Any one know when this system was first used ? Have found 3079 .

 

Not sure how far back it goes, when I bought my '89 Harley Softail in '10 the date code on the front tire was 0292. You could almost see the air in that tire through the cracks. I rode it about 40 MPH the 15 miles home.

 

Prior to '00, most mfr's used a single digit for the year. i.e., "7" ='97

 

Mandated by the feds in 1971

 

The info is out there. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6t6ABhDMARIsAONIYyyNKeV tl4RSBJSjZtz8OoRKAGUWlGnuoHdPA4Y7qZXEPTmYSSmWY9QaA vdHEALw_wcB&techid=11&ef_id=Cj0KCQiA6t6ABhDMARIsAO NIYyyNKeVtl4RSBJSjZtz8OoRKAGUWlGnuoHdPA4Y7qZXEPTmY SSmWY9QaAvdHEALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3756!3!3548209 20605!e!!g!!age%20of%20tire&gclsrc=aw.ds

Back in the late 80s the Illinois Army National had two bad vehicle accidents due to tire failure. We had to check every tire on every vehicle to see how old the tires were. Our guys found tires that were made in the 50s. So even back then they were marked by the manufactures. I can’t say if recaps were marked because we didn’t use them.
Just a rest of the story thing. Both incidents, one involving a fatality, were determined to be because of LOW TIRE PRESSURE. I can’t remember the civilian firm that assisted us but they took the tires, cut them up and even looked at them under super magnification to arrive at the determination.

 

Make sure and check tire dates when you get a "new" set also. A friend bought some 15" BFG TA radials for his classic car and found they were 6 years old when he got them. Apparently they sat in some warehouse for 6 years. That wouldn't really be a big deal on a car that gets a lot of miles, but on a classic that only gets 1000 miles a year those tires would be 10 years old with only 4000 miles on them. Around here the tire shops won't touch a tire that is over 10 years old. They won't even rebalance them, actually all they will do is remove and replace them.