How long will tyres last in the shed?

The tyres may harden up over time but you also lose traction/grip.

My tyres were several years old and wet weather grip was appalling. I had about 50% tread left but chose to replace them.

Ben is on the money, we are just about to throw some Cooper atrs away because of their poor wet weather grip(And thats withs Sals carefull driving not me). They still have 30% thread, but cheaper to replace then have and accident. I have read the age code and they are six years old and past their use by date.
Cheers Pete

Hi Ted

I had them on a Hilux SR5 towing a CT, travelled through the Pilbara, Kimberleys, Lawn Hiil, Birdsville Track any a few more. I had no problems with them, they gripped on all surfaces. As I said they did 30,000 k's on the trip and still have at least that again. I got 1 flat, but that was a bit of steel.
I would get another set, no problems.

Hope this helps.

wato

Wato

Thanks for that I might go that way

Cheers

I have heard 5 years from a tyre dealer. There is a code on the tyres that say when they were manufactured.

I have used tyres that were stored for 5 years or more and they did give me problems so I would use your ones now.


Stevesub

Thanks, I will check for that mark.

Wato
I've got 8 yo Coopers that I bring out once a year for an outback trip. They are stored under the house where its quite dark. Still unsure whether to chuck them out. Gave me no trouble last september out there

Sorry Wato, that last comment should have been directed to Gossy!!

The tyre build date codes vary according to when they were made.
Tyres built before year 2000 have 3 digits in the age code. Tyres built since the year 2000 have 4 digits in the tyre code.

The Bridgestone website link below gives good advice on aged tyres and finding the tyre build date.
Bridgestone guarantee their tyres for 5 years, and recommend 6 years as the age when tyres should be treated as "aged".

http://www.bridgestone.com.au/tyres/passenger/care/age.aspx

Cheers - Ron.

G'day all


We sold our van to my sister and B_I_L around 2007 and the tyres were 4 yrs old

I suggested to him that the tyres should be replaced in the next 12 months.

He kept them on the van because there was plenty of tread.

Seven months or so later he blew a tyre at Ceduna which caused considerable damage when the tyre delaminated and hit the underside of the van.

He inspected the other 3 tyres and found another was just starting to delaminate.

Got two tyres sent up from Adelaide and replaced the other two at Albany.

I had heard about the 5 yr rule and told him about it.

From what I understand is that tyre construction is totally different from the 70's etc and they will start to deteriorate around the 5 to 6 yr mark.

Rob D - The Ford Explorer, Firestone tyre problem was mostly sheeted home to Ford management demanding that the Firestones be run several psi below their recommended pressures, to ensure a soft ride for Explorer owners.

As a result, many Firestones failed, mostly due to belt separation, as they were run at too low a pressure to start with - and with many owners not checking pressures regularly, the Firestones often ended up with only 15-20 psi in them.

The Firestones would then fail under high temperatures and hard driving conditions, and numerous fatalities resulted.
There was basically nothing wrong with the tyres (or the Explorer) - although it was found that one Firestone factory (Decatur) did have a slightly higher tyre failure rate (due to belt separation) than all the other Firestone factories.


As regards tyre age - well, this 5 or 6 yr limit is a new one on me. I've used tyres that have been 10 and 15 yrs old, and had no problems with them.
Tyres do deteriorate relatively rapidly however, with strong UV light exposure ("ozoned" tyres) - and you'll see fine cracking in the rubber in the wall that indicates this.
Once you see that happening, you know the tyres are perishing and it's time to quit them.

If the walls show no sign of fine cracking when the rubber flexes (as at the bottom), then a tyre older than 6 yrs should still give satisfactory service.
I've had numerous Dunlops, though, (commonly nicknamed "banglops") where the casing or belt separated before the tread was even half worn out.
In every case, the tyre developed a bulge in the wall or the tread, showing that the carcass was coming apart - even though the rubber was just fine.
In several cases, the bulge was big enough to create serious wheel vibration at speed.

As a result of the regular dreadful Dunlop tyre performance, I have not bought a Dunlop tyre for many years - and I have no intention of doing so for the rest of my life.
Buy well-known, good quality, brand name tyres, and you'll never go wrong.

Cheers - Ron.

The information I have published both here and in my Blog is based solely on tyre manufacturer recommendations and those of the US Tire and Rim Association who are responsible for the setting of standards for the US Tire and Rim manufacturers.

I am not presenting my personal opinion. If you care to look at the blog and follow the links you will find the information sources. Try Googling 'Deaths caused by tire failure'.

Rob D - Well, of course, tyre manufacturers want you to throw your perfectly good tyres out after 6 yrs - they've got a vested interest in selling you new ones!

The "deaths by tyre failure" stories are sure to raise many arguments. On one hand, we have the people such as Ralph Nader (he of the "Unsafe at Any Speed" book) who claimed that manufacturers low tyre pressures, selected for comfort, were a repeat factor in Chev Corvair fatalities.
Nader also trashed the Corvair design, as well as manufacturers attitudes. Some of his points were valid, a lot were overblown.

The Ford Explorer/Firestone saga raises a lot of interesting points, and much of it was related to manufacturers pointing the finger at the other parties and away from themselves.
To their credit, both Ford and Firestone bent over backwards to assess and fix the problems.

On one hand, with the Explorer/Firestone saga, we're talking about 28 deaths caused by Firestone tread separation, in a total of 47,000,000 Firestone tyres produced between 1990 and 2000.

On the other hand, the USDOT accident figures show that light trucks/SUV's rollovers featured prominently in U.S. road deaths (25%) - 10,000 people were killed in light truck/SUV rollovers, out of 40,000 total U.S. road deaths - and Firestone tyres on Explorers only accounted for 28 of these fatalities!

Further, NOWHERE in any of the Ford Explorer/Firestone lawsuits or investigations, was TYRE AGE MENTIONED, as a factor!
What was mentioned was that some of the Explorer/Firestone deaths were attributable to people not wearing seatbelts!

Many of the Firestone tyre failures were on Interstates where the minimum speed is 55mph (90 kmh). Many Americans travel at 80mph or more on Interstates.

The question was raised about how many light truck/SUV tyres are capable of sustained high speeds - particularly after having been belted through severe off-road conditions for extended periods.
Off-roading often results in carcass bruising and damage that is not picked up until the tyre blows.

Interesting outline here, of the Explorer/Firestone saga: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/om/faculty/zemel/ford_firestone.pdf

The simple fact remains, that poor vehicle control skills by drivers, are the primary factor in accidents. A tyre can blow at any time - new, old or half-worn - and in my long experience of 46 yrs at the wheel, over 2 million kms, and driving everything from motorcycles to 100 tonne Drake low-loaders, I've had a number of major tyre failures at speed.
In every single case, I used my acquired vehicle control skills to prevent an accident - and I have NEVER rolled a vehicle in that 46 yrs, despite some very hairy moments.

The greatest scenario of tyre failures I've encountered was travelling at speed on freshly-graded roads. Freshly-graded roads are full of trash such as small rocks and sticks, and these damage tyres very rapidly. The only other equivalent I've encountered is gibber-strewn roads.

I'll stick by my personal assessment of tyre usefulness by examining its condition. I've changed enough tyres in my life to be able to recognise carcass bruising or rubber perishing, or other dangerous tyre damage - and I'm not going to throw out perfectly good tyres, just because of some arbitrary time life limit - that may or may not be applicable, because of the huge variety of tyre conditions, usage conditions, and storage scenarios.

Cheers - Ron.