URGENT - MUST KNOW GO CHECK YOUR TIRES....and do it as soon as you finish watching this. If you ever take the time to really read/watch a news report, this needs to be the one. I urge you all to take the time to look at this video on Tires and share with others. There is a short commercial, but watch the news broadcast immediately following. http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897
Wow, something to take a look at. I just bought new tires...I guess I should look and see if they should go back or not.
We,ve questioned taht here at our dealer since we have tires upstairs that must be pushing 10 years old. Nobody wants to do anything till the govt forces it on them.
I found out about this the hard way. Tread just came off on my hotrod at 60mph. I kept it right side up, but it destroyed the rear fender, gas filler neck (full tank) and ripped out the rear brake lines. Never lost air in the tire, but cost me over $1000 to fix. 6 years later and I still don't have the replacement fender painted. New tires still look new, but I'll be buying new ones very soon. The T/A's on my Maverick are about 5 years old or 5 years from when I bought them. Maybe 3,000 miles on them, but they will go soon too.
I've always made it a habit to replace my tires, even if they are good, after 5 years, But I didn't know about the date code..Thanks for the info!!
wish my tires lasted 5 years.... i have each vehicle marked for a 3 year budget cycle, even the summer use only ones (boat and bikes), and almost never make it....I must drive too much. even with "new" tires though i try to inspect them for the polymers and rubbers showing signs of age.. call me picky...
I saw that report a few years ago. I have know about the date code for a long time. Since finding out about it, I always check it before the tires go on any of my vehicles. I have had to buy recaps for the truck at times in the past because that was all I could afford, and always checked them for age and the code a recapper puts on them for the number of times a tire has been recapped. Yes big truck tires are recapped more than once, some as many as 4 times. I would never run any tire that had been capped more than once, then I would throw them away. Some of the big companies cap them 3-4 times, and even run them on the steering axle! A wreck waiting to happen! Tread depth tells you nothing about the condition of a tire. I have seen tires with nearly new tread depth be so rotted in the sidewall they wouldn't hold air. And too low an inflation pressure will kill even a good tire faster than anything! Just ask FORD, they had a time in the 90's with the Explorers popping tires because the reccomended pressure from FORD was too low, causing the tires to overheat and blow out. The lower pressures gave a better ride for a while.....then they gave a big headache!
Today, while working in one of our local malls, my apprentice got hungry and wanted McDonalds, so while in Wal Mart I had a look at some of the tires on the racks...most were from 2005!!
Tire codes I saw that 20/20 show on tire codes. Since then I check tires B4 they are installed. I bought some new Firestones from my local dealer abt 5 mos ago they had a 4 digit code w/ year charcters being 09. I wud venture 90% of the driving public is not aware of these codes.
Corporations own governments so I'm sure this has already been shoved to back page news by now. Soon to be forgotton It's like a bus driver in Vegas once told me "these corporations, that own everything in Vegas are 100 times more ruthless than the "boys" were" meaning the old Vegas mob.
Were these the ones out in the store for display? If so I've seen those be antique almost, but they never sell those tires, so no need to worry about how old they are. The tires at our store stay fairly new as we dont keep a lot in stock of oddball tires and we sell a ton of tires so the ones we do keep rotate in/out fast When I bought my old Yamaha XS11 motorcycle, the rear tire looked to be in great shape, no cracks and good tread, but it was almost 10 years old... I rode it straight down and had a new one put on it
Although BFG TA's are still my tire of choice, I have had very bad luck with tread separation on them. I usually can only expect about 6 years before I have to watch carefully no matter what the tread is on the tire. I currently have 3 tires on magnums that have tread separation in my garage, waiting for more BFGs to be put on for the Sprint Maverick. All together, I have had 10 BFGs separate. I have 5 cars currently with them and one has had them on since 2004. I bought that set from Sam's Club, so I am for sure watching them. They still have very good tread, since the car isn't driven much. I haven't checked any dates yet, but I am sure none of them were fresh tires, since TA's aren't a current tire. It hasn't stopped me from buying them, though, since I just bought a set for the red Comet GT. I sold a '69 XR7 conv to a fellow member of the Cougar club. It had TA's that I had purchased 5 years before. He had a blowout and destroyed a rear quarter at 75 mph a year later, almost wrecked the car. He contacted BFG and they sold him a new set of tires at half cost. Seems the tires were 6 years old when I bought them, making them 12 years old at the time. Check your tires. Jim
