JBarca wrote:
Hi CapriRacer,
Thank you for your response. Very helpful.
Our camping goes all year round. We are in a climate where we can get out in the winter months. Towing is generally above freezing. I do not tow in the snow and as for us to go winter camping, the days need to be clear, no snow on the ground and at least be above freezing during the day. Nights might hit 5 to 10 F but I'm not towing in those conditions.....
You should be aware that some summer only tread compounds will crack simply due to cold temperatures. It's called "Glass Transition" and it's kind of a more subtle phase change than the change from a solid to a liquid is, but there are a certain amount of similarlities.
JBarca wrote:
...In my case I have the saftey margin in the tire capacity due to the make up of the TT being made with this load sizing built in plus I am not loaded to full GVWR.
This now comes back to the age of the tire and why I was in the bunch that "requests fresh tires". On auto tires after 5 years odds are high that you may need new tires due to wear. Some may get 6 years or slightly more. On a TT odds are high in 5 years wear is not an issue.
The tire warranties I showed listed 5 years as the defect warranty. The question now is, if a tire develops cracks in the side wall or treads in less then 5 years is this considered a warranty defect? And will the manufacture stand behind it? May only get a prorated payout but it is better then nothing.......
It's a matter of degree. There are some kind of cracks that should be cause to remove the tire immediately, and there are some that are so benign that it would take many years for them to get bad enough to require removal.
Put another way: One explanation doesn't fit.
- and warranty coverage would be handled the same way.
I have long considered publishing a web page on cracks - the various kinds and what to do about each - but it's a lot of work finding and sorting photos - and I feel an obligation to get these things exactly right - and I may have just talked myself into doing it.
JBarca wrote:
....From my learning, right or wrong, when sidewall or tread cracks are noticed this is something that soon needs to have action taken in a relative soon time period. Is this a correct thinking? Relative may not be immediate but not to be running them this way for years.
If the quality control or the spec of the tire formulation allows the swing in production large enough that the rubber can crack in a 5 year period or less this presents us RV'ers with a "time" date issue.....
I think it isn't so much an issues of variation in quality as much as it is service conditions.
When folks look at tire failures, the same 5 states always rise to the top - and in more or less this order: AZ, CA, TX, NV, FL. This is quantity, not rate or percentage
The first 4 are in the desert southwest - HEAT!. And while FL may seem the oddman here, if you plot the average daily temperature of Orland vs Phoenix, you'll find that for 6 month Orlando is hotter. It's the long term affect of heat, not necessarily the peak temperature.
JBarca wrote:
.....Which comes back to why I was in the group that looks for "fresh tires" at the time of sale. If I buy a 2 year old tire when installed, cracks come at year 5 from date of manufacture or less, I should take action when cracks are seen, then I can only get 3 years of useful life from the tire. I am out of warranty so there is no recourse from them leaving only the RV'er to replace them after 3 years of use. Am I looking at this wrong? Are tread cracks acceptable to run with for 2 to 3 years?
I am also in the group that is willing to pay more for a higher quality tire. The issue is being able to find one. If a trailer tire is only good for a 5 year period, then that is something we will need to accept and plan for. But I would hope that it is 5 years from the date of sale.
If I understood all this right, why would one not want to be in the group of wanting "fresh tires" at the time of install?........
I am used to see the "date of purchase" being the starting date for the warranty period - with the date of production used only if there is no receipt. I am surprised the warranty is written that way.
JBarca wrote:
.........A learning for me is to ask the tire dealer if side wall or treads cracks are seen before the warranty period is this considered a defect? Right now I cannot go back to Denman and the Maxxis ones are long gone. But I will be prepared to ask the next time I buy new tires.
Then there is the internal breakdown of the tire questions. Cracks or not if the internals are starting to loose load capacity at the 5 year point, that is yet another reason to replace. Tireman9 did a good write up in his blog about the organic nature of tires. They are breaking down as time goes by just because of the materials they are made of. I wish the industry would come to grips with what is the age of that brand tire of when it needs to be replaced. Put it right in the documentation at the time of sale. For the average RV'er of trailers, tread wear and miles is not a good indicator as few of us ever wear out tire tread that have good axle alignment.
Thanks
John
The problem is that the aging thing is so highly variable. As I stated in the very first posting of this thread - it is so highly driven by heat that it is almost impossible to state with any degree of accuracy. The tire industry has been accused of trying to sell more tires by simply stating a 10 year limitation. Can you imagine the flak if they were to use 6 years?
