Tire recs for aging car?

REWahoo said:
A few years ago I replaced the 7 year old expensive (Michelin, $600 each) tires on my motor home. They looked great, lots of tread and no sign of any cracking. Once they were removed I was surprised to see severe cracking and "zippering" on the inside of all the tires. That experience is why I don't go longer than six years.
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$600 per tire is a lot...
 
Sunset said:
That is what my front tires looked like on our 25 yr old Camry, while the back looked new.

So I got an alignment first.
Then the next week went to buy 2 tires, and they sold me on 4 since my tires were 15 yrs old !!

I hope my new ones last 15 years ;);) :LOL::LOL::LOL:
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Most people do not realize that tires wear-out but also age-out. Driving on 15 year-old tires over 50mph is close to a deathwish. Check the tire manufacturers' websites if you think I'm kidding.
 
FLJim said:
Most people do not realize that tires wear-out but also age-out. Driving on 15 year-old tires over 50mph is close to a deathwish. Check the tire manufacturers' websites if you think I'm kidding.
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And I thought mine were old, which I replaced originally at 8 years and the next set at 9 years, even though they had some decent tread. If I did much highway driving at all, I would have replaced sooner.

I posted this in the Black Friday thread. Got a set of Goodyear Reliant 215/60R16 95V 65,000 mile tires for $260 after $120 Black Friday savings, $72 install/balance with lifetime rotation, free road hazard warranty with W+ trial, $8 disposal fee, $10 recycling fee, $29.88 taxes, total of $379.88. This isn't much more than I paid 9 years ago for the 50,000 mile Douglas tires with no road hazard warranty that served me well. No special deal back then. And yes, I haven't been putting a lot of miles on this car.
 
REWahoo said:
Yes, and there were 6 of them. :( :(

That was 15 years ago. I cringe to think what they would cost today.
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How many stays in a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn does that translate to??:popcorn:
 
Koolau said:
How many stays in a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn does that translate to??:popcorn:
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I'm with you. :)

However, to be fair, the whole "RV Life" thing is a unique cultural experience too. Apparently, some of that culture includes $1000 tires. (inflation adjusted) Gives you something to talk about with the campground host. :cool:
 
JoeWras said:
I'm with you. :)

However, to be fair, the whole "RV Life" thing is a unique cultural experience too. Apparently, some of that culture includes $1000 tires. (inflation adjusted) Gives you something to talk about with the campground host. :cool:
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I see what you did there. Good one.:cool:
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
Continental's website recommends after 10 years -
https://www.continental-tires.com/products/b2c/tire-knowledge/replacing-tires/#:~:text=All%20tires%20(including%20spare%20tires,following%20the%20%E2%80%9CDOT%E2%80%9D%20symbol.

"Continental is not aware of any technical data to support the removal of service for tires past a specific age. But the same principle applies to the tires of your vehicle as it does for any other part of your car – age matters.

Together with other members of the tire and automotive industries, Continental advises that all tires (including spare tires) made more than ten years ago should be removed from service and replaced with new tires."
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It's interesting that they say there is no data to support it, but still recc to buy new @ 10 years? I'm not disagreeing, just curious as to their basis for that.

REWahoo said:
A few years ago I replaced the 7 year old expensive (Michelin, $600 each) tires on my motor home. They looked great, lots of tread and no sign of any cracking. Once they were removed I was surprised to see severe cracking and "zippering" on the inside of all the tires. That experience is why I don't go longer than six years.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I am on the side of "safety first", "better safe than sorry", etc. And the thought of my safety relying on those 4 patches of rubber is concerning. And while I won't argue the 6 year number, and wouldn't try to convince anyone else otherwise, I do think there are considerations. I'll assume the 6 year number is conservative enough to consider most use cases (90%?), so much of the 'bad case' conditions are covered. This isn't a brick-wall, binary decision, it's a curve. And if 6 years covers most everything, than clearly those under better conditions would be in much better shape for longer (how much is tough to say w/o data).

In my case, low miles, mostly (~100% for DW) trips on local roads with 45 mph limits. I might be on the expressway at 70~75 for 10 minutes and 60~65 another 10 minutes once or twice a month, maybe. And few of those times would be in any extreme hot weather. And we rarely load our cars up, it's mostly just one or two of us. And with tire pressure monitors, we aren't running low (leads to over-heating and sidewall damage), and I make sure they aren't over-inflated. And as I mentioned, garage kept most of the day as well, so little UV exposure. I have to believe that is a far different scenario from a motor home tire used in Texas heat and probably long, loaded hot, highway miles.

But I still question if I'm skimping? Just replace them at 6 years regardless, sure, not cheap, but still 'affordable'. Better safe than sorry?

I guess what keeps me wanting to stretch a bit, based on the above, is it might be safer in my case - I tend to keep my cars a long time, last one was 16 years. Say I keep this one that long (I'll be 85, so who knows about driving?). Well, if I replace at 6 years (with good tread), then what happens at 12 years? Will I convince myself I'm only going to keep the car a few more years, no need to replace them now, I can get by? And I go on to 16 years, now the tires are 10 years old, and tread is less than it would have been. So for me, replacing at a little beyond the expected max 'half-life' of the car might actually give me the best 'average' tire quality, at 2/3rds the cost (and environmental impact).

I suspect the degradation between years 8-10 is far greater than the degradation between 6-8, so in my case, stretching to 8 years seems justified. But that is specific to me, I'm not arguing with anyone over their personal decision.

-ERD50
 
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REWahoo said:
A few years ago I replaced the 7 year old expensive (Michelin, $600 each) tires on my motor home. They looked great, lots of tread and no sign of any cracking. Once they were removed I was surprised to see severe cracking and "zippering" on the inside of all the tires. That experience is why I don't go longer than six years.
Click to expand...

To take that a step further, if "severe cracking and "zippering" on the inside of all the tires" was seen at 7 years, I might be inclined to want to inspect at least one of them (taken off or loosened from the rim) much earlier, like 3 or 4 years. They might (probably?) have been severely degraded already at 6 years if they looked that bad at 7. Tough to say, but I doubt it happened 'overnight'.

-ERD50
 
Have an 03 Oldsmobile that my mother bought new and when I bought from my dad in 2017 had only 23k miles. To drive home it was 325 miles and there was no way I was going to do that drive on 14yo tires even though they liked like new. Now 6 years later I have only put another 20k miles on the replacement tires but if I keep it more than another 4 years I will replace them again.
 
A good analysis on tire age... I was hoping they had the graph that they have in their store... as mentioned it is an upward curve showing tire age and tire to replace...


Also as mentioned, they will not work on your tire if over 10 years... I am sure many places will but I want good tires..


BTW, I need to replace the spare!!! That is something that most people do not do with age... but it is needed IMO..







https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tire-aging
 
Texas Proud said:
A
BTW, I need to replace the spare!!! That is something that most people do not do with age... but it is needed IMO..
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My spare is 17 years old. It's kept inside a trunk and was only used once. It still looks like new. I'm not replacing it. Also, no one has ever even suggested replacing it.
 
I am at a loss to understand what the age of a car has to do with what quality of tires you put on that car. Unless of course you plan to sell or trade it in the near term.
 
brett said:
I am at a loss to understand what the age of a car has to do with what quality of tires you put on that car. Unless of course you plan to sell or trade it in the near term.
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I wouldn't have bought new tires for my car if I was planning to sell or trade it anytime soon. Goodyear 65,000 mile tires are probably overkill based on how much I drive, but it was a good price, so I'm ok with that.
 
All this talk of new tires has me thinking about that "new tire smell."

Man, I just love that smell. Maybe I'm weird?
 
JoeWras said:
All this talk of new tires has me thinking about that "new tire smell."

Man, I just love that smell. Maybe I'm weird?
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I love the smell of carcinogens in the morning. Smells like...Victory!:cool:
 
Just picked up my car with the new tires. Cost me an extra $125 for 4 new TPMS sensors, which I expected. They didn't say anything about my original spare tire.
 
GenXguy said:
Just picked up my car with the new tires. Cost me an extra $125 for 4 new TPMS sensors, which I expected. They didn't say anything about my original spare tire.
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Both my vehicles use a full size tire for the spare, so I have them keep the "best" old tire as a spare. Now, if your car only has the donut...
 
A cautionary story, and indecision.

I have purchased tires from tirerack.com a number of times.

In November 2015, I purchased 4 Continental tires from them. When they arrived, I was dismayed that the DOT date code was 0414, meaning the tires were made January 2014.

So, the tires were already about 21 months old, though never used. After some back and forth, they discounted the tires by another $50.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the tires will be 10 years old, look great, and have loads of tread left. On the other hand, they've only been in service for about 8 years, and the car is garaged daily.

Lots of opinions on 6, 8, or 10 year replacement intervals, heat and UV effects, and whether non-mounted years count. Replacing them (with installation) with the same quality tire will be $750 using tirerack again, IF I pull the trigger before the rebates end Nov. 30th.
 
Koolau said:
Both my vehicles use a full size tire for the spare, so I have them keep the "best" old tire as a spare. Now, if your car only has the donut...
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Yeah, it's a doughtnut spare, but it still looks like new, unlike the tires I just took off.
 
GenXguy said:
Just picked up my car with the new tires. Cost me an extra $125 for 4 new TPMS sensors, which I expected. They didn't say anything about my original spare tire.
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That’s a great price for replacing TPMS sensors. I think many shops gouge customers on this item.
 
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