Danger's of old tires

tony_l wrote:
I know for the most part I'm preacher to the choir here but this is what happened to my spare tire due to age. I put off replacing it because; 1) It was a spare. 2) It's been covered and did not show any signs of dry rot or cracking. 3) It never touched the road. Went to check the pressure last week and this is what I found. I checked it 3 weeks ago before my last trip and it was fine. Had I needed it last trip I'm sure it would have blown out within a few miles. This one is a Marathon but age is the reason this happened not the brand. I did a google search and found this isn't totally uncommon even with LT tires. Newbies if you're reading this and contemplating replacing that old spare tire to save a few bucks, don't, it's not worth the aggravation or you're safety.



click to enlarge

parkmanaa wrote:
I do not believe this blowout was caused by age of the tire.
I believe it was a manufacturing defect(undercure). Have seen
this a few times in my long tire-industry career, but don't
remember one that lasted what, 8, 9, 10 years? A covered spare
is good indefinitely.

IMHO age, to a great degree just a marketing gimmick, has been made a scapegoat for many, many other problems with tires over the last few years.


I would take it to a qualified tire dealer and have them give me
their opinion.

40 years in the tire industry; saw it all and done most of it.

I also don't think this is age related, but I don't think it was "undercure". It's in the wrong location for undercure and my experience is that undercure causes pieces of the tread to chunk off and not involve the belt.

I notice that the photo shows rust on the steel wires. I think that is a red herring because these wires will rust when exposed to air - even more rapidly if water is also involved (like rain).

I also notice the distortion of the tire. This is classic "Loss of adhesion" of the steel belts - which may of may not be related to the rust.

I find this whole thing interesting as part of this overall discussion of ST failures, but I don't think this is related - as the mode of failure is different.