Tires, how new is new really?

[Tetonchief]

What is to say a 3 week or 7 week old tire doesn't end up being part of a batch that end up being recalled due to defect in manufacture process? There are posts on this forum of people having tire failure on new tires. The OP doesn't specify what he bought (yr of rv, used or left over, etc) or where he bought (dealer or private owner). As others have said, if it was important to the buyer he should have said "how old" he would accept as new. I bought a coach from first owner and he appeared to take good care of the coach. However, I couldn't be sure and after 2 years driving the coach I just felt better about replacing all tires at almost 7 years from the original DOT date. It was easier to $4k plus for 6 tires than what it would have cost in the long run if a tired failed and the outcome wasn't good. If I was getting new 2 year old tires that hadn't been on a vehicle I would feel confident for a good 5 years of my use, but after that I would be getting anxious every day after that anniversary.

[Crasher]

Originally Posted by Tetonchief

What is to say a 3 week or 7 week old tire doesn't end up being part of a batch that end up being recalled due to defect in manufacture process? There are posts on this forum of people having tire failure on new tires. The OP doesn't specify what he bought (yr of rv, used or left over, etc) or where he bought (dealer or private owner). As others have said, if it was important to the buyer he should have said "how old" he would accept as new. I bought a coach from first owner and he appeared to take good care of the coach. However, I couldn't be sure and after 2 years driving the coach I just felt better about replacing all tires at almost 7 years from the original DOT date. It was easier to $4k plus for 6 tires than what it would have cost in the long run if a tired failed and the outcome wasn't good. If I was getting new 2 year old tires that hadn't been on a vehicle I would feel confident for a good 5 years of my use, but after that I would be getting anxious every day after that anniversary.

So you're saying that there is no difference between a tire that has been exposed to a load and the environment for seven years and a tire that was in protected storage for two years and then exposed to a load and environment for five years.

[TripleGGG]

Originally Posted by Tireman9

Here are some of my posts on tire age.

One thing to do is to get the sales receipt showing the purchase of the tires. Some companies start the warranty "clock" on data of sale while others use just the DOT serial date.

Enjoyed the videos on your site. The Bridgestone/Firestone video was excellent. Much more to tires than kicking the sidewall and saying, "yep, looks good to me". Thanks for all the info you posts. The PO of the new to us Winnebago had just put new Sampson's on it with 10/16 dates. Rides and handles very well. However keeping a very close eye on them. Im a fanatic about tire pressures, etc on all my vehicles. Drag raced and owned airplanes for years so I understand it's the maintenance and attention to details.

[ThePowells]

Originally Posted by CampDaven

If you can touch the tire and feel the slippery manufacturing residue, they have been stored in a warehouse and are NEW!
Don't sweat the small stuff

No idea if this still goes on, but in the late 70's Goodyear and Firestone both "suggested" keeping new tires in a dark, climate controlled environment if not used within a few weeks. The distributor would call certain teams and let them know when the truck coming from the plant would be there so they could pick up tires that were a week old. Some of the same teams had a restaurant type cold storage (some hidden) where they would store tires and Firestone required that tires shipped between June 15 and September 30 be shipped at 60 degrees in refer trailers. Firestone had 6 short track compounds, and some would leave some tires outside in the sun and heat over a period of a few weeks and they would actually test harder on a durometer at the same temp as protected tires and would also test harder after being scuffed. A few tried freezing some of the softer compounds to get the opposite effect.

[Waiter21]

As part of a purchase the owner was to put 4 new 22.5 tires on the rear. He did that, when I check the date code the tires are from 47th week of 2015. that makes the tire almost two years old already.

DARN --- If I was buying new tires, I would not accept them, as I would have made it clear that the "new tires" need to be within the past 6 months on the date code.

.. However, if I didn't make the PO aware of what I call "new tires", I'd probably have a chat with him to let him know that new tires that are 20% into their life expectancy wasn't exactly acceptable. In the end, if worst comes to worst, I'd probably accept it.

ON A GOOD NOTE - If you plan on keeping the MH for 10 years, its not a big deal and the two years sitting in the warehouse shouldn't hurt you. i.e. instead of new tires at 8 years, you should be able to run them to 10 years.

However, if you plan on selling it in 3-4 years, you may take a hit for tires when it comes time to sell. i.e. the tires are 6 years old and nearing the end of their life.

[Mudfrog]

Originally Posted by Waiter21

DARN --- If I was buying new tires, I would not accept them, as I would have made it clear that the "new tires" need to be within the past 6 months on the date code.

.. However, if I didn't make the PO aware of what I call "new tires", I'd probably have a chat with him to let him know that new tires that are 20% into their life expectancy wasn't exactly acceptable. In the end, if worst comes to worst, I'd probably accept it.

ON A GOOD NOTE - If you plan on keeping the MH for 10 years, its not a big deal and the two years sitting in the warehouse shouldn't hurt you. i.e. instead of new tires at 8 years, you should be able to run them to 10 years.

However, if you plan on selling it in 3-4 years, you may take a hit for tires when it comes time to sell. i.e. the tires are 6 years old and nearing the end of their life.

I'd ask him if he even realized the tires were two years old. There is a good possibility that he didn't. Might not do any good but, the OP might try talking to the previous owner to see if he might contact the tire dealership to tell them he just found out about the dates, and that two year old tires weren't what he paid for. Who knows, they might agree and make things right.

In the end, i wouldn't worry too much about it if that didn't work out. The tires are probably good to go for a number of years.

[89sandman]

The Tire Boogey Man spreads paranoia throughout RV forums New tires fail, mid life tires fail, old tires fail. I guess you can only do what makes YOU feel comfortable and not worry about what everyone else thinks is right...