Tires Date

CapriRacer wrote:
Just so everyone knows:

Within the tire industry, there is a common belief that any properly stored tire within 6 years of manufacture can be sold as "New". I say "belief" because I don't know of any data to support this - EXCEPT:

The tire manufacturer I worked for tested 3 year old tires out of their warehouse and could find no significant difference from freshly made.

So if you are concerned about the age of the tires you purchase, say so up front. It will save a lot of hassle later.

I had Michelins start exploding when they were 7 years old. I returned a tire to Michelin for evaluation at my own expense and their quality manager for the U.S. told me that they will not cover any issues after 6 years. Period. And I was an idiot for having 7 year old tires still on my truck even though they still had half of the tread left and were showing very little sign of age, other than random explosions due to sidewall failure. Since then I have had other fail not long after 6 years old.

I guess that I don't drive as much as most people and rarely wear out a tire. Mine are mostly replaced due to age so I won't accept a tire much more than 6 months old. I keep all of my vehicles under roof and out of the sun as much as possible but the tires still fail too often for me to gamble with my family driving them.