tyre use by dates!

[ericcs]

A mate who's 4wd is in for repairs was talking to the mechanic about insurance companies cancelling claims due to exceeding GVM's. he also mentioned claims being rejected due to excessive tyre age. obviously tyre condition plays a part, but iv'e never heard of this, has anyone else?

 

[MANNING]

Havent heard of someone having a claim rejected but have seen the effects of tyre age. A bloke at work had got an old car he'd had at home for a few years running again and decided to bring it in for a run and show it off. Tyre tread was very much legal but all four tyre sidewalls has big cracks thru them. Nearly as if the rubber was brittle.

 

[happy john]

I'd be interested to know as well Eric. When I insured the van 4 years ago RACQ wanted to know the age of the tyres. I supplied them the details and the tyres 265/75/16 were 7 years old. The van was insured no problems. I looked into it and the laws at that time regarding tyre age from a legal situation 4 years ago there was no age for tyres to be considered illegal, but a retailer was prohibited from selling a tyre over 5 years of age. What has changed since then I wonder?.

 

[ericcs]

beats me John, it was transmission specialist on the northside that mentioned it. apparently there is a 4 digit month/year stamped on all tyres!

 

[happy john]

Yep there sure is, here is a basic example.

 

[Stelianos]

always look the numbers of when the tyre was manifactured before you buy it no matter what! there are cases that people i know went to the tyre shop and the owner tried to sell them tyres that were sitting in his shop for over a year. generally never keep tyres more than 4-5 years max (or until wear indicators show) whichever comes first. if you want to be safe that is. my tyres on my tyre R civic are almost 4 years old, they are michellin pilot sport 3 and have some thread left, but they slip a lot compared to what they used to. rubber gets hard and brittle.

 

[ericcs]

always look the numbers of when the tyre was manifactured before you buy it no matter what! there are cases that people i know went to the tyre shop and the owner tried to sell them tyres that were sitting in his shop for over a year. generally never keep tyres more than 4-5 years max (or until wear indicators show) whichever comes first. if you want to be safe that is. my tyres on my tyre R civic are almost 4 years old, they are michellin pilot sport 3 and have some thread left, but they slip a lot compared to what they used to. rubber gets hard and brittle.

an old retired workmate used to buy tyres and store them for years to harden up so they would last longer!

 

[bods]

From memory, 7 years is the "use by date." Any older than that and you risk sidewall or tread separation.... it seems to be more of an issue on caravans or trailers that sit in the same spot for long periods of time with the tyres exposed to the elements without being used...

 

[Old.Tony]

7 years is about right in my memory too. Rubber - remember where it comes from - doesn't last forever.

 

[happy john]

Well Eric, I was just reading the RACQ road ahead magazine. A member asked the same question you did regarding if there was any laws governing maximum age. The technical expert replied "Queensland laws don't specify an age limit". He also mentioned 5-6 years is the maximum useful life of a tyre.
Hope that helps a bit
Cheers

 

[terryc]

My 2c is horses for courses. People/companies are just starting to collect data on usable tyre life and the usual FUD merchants are passing off their farts as knowledge.

If you're hammering rough roads, then the fresher, the tyre, the more flexibility to meet the various surface variations. If your just dragging a trailer of stuff back from the HW and take it easy, then shrug, as you won't be too worried if the tyre collapses at low speed.

The problem with caravans, trailers etc would be that sitting on the tyre for year deforms them into an unrounded natural state and that may induce increasing instability at certain speeds. If you're worried, store them on jacks between uses.

Oh, Tyres did come from rubber from trees originally, but I'll think you find that most of them are mostly if not all petroleum based.