Tires aged out

Yeah, I don't understand what it is, I've had a lot of trailers and the tires, regardless of quality, condition, miles, how they were stored seem to much more failure prone after about 5 years. Give or take.
Reminds me, the boat is sitting on 4 brand new looking nice tires that never see the light of day save for a half dozen days a year that are 8-9 Years old now. Prolly should get around to swapping them out. Come to think of it, never had a set last that long with out an issue.....

From Roger Marble's RVtiresafety.net blog:

" Usually bulges are the result of some impact damage done to the body cords that resulted in a few being broken due to shock loading." and "Due to the Interply Shear effects on belt durability, trailer tires need to be closely inspected after a couple of years and it appears that 5 years may be the max life for most applications."

New tires needed. Then avoid things like large/deep potholes and highways with large settlements in adjacent concrete slab sections, esp at higher speeds. ST tires are generally recommended to be replaced at around 5-6 years even if they look perfectly fine and have low miles on them.

Besides keeping tires at max sidewall psi, it's also important to never tow over 65 mph (almost all ST brands) and never tow overloaded. In some cases you can be overloaded on one side due to a slide and what's in it. Having more reserve load capacity is a good idea and will reduce stress on tires. Should be a min. of around 15 percent. Some RV manufacturers load them up almost to their max rating. We went to LRD instead of LRC normally installed and have around 30 percent reserve capacity.

Many years ago we had the tires on a fairly new Toyota truck end up with a lot of bulges on all 4 tires after a long trip that included a leg on an interstate that had significant settlement between all the concrete slabs for many miles. The repeated bam-bam-bam destroyed the tires (not steel belted). Haven't seen that yet while towing our TT but if I ever do, I'd slow to a crawl or take another route.

I made a living on the road with trucks and trailers. ST class tires were avoided at all costs in this type of work.
Label me any way you want but quality tires were all day every day important to make a profit or go bust; pun intended

From Carlisle ;

Time and the elements weaken a trailer tire.
– 3 to 5 years is the average life expectancy of a trailer tire,regardless of mileage.
– It is estimated that in approximately three years, roughly one-third of a tire's strength is gone
– After three years, depending upon storage and conditions of usage, consider replacing trailer tires even if they have tread depth remaining.

– After five years, trailer tires should be replaced in all cases.

Had two tires blow out side walls on the same trip. Five and a half years old!!!

Lwiddis wrote:
I don't want to be labeled one of the "tire police" so no comment.

But you did comment "Tire cop" ;)

I don't want to be labeled one of the "tire police" so no comment.

It's my understanding that tire manufacturers recommend replacing ST tires every 5 years.

TucsonJim wrote:
The picture is really small format. But I think I'm seeing a huge bubble in the sidewall? If so, you escaped really cheaply!

Jim

Yep that's a fist sized bulge going from the rim to just inside the tread.
IMHO and that of the tire guy that replaced it the tread was going to soon separate and come off.

IMHO the "bubble" had nothing to do with the tires being 6 years old.

This is typically caused by a hard impact to the shoulder area in that exact spot. The impact causes a very small rupture in the tubeless liner inside, which allows inside pressure to form the bubble you see.

If maintained properly, 6 year-old tires are certainly NOT ready for the scrap pile, again IMHO (nor do any tire MANUFACTURER I know recommend it)

"In the tire industry 40 years; seen it all and done most of it"

The picture is really small format. But I think I'm seeing a huge bubble in the sidewall? If so, you escaped really cheaply!

Jim