Tire age

[Rufton]

Originally Posted by jabborabbo

If I remember right blow-outs occur when the tire loses enough air such that driving at highway speeds flexes the tire (imagine taking a low pressure tire and mashing it in and out about 15 times a second for 30 minutes). Drive long enough and it heats up enough such that it comes apart.

Older radials will come apart if the tires are switched from one side of the vehicle to the other.

Good point.
Even fresh tires can fail if improperly cared for.
If PO ran low pressure, tire could have invisible damage; a time bomb.
An argument could be made to replace any tire w/ unknown history; fresh or old.

[FL71C10]

A friend of mine is looking for new tires for his 1994 Corvette. they had the directional gatorbacks new, and now it's getting tough to find new tires for it. He found a few places online, and when he asked for build dates, one place wouldn't guarantee any maximum age. He kept getting tires that were already two years old. He finally found someone who would go through the stack and find him the newest build dates which were from fall of 2012, I think.

As you can imagine, that car does not get too many miles put on it, and the tires are expensive! He'll probably ending up tossing this set before they are worn out.