Tyre age - food for thought

[Alan c]

I was looking for a saftey message for an office meeting - thought I would share one of the options I came across

I plan to check my tyres on next trip home as I suspect they are well over 10 years old. I had a 4x4 in Aus that had old tyres when I changed them the ride was noticably better as the age makes them hard and stiff. Not to mention safer. Something we all should consider (i know the thought of replacing tyres with decent tread goes against the grain and the better ride gain is probably not worth the expenditure - safety is one of those unknowns as I have never heard a reported that old tyres were cause of crash - but ... something to think about)

Hope you can see the attached write up.

tyre age.pdf

[listerjp2]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

My first roadster had, what looked like good tyres, when I went to my local tyre man he said that they hadn't produced that make in years and said that I should replace them. Once he took them off and emptied a cup and a half of rubber beads out of each tyre he told me these were the worst he had seen in his 30 years in the trade. Note, they may look good on the outside but they degrade on the interior as well.

Adrian

Oh forgot to say that I thought the tyre noise was from the road alone, most of it was those beads spinning up at anything over 30mph.

[HairyDave]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

I have a Landrover that was on 750x16 Michelin XCL tyres of very uncertain vintage, one night there was a loud bang outside. Next morning I had a flat tyre with huge lump out of the inside sidewall. Checking the other tyres the outsides looked OK but the inside walls were very badly perished. New set of tyres ,Ouch! Degradation is reckoned to be a major cause of caravan accidents.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

Whilst the age of the tyre is a good indicator, it's really the UV light that causes the damage and can make a tyre an ITV (Spanish MOT) failure in a lot less than 5 years, especially if the car is not garaged or stored under shelter from the sun.

Whilst it is good practice to change tyres every five years, if a car is garaged for much of its life, the tyres working life will be greatly extended, especially if it is a low mileage vehicle.

It's when trailers and caravans get left unmoved for several months on end, unchecked, that the real problems arise.

[Alan c]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

Sounds like change after 10 years is a good thing - if older than that invest in tyres asap

[dbazdavies]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

Used to have this problem whilst working on Vintage Rolls Royce and Bentley cars . All tyres have a manufactureres date on them once you find it you can check the age via the manufacturer..If you have a flat spot after storage we were advised to pump up to 40psi road test 10 miles and reset pressures...

[chris_cussen]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

Strange - none of my tyres last 10 years

[HairyDave]

Re: Tyre age - food for thought

You've been using it, haven't you?