Tire story 4,321

Question

LOL- two years ago one of my tires came apart 40 miles away from home (it was upwards of 10 years old).

Put the spare on (same age), put the camper it in storage for a year and then last fall got new tires and put the spare back in it's spot.

Just picked up the camper from storage and on the spare, the tread had separated and the tire had blown...

...with the proverbial near-perfect, virgin tread, 50 total miles!

I'm going to make a few comments but no doubt it was old and shot and I hope there aren't 400 replies blurting out that tires should be changed every five years...yep they should!

It is still amazing- there was virtually zero cracking on the tire and it lived the vast majority of its life covered/protected from the sun.

Parting shots- yeah, the actual tires on the trailer are Marathons, the spare was something with a Chinese name...

Aw well, fingers crossed and in five years, I think I'm going to see what I can get in terms of LT tires.

francesca_knowl · Answer

I'll be darned- an actual "this spare blew up on the rack" post!

I just asked this question in the last few days in response to a fellow's dark assertion that it's happening all over the place, but only with ST tires.

Was the blown tire an ST? And if so:

Is it your opinion that the tire blew up because it was an ST, or do you think it was in any way related to its ten years (plus?) of exposure to the elements and might have blown regardless of type?

k3we · Answer

Francesca Knowles wrote:I'll be darned- an actual "this spare blew up on the rack" post!I just asked this question in the last few days in response to a fellow's dark assertion that it's happening all over the place, but only with ST tires.Was the blown tire an ST? And if so:Is it your opinion that the tire blew up because it was an ST, or do you think it was in any way related to its ten years (plus?) of exposure to the elements and might have blown regardless of type?Yes, it was an ST tire.Yes it blew right there on the rack (after 10 years on the rack, 50 miles under the trailer, and THEN being returned to the rack)Yes, I belive that the design of ST tires makes them prone to this type of fialure.  (However, I have had tread separation on old bias and on 'regular' radial tires so it's not as simple as we want to make it that ALL ST tires suck and ALL regular tires are wonderful...)Yes, I belive the figure that tires (all types) are engineered for about a 5-year lifespan.  While it was covered for most of it's 10 years, it did face all the temperature fluctuations...So, I can't complain that it blew on the rack, but have a utility/farm trailer with 15 year old regular tires on the rim on the trailer on the ground that are not covered in any way shape or form with much more than 50 miles on them, and none of them have spontaneiously failed at the 10-year mark while sitting there....

francesca_knowl · Answer

Thanks, "K"...I've been thinking of going to those "temporary" spares for the small trailer/car, and this may be another reason to do that.

For the bigger trailers, I wonder if rotating them into use wouldn't help to keep them limbered up or at least to get some use out of them. Funny how I've never considered the spare as part of the set. (Or "spares" in the case of the tandems- we carry two spares for those).

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Tire story 4,321

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