Here's a graphic example of what a 16 year old tire can do. This was just sitting in the garage when it blew. Has maybe 1200 miles on it. Don't assume tires will be ok when they are past the recommended life time! This was garaged at all times, not exposed to the weather and had no visible damage.
Wow! Great heads up. Thanks.
I have to change tires with practically no mileage on them after about 7 years is the max I run them. Getting ready to do that on my 66 Mustang, they have about 5000 miles :005:
What do you do with the tires that are seven years old with 5000 miles on them? I need to replace some like that but don't want to leave them with the tire store for them to re-sell?
Cut the side walls?
Yikes.
If you think the tire dealer may resell them I would find another dealer. Cutting the sidewalls is a good idea, or take them home and stack them, fill with dirt and grow potatoes :003: Tires have date codes and people should check that when buying them. I've saved a few to use as spares, the last spare in the trunk of my Mustang was 30 years old. I don't think the rubber compounds they use today are like the old days.
Quote from: okiedokie link=topic=6700.msg55859#msg55859
date=1480218326
What do you do with the tires that are seven years old with 5000 miles on them? I need to replace some like that but don't want to leave them with the tire store for them to re-sell?
They make good rollers for your other projects.
Zap - :unitedstates:
A mate of mine had exactly the same thing happen on a 56 Chev he brought into NZ, had a very good set of BFG's on it when it came in so saw no reason to change them until one explded while driving - fortunately at relatively low speed. If it had happened half an hour earlier while we were on the highway, things could have been dramatically different. He has now replaced all 4.
The tires looked fine on my Ranchero when I got it, found the receipt from Costco in the glove box and they were 11 years old. I was panicking just driving to the tire shop..
I just sold a 69 mustang that had T/A radials that looked brand new but were 10 years old and had less than 2000 miles on them. The guy I sold the car to called me to let me know he got the car 80 miles from my home and had one tire loose the tread, he put on the spare and got 20 miles further and the tread peeled off of a second one. He continued driving the car the rest of the way home on a treadless tire which was 10 additional miles. I will never let them get that old again and keep driving them in the future. It was a eye opener.
I too have had a radial come apart in my driveway on a parts car.
Bias plys seem to crack and leak air while radials, especially cheap Chinese junk
seem to peel the tread off in big chunks.
Steel belts more than glass belts also.
Ron.
Good article in Motor Trend a few months ago. Fellow bought an older restored race car and went out for a track day. Found himself and the car plowing up bunches of pea gravel as it would not stick to the track. Change to new tires and all was well. Also thoughts are that the movie star killed had old tires on the Porsche while out having a high speed ride on the street.
Funny how back in the day(80's) when I was working at a Standard station, we used to take the old tires that we replaced and mount them on our hot rods and musclecars and smoke them off or street race with no issues. Many, many of those tires were ancient. Some were easily 15+ years old. We never had any issues and we beat the crap out of them. Off-road, ice racing, top-enders. You name it, we did it. I guess we were just lucky. I still have a set of Firestone Super Sports on my Charger. I mounted them in 1986 and they were probably 5-10 years old at the time. :o
Back then, China was.....dinnerware.
I'm not a tire engineer, but I've made a few observations over the years.
On racing tires they seem to get very hard from heat cycling. On our drag race car we replaced our slicks every other year. They never were worn out, but our sixty foot times would fall off drastically. Our "happy number" was a 1.50 sixty foot at 12# of air, as soon as that number started to increase on a regular basis we replaced the tires. At least we never had a racing tire separate the tread. We were always happy with M&H slicks.
On my trailer tires, I try to protect them with a sheet of plywood from the sun rays while in storage, and always replace them at 5 years maximum.
A good friend recently flew back to New York (from California) to visit his mother. While there, he checked the local Craigslist and ended up buying a very nice "all original" 1967 LTD four door hard top. He was told the car originally came from Arizona and it was always garaged in New York. Not a speck of rust. So he buys it and takes it to the local shop for an oil change and general check up. When he picked it up they told him the car looked great, but cautioned him about the "new looking" tires that had a date of manufacture showing they were "29 years old". You guessed it.........he just said OK, I'll keep an eye on them.........then left for California on the interstates at 70 MPH, for 3000 miles, all the way back home. Tell me that there's not a higher power looking over people. None of us would be THAT LUCKY!
Two days ago a friend tore up the right front fender on his beautiful 1964 GTO when the 10 year old low mileage tire blew :005:
25 years ago I had a 34 3 winder.a local guy had just bought a cherry stock 50 Merc and he sold me the rims,caps and tires for cheap..I really only wanted the rims and Merc caps....That day I threw them on to the coupe and went to a local show.I parked next to a BFG display and went for a stroll....when I came back,... the crew from BFG were all gathered around the front tires looking.....they asked where I got the BFG Silvertowns....I told them the story and they were astonished that they were original date coded from 1950!.... the tires were horrible, rock hard and drove terrible...... I went back to my original look that later afternoon.
Jeff
Never mid the tires....Where is that car now??????
The 34 now resides in Virginia Jay.
Jeff, that 3 window is my idea of the perfect hot rod, the Torq Thrust version. Never really been one for whitewalls, but they do look cool on certain period correct vehicles. The stance of the 2nd pic just turn my crank, man, seriously.
Ditto!!! That car belongs in the dictionary as a definition of "hot rod".