Tires Age Out

[jeff1]

I've been doing this for a while. I have a class a diesel pusher and I never go beyond 8 years and start paying a lot of attention at 6. I've never seen a coach wear out premium 22.5 tires..always age out. Most can be regrooved but once again never seen them worn that far...not sure how many miles it would take to wear them out. I've put 60,000 on my Michelin zxa tires and they still look new....tons of tread left but only another year or two before they age out. My opinion

[botiemad]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

Was wondering if folks here had ever heard about tires aging out before they wear out. Tried doing a couple searces but got no "hits".

I've gone both ways on this. We drove our first A DP 102,000 miles on a set of tires. Still had good tread on them. Sold them to a guy with dump trucks for use as "drop down" tires. Every set we've had since then, I've changed out at the 7 year mark. Michelin says their new ones go 10 years, but I've seen what happens when they don't. If you let one go flat, replace it because the side belts will almost always break when this happens.

[Tireman9]

I want to thank all those who responded to my question.
I was as much interested to learn what percentage understood the concept of "age out" as to learn what people actually did.


I will include this information along with some other general tire life & maintenance info on my blog in a few months after I get more info organized.

[two6theroad]

I went to an RV workshop at Escapees a couple of years ago and they had a retired engineer from Goodyear come in and talk about tires and he said after 3 years you need to think about replacing your tires. He also said it was a good idea to have a laser thermometer and check the temp of your tires when you stop for gas or takeing a break. If one is hotter than rest it probably needs to be changed.

[hclarkx]

Originally Posted by twinboat

Is Michilen talking about all tires or just motor home tires where they say 10 year life with yearly inspections after 5 years ?

It seems Michelin has different specs/warranty on RV and other tires. See this link for light truck and passenger tires. The warranty ends at miles or 6 years whichever occurs first. The warranty ending at 6 years suggests to me that one should consider replacing at 6 years. Surely there won't be sudden failure at 6.5 years if a tire has been properly cared for, but nobody wants a flat if it can be avoided.

[MRUSA14]

Here is a photo of what a blown front tire looks like. This one was a 4 1/2 year old Goodyear. Thankfully I was able to get the coach stopped safely, but not before it it did $10,000 worth of damage.

[journeyman]

I have had a lot of experience, both good and bad on this issue.




Once, out of desperation, I bought two new 19.5" tires from a dealer for $50 each. I only needed them for 1000 miles. They had been stored inside on a rack, but they were already 8 years old. They looked perfect.



BOTH tires blew out. One after 700 and one after 800 miles.



It definitely DOES NOT MATTER what they look like. After a certain age, tires will give out. When they do... Ouch.

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by MRUSA14

Here is a photo of what a blown front tire looks like. This one was a 4 1/2 year old Goodyear. Thankfully I was able to get the coach stopped safely, but not before it it did $10,000 worth of damage.

Sorry to hear about your problems. Surprised your TPMS didn't provide a warning of low pressure.

[JFXG]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

I want to thank all those who responded to my question.
I was as much interested to learn what percentage understood the concept of "age out" as to learn what people actually did.
I will include this information along with some other general tire life & maintenance info on my blog in a few months after I get more info organized.

When I first noticed this thread I was curious why you, Roger,- of all people- were asking this question! Now I see.
In June of 2012 I bought a set of six Michelin XZA2, 275/70/22.5 when we bought our 2002 DS and started fulltiming. They’re now just past 6-1/2 years old. I’ve usually covered them whenever we parked for more than a week or two, (which is to say they’ve spent most of the time covered), and I usually washed and wiped them down with 303 during the covering process. They still look marvelously new with hefty tread, but in the past 3-6 months two of them have started to show some very fine hairline sidewall cracks. We’ll be back in Texas in a few weeks, and I plan to have them all inspected.
I look forward to reading your results.

[MRUSA14]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

Sorry to hear about your problems. Surprised your TPMS didn't provide a warning of low pressure.

Immediately after the tire blew out, the TPMS alarm sounded. I listened to it as I was wrestling the coach to a stop. An instant before the tire blew, the tire pressure was normal at 120 psi.

[Jonhisir]

Last summer I had to replace all or my tires (6 of them!) on my 37 ft diesel pusher. They had about 60% tread left but were over 10 years old. I had a flat and no one would fix it. I ended up buying new ones to the tune of about $3200.

It was one of those painful lessons$$$.

John
Washougal, Washington

[Tireman9]

Originally Posted by Jonhisir

Last summer I had to replace all or my tires (6 of them!) on my 37 ft diesel pusher. They had about 60% tread left but were over 10 years old. I had a flat and no one would fix it. I ended up buying new ones to the tune of about $3200.

It was one of those painful lessons$$$.

John
Washougal, Washington

You can read THIS post on how to
Soften the blow to your wallet when buying tires

[Ron Dittmer]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

You can read THIS post on how to
Soften the blow to your wallet when buying tires

I personally don't like to rotate tires because the inside rears wear faster than outside rears. rotating them places more weight on the tire with more thread, rather than an even distribution of weight. I let them wear their natural way and let them be until time to replace. For most people, they will age out before the worst wear is of concern anyway.

[Rorytug]

YES Tires expire. That is why there is a date of manufacture on the sidewall. Car, trailer, motorhome, it doesn't matter. Rubber has a shelf life. Have you ever pulled a swim suit, socks, underwear etc. out of the drawer and the elastic band is no longer pliable and it crackles and falls apart? That's the same thing that happens to tires that don't roll. Tires that are used daily will last longer, much longer than tires that don't roll but once or twice a month, let alone a year. A chemical engineer once explained to me that plyable items have moving molecules that once those molecules become stagnant from none use, they crystallize.. The sun may speed the process slightly, but it is the lack of mobility that does them in. There is no sun in your sock drawer.

I cannot believe you can't find articles on this. It is a huge topic in the RV world. I have personally dry-rotted 4 sets of tires off of my 2001 Acura because it was only driven on weekends. Sidewalls crack, tires start leaking. I change the tires on my motorhome every 4 years. Steer tires are always new. Then the next year they rotate to inside dual and new steer tires. The next year the inside duals rotate to the outside, steer tires to the inside dual and brand new steer tires. Take a year or two off, repeat.

I have seen friends of mine blow tires on trailers while I was following on the first trip in a year or two. Anyone trying to keep RV tires until they wear out is begging for disaster. Penny Wise, dollar dumb.... Save yourself the grief, change tires at least every 5 years on occasional use vehicles.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/car...ires-15408787/

https://www.tires-easy.com/blog/tire-dot-date-code/