Check your tyres! (1 Viewer)

[greygit]

We are off to Spain soon so I thought I would check the Tyres for pressures etc. Boy am I glad I did, N/S rear tyre had two deep gashes in the sidewall and totally scrap. I keep thinking what could have happened with my foot down on the Autoroute in France.

 

[34127]

How long should we expect tyres to last. Some of us might only travel a relatively low mileage in our vehicles and have plenty of tread left but do the tyres deteriorate with age and if so, what are the tell tale signs.

 

[greygit]

How long should we expect tyres to last. Some of us might only travel a relatively low mileage in our vehicles and have plenty of tread left but do the tyres deteriorate with age and if so, what are the tell tale signs.

Regrettably, yes they do deteriorate with ultra violet so usually they have to be replaced do to perished and cracked sidewalls around the five-year mark.

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[Abacist]

The Michelin website says that there is no standard age at which a tyre should be retired as they are all subject to different levels of light, weight, mileage etc. They say that once they have reached 5 years they should have a careful examination every year thereafter looking for any cracking or splitting in the rubber and if found should be replaced. When the tyres reach ten years old they should be retired even if they look OK.

 

[greyman1]

tyres are no different than cambelts [ie they are made from rubber and therefore start to weaken with age irrespective of miles travelled ]. as for what could happen foot down on the motorway ,i can tell you from personal experience ! my hymers o/s rear went at 65mph on the m25 on the way to the tunnel earlier this year .it was 11 pm on the unlit section near dartford crossing . the middle section of tread peeled itself off the metal reinforced carcass and launched itself up into the underside of the van [ala concorde style ] , the mudguard was then shattered and the debris then took out part of my waste water tank !!! the tyres had all been checked prior to the journey both by myself and when it was motd 2 weeks before . there had been no sign of cracking and the treads had only appeared half worn at most ! A NIGHT TO REMEMBER that was ! especially, when in the middle of changing it for the spare ,the jack collapsed !! i think in my case the facts that the tyres were approx 7 /8 yrs old and that due to circumstances the van had been parked up in storage for virtually 12 months prior to embarking on a 6 hour motorway run all conspired against me . i have since replaced all the tyres and am still looking for parts to repair the vans underside !! regards garry

 

[chaser]

How long should we expect tyres to last. Some of us might only travel a relatively low mileage in our vehicles and have plenty of tread left but do the tyres deteriorate with age and if so, what are the tell tale signs.

God , you don't realise what you have started now

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[dabhand]

If you have ever had a blowout especially on a front tyre when you are on a motorway doing 70 you would never drive with old tyres again. Going to Morocco so just changed all the tyres £400, worth every penny. One of my tyres was a 2005, it was an inside rear so it was infrequently checked, most people have a local tyre place who will happily whip the wheels off to check the rears. A burst tyre invariably happens in the middle of nowhere when you are abroad, 3 times in my case. I have got an extra spare for Morocco just in case!!

 

[34127]

Sorry it seems as if I have high jacked the original posting.
Thank for your replies I was intending to replace my tyres but as the vehicle has just passed mot I assumed they must be okay. I now know differently and will be replacing them.

 

[Peter A Forbes]

A lot depends on the tyre, its construction and how much of its rating is used on your vehicle. If you are running at the tyre's load limit, then try and go up to the next load band or two, say 118 to 121 as an example, or go from 8ply to 10 ply.

As far as age goes, a new tyre, not inflated and correctly stored should not deteriorate significantly over time, so I'd be OK with a tyre dated before the current year as long as it is a good brand and shows no signs of damage.

It is always worth going up a size in width if you get the chance, wider tyres bring better load ratings and will run cooler than the smaller size. We have just gone up to 225's from 215's on the Mercedes.

Peter

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[Minxy]

Yesterday we were having a similar discussion.

Our camper is 2012 registered and I know from the paperwork that we saw that it was actually built towards the end of 2011 with the tyres produced not long before that, so they are in effect about 3.5 years old, however we now have around 17,000 miles on and whilst the front ones still have over the legal tread depth on them we're going to change one tyre for a new one and use the spare wheel/tyre which has never been on for the other, then use the best of the removed front wheels/tyres as the spare (the rears still have a good tread depth), that way we'll have 2 'new' tyres on our drive wheels for our jaunt to Spain in February.

 

[DavidG58]

In 2 years I have learnt a massive amount about tyres purely from this forum, most of it very good, some of it opinion, some of it possibly rumours and here say

But the date code showing manufacture date of tyre is a fact and the marker as above is something I didn't know about, when I checked our 09 registered, 08 built MH bought used

in 13, found it had 07 tyres

So based on a majority opinion here that a 5 year life for a tyres is long enough (note the majority comment) some disagree, I changed mine

But @Minx comment above, reminded me of our decision not to change the spare on ours, or use it, reckoning putting a 6 year old tyre on as one of 5 other new ones wasn't clever, but not really happy to pay for 7 tyres my decision was to leave the unused spare as just that and if we are ever unlucky enough to need it, change it back as quickly as possible