Tire Dry Rot Is A Misnomer

Seems to be normal for Michelin's. I have the same issue on my pickup-4 year old tires with cracks in the sidewalls. Others here have reported the same thing.

Hmmmm ......

How come #1 my 1995 ungaraged out-in-the-sun pickup goes 10-15 years before it's tires' treads wear out and the tires' sidewalls are still pristine and crack/check-free (just dirty)? (No covering of it's tires, no chemical treatment of the sidewalls of it's tires, and sometimes driven a couple times a month and sometimes not!!

How come #2 my 2005 ungaraged Class C motorhome goes 5 years with fantastic thread left on it's tires (and I keep them clean) and the tires' sidewalls are full of cracks/checks? (Tires almost entirely in the shade, Aerospace 303 used on the sidewalls of it's tires, and usually driven on several RV trips per year but sitting months in between!!

Pickup = Cooper tires.

Motorhome = Michelin tires.

The motorhome is about to get it's 3rd set of Michelins since we bought it new in 2006. Outstanding tread life but terrible sidewall life.

:h :h :h :h :h :h

The "tires" of today are not of the same material of tires of say thirty years ago. "Dry Rot" used for anything but wood is a misused buzzword. Take two old tires of same manufacture, age and use. Place one in the sun, the other in total shade. What you eventually see (or don't see) is reality, not rhetoric.

First hand observation goes a long way. I am in construction and we have quite a few trailers of various sizes. From what I see, the spares seem to develop cracks long before the tires that roll do... For that reason, we typically replace spares when we replace tires, even if the spares have never been put on trailer axles.
No covers on any of the spares as in construction, they wouldn't last a week anyway...

I haven't read the article yet, perhaps later. Just stating my observations, YMMV

Read the article.. It talks about the sidewall cracking

I always though Dry Rot was in the tread.

True story.. Had a tire with dry rot hit something and go PSSSSSSSSSST (flat) Took it to Wal*mart (this was on a car, nto a motor home and it happened at less than 5MPH so it was not a big problem)...

Ask the guy how much for a new tire

HE starts explaining the advantages of a proper patch over a plug (I know more about it than he does).. I said "That's good but I ask how much for a new tire" Still he's trying to explain patch over plug... Finally I showed him a spot on the tread he says "YOU NEED A NEW TIRE"... Uh, is that not what I'd been asking for?????

I disbelieve political rote-driven drivel. I respond to facts.

"Dry Rot" has been an inseparable description for wood destruction. Chemical decomposition is for inorganic material. Sub-basic chemistry. Make it cheap. Make it profitable. Today's Mantra. Use buzzwords. Baffle 'em with B.S.

I agreed with your post and elaborated. "Dry Rot" tires? Surely someone jests.

I figured you'd respond that way.

Neither was ozone factored in.

"Unsafe At Any Speed" The biggest joke the precursor of NHTSA ever played on the gullible mantra-soaked US public. This is a political not factual US government organ. Like the NWS

Deutschland Uber Alles for Volkswagen and Porsche. Ooooooo and for the Francois Renault Dauphine.

Today's tires contain a MINIMAL amount of authentic rubber. It is now scarce and costly.

About forty years have passed since I climbed the stairs ina friend's tire warehouse and toppled a stack of "new" 1000 X 20" tires sitting against a 10 horsepower motor driving a horizontal air compressor. Every last tire had micro cracks around the bead.

Plastics and elastics containing CARBON BLACK are more O3 resistant than identical carbon products sans carbon black. This is why BLACK plastic tie wraps live in sunlight while natural white ties become brittle.

I agree with darsben. UV light may play a role in aging but UV light was not part of the test.

rexlion wrote:
Let me get some popcorn... :D

Help yourself...


I got free refills...