19.5 tire wear

Hankook AH11s have about 25K and have been solid handling. Wear level is medium, have rotated twice. Good tracking and good stability in rain. 100 PSI rear, 75 psi front.

You will have tons theories on allowable tire age, but it all boils to inspection.
I had car tires who at 10 years had no cracks and I did not hesitate to drive high speeds on them. But car was garaged most of its life.
Than when I bought my vintage bus conversion - old tires had side cracks big enough to stick my small finger in them. Yet they hold 100 psi just fine.
I did follow with experiment and left 1 of old tires on tag axle. 11 years later sold the bus with the tire and cracks on it. Those were the years when tire had only last digit of year on it, so it could be 25 or 35 years old at the time.
But just for the test - I cut side of 22.5 tire to find over 3/4" of rubber with lot of fabric in it. So what 1/4" crack makes to 3/4" of reinforced rubber.
With variety of tires, you can't go by paper recommendation,.
Inspect, inspect, inspect.
Nobody would re-groove tires in California and regardless industry saying they have less % of failures than new tires - the gators on the road don't bring good impression.
Than when I had bus on 22.5 tires, who can last for 3-400,000 miles, instead of paying $550 per tire, I could get used, who at 3 years of age would still have thread good for 60k miles.

This is an older article I read: https://www.fleetowner.com/equipment/tiretracks/fleet_resist_temptation

I figure if the rubber ages out, there is no safe way to regroove.

Anyone got data from Toyo on what the tire age-out is on the M608Z? As both a commercial tire and a tire that can be regrooved, I would think it would be longer than passenger tires/5 years or so.
And speaking of regroove, anyone here ever regroove theirs?

mbloof wrote:
I also have M608Z's but am more worried about age then mileage. I only put a few 1000 miles on my truck a year so in 10yrs of life I'm guessing only 15-25,000 miles on the tires.

I'm going to lean to a more "highway tread" next time. While not "loud" the M608Z's make quite a bit more noise then the OEM tires they replaced.


- Mark0.

I had highway tread Toyos. Frankly they sucked. Poor traction, they grabbed and pulled whenever they encountered and ridge or slope on the roadway and they were slick in the rain. My Cooper Roadmasters blow that tire away.

I also have M608Z's but am more worried about age then mileage. I only put a few 1000 miles on my truck a year so in 10yrs of life I'm guessing only 15-25,000 miles on the tires.

I'm going to lean to a more "highway tread" next time. While not "loud" the M608Z's make quite a bit more noise then the OEM tires they replaced.


- Mark0.

Passenger car tires have very thin sides, with single fabric layer.
19.5 commercial tires have like 1/2" sides with multi fabric in it.
They suppose to last 10 years, but depends on UV damage you should check them after 7 years.
Trailer tires have extra wax in them, to protect them for long periods from UV, but that's theory.

I hear 7-10 years based on weathering. My trucks are not garaged, so the tires are exposed their entire lives. I fully expect 70-80K out my current tires based on the current wear which would put life about twice as long as an LT tire.

My ST trailer tires are lasting only about 4 years and 25-30k miles - I am debating trying LT tires on my trailer next spring...

Bedlam; what is the age out on a commercial 19.5" tire? Same as passenger cars?

Thanks for the info everyone, I run loaded all the time and put about 20,000 miles a year so don't have the aging out problem. It sounds like so far getting 60,000 miles out of a set is doing ok.