11 year old tires with less than 5K

[melvonnar]

I guess I was lucky, never had any coach damage, of course I never drive over 52 miles per hour.

[Jack_Hall]

How lucky do you feel? At the VERY least, spend $700+ on the TST Tire Monitor (best available IMHO) It will tell you pressure and temp on up to 16+ tires (I have no idea what the upper limit is) THEN, when a tire fails (and it will be SOON), you will be given an AUDIBLE warning the moment it fails. Unfortunately, it will likely NOT prevent the hundreds or thousands of dollars of damage it caused. JUST replace the fricatta tires and stop being a cheapskate and "stepping over a dollar to save a dime" SHEES!

[Rorytug]

Have you ever stumbled across an old pair of old shorts or a swimsuit with elastic waist that you hadn’t worn in years in the back of some drawer? Maybe a pair of socks? And when you take them out and try to put them on there’s this horrible crackling sound. And there is no elasticity. That is what happens to tires that just sit. 5000 miles in 10 years is a recipe for disaster. They are dry rotted. Pure and simple. The molecular properties of rubber require that they be in motion. A tire’s worst enemy is sitting still. I put 4000 miles a year on my tires and still change them out every five. Suck it up and buy new ones. Happy travels!

[FredV]

There are videos on youtube that shows what can happen in the event of any tire blowing out. Watch these videos with your better half and hopefully both of you will be convinced that new tires and a TPMS system are in your future.

[kkocan72]

We bought a 2002 Winnebago Adventurer last year. The tires looked perfect but the age had them as 2007. The guy that sold it to us said in no way should/could we trust them, even though they looked perfect and had 0 signs of cracking or dry rot.

We put new Coopers tires on the unit. Wasn't cheap but not worth the risk.

[RVHal]

Replace them. A friend left them too long and when the tire blew it came up through bathroom floor and took out fender moldings. Cost him a lot of money to repair.

[Mark_K5LXP]

Originally Posted by whybother

The service center (Kremer Services) keeps telling us the tires are fine, and there's no need to replace them when we have them do a spring inspection.

I wonder if they would be willing to put that in writing. My guess is no.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[roblaura]

As the others have said, 11 year old tires are a disaster waiting to happen. We have had two blow-outs in the past 12 years, and neither tire was under inflated nor older than 5 years. NOT FUN! Even though we try to minimize risk, negative things sometimes happens - that is why we have roadside assist with CoachNet and $1,000 deductible insurance (an amount we can easily cover). To minimize risk, we change tires as soon as micro cracks appear in the sidewalls, or 7 years - which ever comes first. As has also been said, you need a new tire dealer that knows tires for heavy RV vehicles.

[Geo19Irv]

I bought a used RV that had 4 good tires but the previous own had left old tires on the inner duels. At different times both of these ten year old tires popped the sidewall after sitting in a campground for a week at 10pm. Big noise, pencil sized hole in sidewall. If this happened to a front tire at highway speed you could have your hands full so I would never have oldies on the front.

[rlott2k]

This is not like gambling on outdated milk. Lives could be at stake.
Don’t underestimate the risk.

[Edwin2]

did not read all the posts but replace now - 7 years is tops - I have several vehicles with low mileage - Just go to a discount tire and ask . Be safe

[JVH]

In 2006 I bought my 1995 American Eagle from the first owner.
The tires looked perfect and had been replaced by the previous owner, however due to failing health he had not driven it for a number of years.
I started on a trip in 2012 and had three tires blowout in the space of two weeks. First the inner passenger dually, then the outer passenger dually, finally the passenger front steer tire.
The outer rear dually tore up wiring and storage that had to be rewelded.

I suspect the coach had been stored before I got it with the sun on the passenger side tires.

I replaced all the tires when I got home.

Tires age even if stored out of the sun.

Having the steer tire blow was one of the scariest things that ever happened to me.

[tropical36]

Originally Posted by whybother

Our 1995 Fleetwood Flair 27R (P32, Class A, 10K GAWR rear, 5.3K GAWR front) has 11 year old tires (8R19.5 LR/F), but are otherwise in good shape, and have less than 5K miles on them.

The service center (Kremer Services) keeps telling us the tires are fine, and there's no need to replace them when we have them do a spring inspection.
However, everywhere I read says you should replace tires after 10 years, no matter the condition. (I can't find manufacture recommendations for the specific tires.)

We expect to be driving the old beast a fair amount this year, so I'm thinking about replacing just the fronts, knowing those are the worst if they go out, and chancing it with the rear duallies, hoping that by adding a TPMS I'd have a higher chance of dealing with a single blowout on the rear before the other goes.

Are we crazy to keep going on 11 year old rears? Should we go by the service center recommendation and not even replace the front?

Unfortunately due to a lack of tire engineering for preventing blowouts or at least the explosion of such, 10yrs is the absolute max. life.
My last blowout of the inside dually on my drive axle caused $10K in damage.
The good news was that it was mostly all labor, so was able to collect and for fixing it myself. Unbelievable with the way the steel belts slapped the underbody and for causing that kind of damage. Wasn't going all that fast and for not taking that long to stop either.

[fuelish]

Originally Posted by nakita1969

I just replaces Toyo`s that were 17 years old. Leans me to believe these tire manufacturers are fudging the recommended replacement date by several years. Guess that keeps them in business.

It is good to know that Toyos are quality tires. My first rv was a bus that had 20 year old Michelins with good tread. I didn't come from an rv background and didn't know anyone with an rv so I drove on the Michelins for over 2 years without problems.

Then I joined an antique bus club and the members I met had conniption fit over the age of the tires. The bus had been stored indoors on the west coast when not in use and the tires performed flawlessly.

The bus club recommended selling tires at 4 years of age to truckers. At the time, the DOT allowed truckers to use up to 5 year old tires. Over the road truckers will go through a couple of sets a year. It was the old win-win. truckers got near new tires on the cheap and rvers got subsidized prices.

Don't know if it is still a thing.

Mike