Tire age

[nena lynn]

How do you read the numbers on tire sidewalls to determine the date of manufacture of the tire.Where are these numbers located in the printed infomation on the sidewall?Thanks for any help regarding this question.

[AFchap]

Look for a sequence of leters & numbers beginning with DOT. Then look toward the end of the series for four numbers. 2312 would be a mfg date in 23rd week of 2012. 1206 would be 12th week of 2006. If you find only 3 numbers rather than 4, that is a prior to 2000 date. The DOT sequence is required to be on only one side of the tire, so it may be on the inside when mounted on your vehicle.

[Kirk W]

I suggest that you check out this article from Tire Rack on reading the tire codes. It explains things better than I could.

[kathydavidb]

Finding the word "DOT" is the key. The numbers following will show the age as AFChap had stated. Dave.

[Dutch_12078]

If the DOT code you find seems to be shorter than shown at the links above, check the other sidewall. The full DOT code that includes the date info is only molded into one sidewall, not both, for worker safety reasons. The other sidewall only has the manufacturing plant and tire model code listed.

[Kirk W]

 

The date code.

The dot number is both sides of the tire, but the date code is usually only on one side. Usually there are six to eight letters and numbers, and then last few are the date code. In the example shown, only the first four digits are on both sides of the tire. Usually all but the date code are there, and sometimes the date code is even on both sides, but that is not common. The date code can be 3 or 4 digits: before the year 2000, it was a 3 digit code and from the year 2000 on, it will be a 4 digit code. In both cases, the first two digits are the week of manufacture and the last digit or digits is the year of manufacture. For instance, a 247 code would mean that the tire was made in the 24th week of a year 7. It could be 1967, 1987, 1997 or(?) since there was no digit for decade. From the year 2000 forward, there are four digits so the code 2407 would be the 24th week of 2007. This is very important since tire rubber degrades over time. Whether the tires have been stored in a "cool dry place" or subjected to the elements, the rubber gets hard over time and the chances of tire failure increase. The industry standard for useable tire age is six years, and we don't recommend using tires older than that. For more detailed information about this, and why it's so important, please see our "tire aging" page.

[scouserl41]

A neighbor just inherited an old Winnie and is "fixing it up".

He mentioned that he'd just discovered the right inner rear tire had apparently blown out sometime previous to his inheriting it and wondered how old the tires were. I showed him how to read the codes. His was 088. He's pretty sure the thing sat in a field most of it's life and doubts that new tires were ever fitted to it. It's a 1988 model!!

He's been happily driving his wife and 4 kids down the a campground at the beach in it.

I suggested he make new tires his highest priority in "Fixing it up".

Brian

[Ranger Tom]

I once heard from a reliable source (my Brother-In-Law) that RV tires should be changed out after 5-yrs. Comments?

Also would appreciate suggestions concerning brands & ply ratings.

[FastEagle]

The picture in the reference below has been highlighted. It is a standard coding system currently being used by the DOT and is found on all DOT certified tires.

 

The first two characters (B9) in the 12 character code indicates where the tire was manufactured and whom by. In this case, Michelin in the USA. The last four numbers in the code, 5008, indicate when the tire was manufactured. It is broken down into two categories. The 50 is for the 50^th week of the year and the 08 is for year 2008.

 

http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=25393

 

 

FastEagle

[Pat & Pete]

Here's the pic :

 

[AFchap]

I believe most tire mfgers say 7-10 years, with annual inspections by tire dealer at 7yr and after. Lifetime will depend heavily on use and care. Tires that sit more than they are used will likely rot/fail earlier. I cover mine to protect from uv when park outside, and park on vapor barriers when in storage. The last tires I replaced were 7 yr old Continental H rated 16ply that still looked great inside and out. I've had the same experience w/H rated Michelins.

 

Ply ratings are related to load ratings. On my 40' DP, my H rated tires have more load capacity than the axles do. That's a good place to be.

[Biker56]

I once heard from a reliable source (my Brother-In-Law) that RV tires should be changed out after 5-yrs. Comments?

Also would appreciate suggestions concerning brands & ply ratings.

Is your Brother-In-law a tire expert for any of the tire manufactures?

Goodyear warranty the side walls for no cracks for 7 years.

Why would anyone replace before then?

 

My Goodyear G670 275/70/22.5 tires will be a little over 10 years old when I replace them next May.

No cracks yet. Hoping the lower oil price now bring down the tire prices by next spring.

 

Your Brother-In-laws 5 year rule may be for the Michelin XRV tires as I had them start to blow out at 4 years and second one at 6 years.

Your experience with Michelin may be different. And there is nothing wrong with that.

 

OH!! By the way Michelin gives 0 warranty on side wall cracks.

 

My new toad came with Michelin tires. So I will use them on my car. But never ever on a MH.

[Guest ticat900]

I once heard from a reliable source (my Brother-In-Law) that RV tires should be changed out after 5-yrs. Comments?

Also would appreciate suggestions concerning brands & ply ratings.

absolutely not correct . Mileage and condition .If there worn down replace them.If they have seen too many months of sitting in direct hot sun and not moving they will develop big sidewall cracks and change em

If the tread is good and been driven often enough and not baked in the sun. no noteable cracks they can be good for 10 years

[StarDreamers.us]

Consider taking care of your tires (as if your life depends on them) a risk that you can often control before a nasty result. Lots of good information shared here Thanks.

 

Safe Travels!

[Al F]

Here is a link to the Michelin Tire Guide with great info that ever RV tire owner should read.

[Biker56]

What to do Video when that Michelin or other brand tire blows out.

 

It worked with me with a Michelin right front blow out at 60 MPH. Stayed straight in my lane and came to a smooth stop.

[FastEagle]

For now, owners are just going to have to take the word of the tire manufacturer.

 

http://www.rubbernews.com/article/20140711/NEWS/140719986

 

FastEagle

[Ranger Tom]

Thanks everyone, as usual excellent advice!

[Guest ticat900]

How do you read the numbers on tire sidewalls to determine the date of manufacture of the tire.Where are these numbers located in the printed infomation on the sidewall?Thanks for any help regarding this question.

WHAT I was told by the tire industry people

Properly stored, new tires, stored a year or so have no disadvantages over a newly manufactured tire. Keep in mind that tires do not start to rapidly decay as soon as they leave the assembly line. Deterioration begins at a measurable level when the tire is put into use. This is due to exposure to weather, rapid changes in temperature, and sunlight. The date you should use when determining when to replace your RV tires is not the manufacturing date, but rather the date the tires are first put to use.

 

 

[oscarvan]

7-10 years, with annual inspections by tire dealer at 7yr and after

 

I'll make a small wager on what that dealer is going to say.......

 

None of my vehicles get that far as the tires are worn well before that and replaced. The exception are my trailers. Depending on which one, like the flatbed or cargo trailers I'll go to ten or so. My 18000 pound fiver is going to get new shoes at five or so.

 

 

edited for spelling

[Kirk W]

The catch in the suggested plan of annual inspections is that because of the cost to have all tires unmounted, inspected and then mounted again, very few such tires are ever inspected on the inside as manufacturers recommend. I wonder how many RV owners have actually had that done? I will admit that I didn't have mine done and that cost is one of the reasons that I did get them replaced frequently. It probably isn't too expensive to have trailer tires removed and inspected, but that cost for a motorhome is pretty significant!

 

The risk from experiencing a blowout of an RV tire is not only just a safety issue, but very often a blown tire at highway speeds will do major damage to the RV before you can get stopped. I have seen some really ugly examples of that and that was part of the reasoning for us replacing tires when we did so.

[mohamer]

One thing to consider on age of tires and replacement times is that most of the tires we use on MHs are also used on Over the Road Trucks. Those trucks can easily put more than 100,000 miles of use on the tires per year. Obviously they do not have a tire last 5 years on a working truck. Over the Road Trucks often only install new tires on the front axle (steer tires). The Driver Tires and Trailer Tires are recaps. Sometimes the recap carcases will have up to 3-5 years of life on them (sometimes more) when they are discarded. Usually the older tire carcases are used on the Trailer Axles and those tires often last a few years depending on the use of the trailer.

 

I used to run commercially from the lower 48 to Anchorage Alaska on a normal basis. This is how we ran our tires. YMMV

Edit; I have 19.5" tires on my MH and do not see a problem running them 7-10 years if they have good tread and are in good shape. I have seen these types of tires on trailers and trucks that served well for that amount of time.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

One of the factors on tire life is ozone damage. Ozone damage isn't protected from by tire covers. RV usage is the worst type of usage for tires because the tires sit for so long compared to be rolled down the road. The flexing action of rolling tires keep the emoluments in the tire compound active and that is the protection from ozone and sunlight. Ozone damaage is often not visible from the outside of the tire.

 

I bought a 7 year old motorhome and replaced the original front tires because there was a little weather checking around the rim. The rear tires were absolutely perfect and the motorhome only have 47,000 miles on it. On our first long trip, the absolutely perfect tag tire blew out from sidewall failure causing a fair amount of damage. When we went to use the spare, which had been protected from sunlight for those 7 years because it was sitting in the spare tire well, it looked so bad we would even use it. New tires that day for the 6 rears and the spare.

 

Tires are expensive and so is my truck and trailer and more importantly my life, The RVSEF people accumulated their empirical data about the expected life off tires to get their 5-7 years numbers.

 

Of course you can always shortened the life of you tires with poor air pressure.

[oscarvan]

The risk from experiencing a blowout of an RV tire is not only just a safety issue, but very often a blown tire at highway speeds will do major damage to the RV before you can get stopped. I have seen some really ugly examples of that and that was part of the reasoning for us replacing tires when we did so.

 

Absolutely. My question is: Is there a real correlation between age and failure rate, if so at what age? Or, does a certain number of tires fail, new out of the box or two years old, no matter? I suspect the latter. IOW, if you have a decently built tire it can last a decade or more. If someone was asleep at the wheel in the tire punch out factory assembly place, it could fail before you reach the next street corner. Wish we had data on THAT.

[Kirk W]

One thing to consider on age of tires and replacement times is that most of the tires we use on MHs are also used on Over the Road Trucks.

In some cases that is true but both Michelin and Goodyear make tires that are compounded specifically for use on motorhomes, or at least they say that they do. I talked to a tire shop manager about the trucks and truck recaps and he said that even the recaps usually from manufacture new to discarding after one recaping are rarely as much as 5 years old.

 

My question is: Is there a real correlation between age and failure rate, if so at what age? Or, does a certain number of tires fail, new out of the box or two years old, no matter? I suspect the latter. IOW, if you have a decently built tire it can last a decade or more. If someone was asleep at the wheel in the tire punch out factory assembly place, it could fail before you reach the next street corner. Wish we had data on THAT.

I am sure that there is some correlation since the major tire manufacturers have a cutoff age for tire warranty even based upon tread-wear. For Goodyear it clearly states, X number of miles "or 5 years, whichever comes first." Checking Michelin it says X miles "or 6 years, whichever comes first." If you dig into the manufacturer's information they tell you that tire age alone is not the total cause of age but things like sitting where the bottom of the tire stays wet for extended periods can cause moisture to penetrate into the steel belt material and cause degradation or failure as can exposure to sunlight or ozone. They also say that sitting on wet concrete can cause chemical penetration into the belts and cause damage to them. Just how long a tire can possibly last is almost impossible to predict via non-destructive testing. It is kind of a lottery on tire failures but the fact that the manufacturers do not guarantee them beyond a specific age shows at what point that lottery's odds begin to go bad.

 

Speaking for myself only, after a lot of reading about the issue and having discussed tire life at some length with a Goodyear engineer at the Dallas RV show (several years back), I made my decision. On the first set of OEM, Goodyear tires that came on our motorhome I kept them for 7 years based upon the fact that I knew all of the history of those tires, I knew that there was always some moisture barrier under the tires when sitting for extended periods, I knew that they were kept at proper inflation pressures all of the time, even when parked, and I knew that they were protected from sun exposure for long periods. Because I knew the history I played those odds and kept the first set of Goodyear tires in service for 6 years, going beyond the warranty by a year and I ran the second set, which were of the RV compounding type for 8 years and they were on the RV when it was sold. Had we kept it I had planned to run them one more year, at most.

 

The risk is that even if the tire is under warranty, I do not believe that any tire manufacturer will pay for repairs to the RV if it should be damaged when a tire fails. The only thing that the tire manufacturer will do is to replace the failed tire with a new one. I checked and my RV insurance would pay for the damage in such a situation, but with the usual deductible and when we were fulltimers it could also mean the loss of the use of our home. I am not a "long odds" gambler and would rather spend more on tires that take the risk of damage to our RV.

 

Each RV owner must make the choice that works for them.