So... My van just got some love in the form of new tires. The van had a basically new General Tire on the right rear. When i had the new tires, i asked for the 'good' tire to be swapped onto the spare. When they drop the spare, what do we find?


A Goodyear Wrangler, with an unexpected date stamp. The 2nd week of May, 1995.

Might want to consider dropping your spare and replacing it. Most agree 10 years is about as long as a tire lives, and i personally only go 5-6 (or when they wear out of course, whichever is less.)

Its easy to forget about your spare until you need it!

 

Somewhere along the line I've heard after 5 years tires do become a bit unsafe for vehicle use---has something to do with the compounds breaking down even if just sitting on the shelf.

Great advice about checking the spare----I'm heading that way right now in fact---thanks for the reminder!

 

When we removed the spare, the bead disintegrated. The tire wouldn't have made it a mile if i had used it.

 

Wow---that is scary--glad you caught it long before the spare was needed!

Thanks for the heads up----reps if I can add some for you!

 

Had thought tire date codes used 4 digits. 1st 2 digits for the week & last 2 digits for year? That scheme would make "The 2nd week of May, 1995" date code 1895.

Would be interested in seeing pic of "the bead disintegrated". Once watched as "the bead disintegrated" on a new tire while it was being mounted!

Ran original Firestones on '98 F150 until last year. Spring 1 rear tire developed out of round/belt separation, replaced pair w/Michelins. Fall 1 front tire did same, replaced w/Firestones. Condition of rubber still looked excellent, no sign of cracks/dry rot/checking at all. Tread still looked excellent.

Concerns about infamous Firestone recall/defects were offset by assurances this model tire not involved. The tiremen suggested that tire bruising from pot holes was the most likely cause for the belt separation. Was told this can happen to new tires, especially when carrying heavy load.

Have witnessed huge differences in onset of tire cracking w/some tires not even lasting 5 years before cracks begin to appear. Others are like those OEM Firestones, showing no sign of cracking after more than 10 years use.

Was surprised some new vehicles don't even have a spare tire. For me it's well over 20 years since I needed to use a spare tire.

 

They do now. In the 90's they only used one digit for year.
I thought of that after the tire was tossed into the pile, and couldnt find it. When the tire came off, it was brittle. You could poke the bead, and it would crumble down to the carcass.

My daily driver is a 630hp (modified/supercharged 392) 300C SRT8. When I bought it, I was a BIT surprised to find there was no spare. In a performance car, I can somewhat understand. A 20 inch wheel and 255 width tires are HEAVY. But I expected at least a donut. I later found donuts wont fit over the cars factory Brembos. Then I found it was a trend. Cars with a stupid little tire pump with a bottle of goo. In my high performance car, that's one thing. In a BMW 3 series? What gives?

 

Most BMWs that don't have a spare come with run-flats.

 

When a "daily driver" carries "no spare" it seems almost pointless to carry a spare in an occasional "driver".

The Goodyear (pic) appears to have never been driven on.

Besides wasting a never used spare tire, it's a waste of space, waste of carrying capacity & waste of fuel. In this regard a "high performance car" is the same as any other vehicle.

"What gives?" is that modern tires are exceptionally reliable, so much so even compact spare tires are becoming obsolete.

Over 20 years ago, when I had my last flat, I didn't use lug wrench, jack, or spare tire. Merely plugged the puncture & reinflated tire in place. There's much to be said for "a stupid little tire pump with a bottle of goo". While "a stupid little (12V) tire pump" is slow, it does supply compressed air on the spot. For years I carried a commercial version of Fix-A-Flat.

Your tip to check spare tire didn't mention an extremely common problem. Neglect often means not checking spare's air pressure. My never touched '98 F150 spare was hoisted valve stem up, making it hard to check & harder to top off. Cranked it down when I installed hitch & flipped it stem down. Never used tire/wheel had less than 20 PSI.

 

Yeah, air pressure on all the tires is often overlooked as well...

 

Wow, and to say my 1990 F250, has it's original factory spare, used only once, about 8 years ago.


Now that I think of it, non of my vehicles have a spare tire from the new millennium...

 

"Dangerously old?" is still an interesting Q, but what you've described seems like an odd phenomenon. Been driving for 50+ years, have had a lot of vehicles, seen a lot of tires. NEVER seen the bead on, not in use, spare tire disintegrate or crumble, regardless of age. NOT EVEN antique narrow, cotton cord tire, on wood spoke wheel, I pulled out of sinkhole!

Old tires typically crack, check, dry, harden, fade to gray chalky surface & loose flexibility w/age. However aging is often more about heat/fatigue from use & exposure to sun/air, than time.

Suspect factors beyond age may contribute to degrading tire rubber to the point "You could poke the bead, and it would crumble...bead disintegrated". It's unusual. Maybe a synthetic rubber raw material batch issue, or unusual chemical contamination?

Rising ozone levels attack many synthetic materials including tires. Ozone levels vary widely, dispersing from high concentration point sources. Even IF routinely parked in ozone hot spot wouldn't expect bead to disintegrate/crumble. One of countless other pollutants perhaps?

In any event, zhitcanning an otherwise good tire, just b/c of how "old" it is doesn't sound prudent. Legislation to mandate tire Shelf Life sounds "Dangerously" like a windfall to tire makers & a screwing of consumers.

IDIDieselJohn's "1990 F250, has it's original factory spare" but in what condition?

I've got some Semperit, Pirelli & Michelin tires from early 70's-80's that seem to be in great shape. It's hard to believe there's no cracks!

 

My 1990 spare is in great condition, other than being grayish. It's been underneath the truck it's whole life.

 

Ever poke a spare tire & have it disintegrate/crumble from getting "old"?

IMO different tires are affected very differently by getting "old". Some won't even last 10 years as a spare w/o cracking, others have lasted 30 years & still "seem to be in great shape".

 

The spare on my motorhome dates from 1996, it's a Michelin tire, been covered it's whole life with a spare tire tarp, and a chrome ring around it, and it's got just a couple of bad cracks, in 1 spot on the side wall, the rest is fine. I find that odd, but anyways.





I do have 4 tires that doesn't ceases to impress me, is the 4 old tires on my storage trailer. It's a 16ft long enclosed (ex flat bed car hauler) and the 4 tires on it, date from 1992. They've never been covered or anything. And that trailer moved 3 times in the past 12 years. Only 1 of them looses abit of air over time, 3 other ones, never had to add air to them! They are serevely cracked, and one of 'em the tread is starting to peel off on the outer side, but it made a 40 mile trip just last summer on those tires, without a problem. Trailer weighs around 4000lbs loaded like it is.

2 are Goodyear Challenger GT and the 2 others are also Goodyear, but forgot the model.

 

Regardless of date tire was made, if drivers were polled, I'd expect the overwelming majority would judge any tire that's "severely cracked...tread is starting to peel" to be "Dangerously old" OR worse.

It's classic justification for Motor Vehicle Safety Inspections. Even a new tire can suffer catastrophy on the road, or tweek the odds?

<TABLE style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px" class=tborder border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center><TBODY><TR title="Post 11724745" vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 width=125 align=middle>95e150CW:</TD><TD class=alt1>"When we removed the spare, the bead disintegrated. The tire wouldn't have made it a mile if i had used it."

"Dangerously old...crumble...brittle"
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