Busting the Myth of 5 year tire life.

In these forums and ALL I have heard is, replace tires after 7 years, not 5. Where did you hear the 5 year rule? Doug

Old_Spirit wrote:
I sold tire pressure monitoring systems for 9 years and regularly presented lectures on tires. One of the most frequently heard statements was, "You should get new tires every 5 years." NOT SO! I had perfectly safe tires on one of my motorhomes for eight years. How did I KNOW they were safe? Each year I would go to a store that handled truck tires, in my case, and had the tires rotated. Cost was about $25/tire. I insisted that the tire tech carefully examine the entire inner surface for any kind of damage, including signs of aging (which was never found). If the interior is flawless and the exterior shows no signs of checking or cracks run it for another year. There is a time limit of 10 years placed on tires by all manufacturers. This is a more reasonable duration.

Provide link of tire manufacturers 10 year limit. Then I might believe it.

Are you basing your opinion on selling tire monitoring systems, giving lectures or having a tire jockey inspect your tires yearly?

“There is a time limit of 10 years placed on tires by all manufacturers.” Where might this written policy be found? From all manufacturers.

I don't know about other tires, but Michelin recommends replacing tires after 10 years.Michelin

I think this is the definitive statement on Michelin RV tire life, direct from Michelin: https://www.michelinb2b.com/wps/b2bcontent/PDF/TB_Service_Life_RV_Tires.pdf

Don't think I've ever had a tire on anything last 10 years. Usually bald long before then....

Probably 10 years is reasonable for a maximum time before tires should be replaced. My last 5th wheel had 15 years on the tires before I replaced them ... they were starting to show signs of separating.

SidecarFlip wrote:
Don't think I've ever had a tire on anything last 10 years. Usually bald long before then....

Betting you'll never go bald on a Motorhome, before it blows out or fails for some other reason!

I would really like to see someone show me a tire store that has a tire expert. In case you didn't notice, most of them have a few high pressure salesman and a couple of local yocals changing tires. I always laugh when someone says they had a tire expert check their tires....really.....show me the documents they provided you after the inspection that said your tires were safe.

When I was in high school, I worked at a tire store. We were lucky to keep anyone there longer than a few months. Keep in mind, this isn't a career type job. As a matter of fact, I was probably considered the tire expert at the store where I worked, I was 18 years old and was the only one that showed up to work everyday.....thus I was the expert!

There are tire experts, they work for the tire manufacturing companies and do investigations when tires fail, but they certainly don't work at your corner tire store. Can some guy at a tire store look at your tires for obvious issues, like cracks, certainly, but beyond that most haven't a clue.

The 5 year comes from the ST trailer tires I believe. Some of those should be 5 days in my opinion.