My latest adventure

[Arnold]

I believe it happens because steel wire doesn't bond well to rubber. If you remember the Firestone 500 recall from many moons ago that was all about treads, belts, and carcasses coming apart. Michelin used brass plated wire because the bond was better. Firestone used plain steel wire and ended up replacing hundreds of thousands of tires, fighting numerous lawsuits, and taking an enormous PR hit for cutting corners.

 It would be interesting to note the history of these incidents.Just how much "shelf life" is in a tire. Under what conditions.
 I know there are some plastics.Strong when they were made..for what they were/did. And literally perfectly stored for 10 years cracks/breaks without warning not long after it has been put in use under a very light load. Very,very common.
I know someone :oops: who stored stuff in windshield washer bottles not knowing they degraded.

[Harry]

The way I heard it was......
There is very little rubber in the new tires, maybe just on the tread. The rest is some form of plastic. The plastic ages quickly in the sun and lets moisture in that rusts the steel wires. They come apart and the tire lets go.
When buying new tires look for the build date. Some new tires being sold are already a couple years old. Demand current year tires.

[purplepickup]

It's really good to hear no major damage was done and you are ok Frank.  You certainly do have some adventures don't you?

I agree with Harry.  Go by the build date code when buying new or using spares you have laying around.  Years ago I bought a set of tires from a questionable person at a very good price.  I didn't need them at the time so I just kept them in the garage and put them on my van about 6 years later.  Three of the four blew out over a 4th of July weekend trip within days of each other.  I had to pay premium price on a holiday weekend for new ones plus the hassle of the whole thing.  I always use fresh tires now.  A trailer for local lumber yard use might have some older tires but no cars.

[Arnold]

The way I heard it was......
There is very little rubber in the new tires, maybe just on the tread. The rest is some form of plastic. The plastic ages quickly in the sun and lets moisture in that rusts the steel wires. They come apart and the tire lets go.
When buying new tires look for the build date. Some new tires being sold are already a couple years old. Demand current year tires.

 In my h/o I think too many of us  drove in an era of "not tight" suspensions..and cars. Tires lasted until the tread was gone..and then some lol. Tires lasted about a year..20,000. Then came radials and their flatter profiles. There were lots of problems with early radials! Then came the stiiffer suspensions,lower profile tires. Sticky treads.Tires became waay too stressed. I remember my first few experiences with tires that had tons of tread but felt worn out.Tires feel new for what..5-10k..tires that have 20k on them do not feel new.There are tires with 100k tread wear warranty's now.
 The sudden failure of older tires..I dunno..there must be some factors. I dunno

[wayne petty]

i have noticed that a LOT of tire stores don't write the DOT numbers from the individual tires that are going on your car.. down on the invoice.. so you have a record of it..

and they send the manufacturer a record of the owner and dot numbers..

there are several sites that you can enter dot numbers on to find tire info...  i have not done this in a while..

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

When it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire Identification Number (often referred to as the tire's serial number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tire was produced.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires that Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturer's code, along with the week and year the tire was manufactured.

Tires Manufactured Since 2000

Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured since 2000 with the current Tire Identification Number format:

While the entire Tire Identification Number is required to be branded onto one sidewall of every tire, current regulations also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tire Identification Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall. Therefore, it is possible to see a Tire Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tire's other sidewall to find the entire Tire Identification Number


The use of a partial Tire Identification Number on the one sidewall (shown above) reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician that would have to install the weekly date code on the top sidewall portion of a hot tire mold.

Tires Manufactured Before 2000

The Tire Identification Number for tires produced prior to 2000 was based on the assumption that tires would not be in service for ten years. While they were required to provide the same information as today's tires, the week and year the tire was produced was contained in the last three digits. The 2 digits used to identify the week a tire was manufactured immediately preceded a single digit used to identify the year.

While the previous Tire Identification Number format identified that a tire was built in the 8th year of a decade, there was no universal identifier that confirmed which decade (tires produced in the 1990s may have a small triangle following the Tire Identification Number to identify the decade).

And finally, hold on to your sales receipt. Most tire manufacturer's warranties cover their tires for four years from the date of purchase or five years from the week the tires were manufactured. So if you purchase new tires that were manufactured exactly two years ago they will be covered for a total of six years (four years from the date of purchase) as long as you have your receipt. If you lose your receipt, your tires' warranty coverage will end five years from the week the tire was produced (resulting in the tire manufacturer's warranty coverage ending only three years from the date of purchase in this example).

[Pete]

Does anybody know why this happens?

The shoemaker's kids never have any shoes also.....lol

[Carnut]

Ok today I also had an adventure and a bit of a shock, found one of my 22yr old tires on the front of my 61 Chrysler decided to lose it's tread.

Went and priced new tire replacements and got another shock.

Decided to put the 17yr old spare tires from my 67 Charger and my Chrysler on the front and put the good front tire as the spare in my Chrysler and a different spare in the Charger, while I think about getting money to buy a couple good tires.

[phat rat]

Ok today I also had an adventure and a bit of a shock, found one of my 22yr old tires on the front of my 61 Chrysler decided to lose it's tread.

Went and priced new tire replacements and got another shock.

Decided to put the 17yr old spare tires from my 67 Charger and my Chrysler on the front and put the good front tire as the spare in my Chrysler and a different spare in the Charger, while I think about getting money to buy a couple good tires.

You only need four and you're concerned? Heck you're getting off easy, I've had to buy 16 this year and 12 of them were 10 ply truck tires

[lofat46]

A few years ago I wanted to have a pair of tires switched from one set of rims to another.  The tires I wanted to switch had only about 2,000 miles on them.  I went to a local Discount Tire store (American Tire in some parts of the country) where I have had this done before and the service writer refused to make the switch because the tires were more than 5 years old.  He told me it was not only company policy but a law.  Not sure about the law part.  He didn't ask me if I wanted to buy new tires or try to pressure me into buying new ones so I don't think it was a sales ploy.

[Beck]

Don't you think the hot summer months are worse on tires? For one we often don't check the pressures. The hotter it is the higher the pressure. Then we go out and dirve the hot roads. It is a vicous circle heat makes more heat. In the end many a tire is way over inflated. The heat in the rubber makes it softer also causing less strength.
Most of this was put in statements when in truth they were questions. Could it be?