire can age and rot from the inside and you'll never see it.

[Duke W.]

Re: Tire life?

Has anyone ever had a tread separation with a H or above rated tire - the type that have a spiral wound nylon cap belt?

I've had three, but they all occurred racing - two at Willow Springs on my front heavy '88 MBZ 190E 2.6 five-speed, both on the left front in successive sessions in Turn 2 - a very long banked 80 MPH sweeper with an asimuth change of nearly 270 degrees. The other was at Riverside on the Cosworth Vega. Because of the cap belts none lost air, but the bulge in the tread areas created a big vibration that alerted me to the problem.

All three were worn to below the tread bars, but none was over six years old.

Buy quality tires and you don't have to worry about age if the car spends most of the time in a dark garage. The higher the speed rating, the higher the quality of materials and processes used to manufacture the tire. Anything less than H is junk and has no place on any car I own.

Duke

[Dick W.]

Re: Tire life?

Bias ply tires are fairly safe for many years. Radials, another story. I will not drive on a radial over six years old. Problems rise exponentially after five years.

[Stan E.]

Re: Tire life?

Thanks everyone!!!

[John H.]

Re: Tire life?

I've been watching the owner's manuals in our new Chrysler products over the last eight or so years (we replace them every three years) for any indication of tire life policy, and it finally showed up in the 2013 manuals - Chrysler now recommends replacing any tires over six years old.

[Dick W.]

Re: Tire life?

I've been watching the owner's manuals in our new Chrysler products over the last eight or so years (we replace them every three years) for any indication of tire life policy, and it finally showed up in the 2013 manuals - Chrysler now recommends replacing any tires over six years old.

Taking responsibility for tire incidents off of then and placing the onous on the owner, which we all know never does anything wrong

[Jim D.]

Re: Tire life?

Bias ply tires are fairly safe for many years. Radials, another story. I will not drive on a radial over six years old. Problems rise exponentially after five years.

So, according to you, I should buy new tires for my 08 truck that has only 15K miles. I don't think so. It took 12 years to wear out the tires on my old truck. Never had a tire issue.

[Roger W.]

Re: Tire life?

Massachusetts is considering rejecting a car with tires older than 6 years at the annual safety inspection.