Thread: WARNING - Dont Use Old Tyres

I had an experience recently that may lend weight to the argument that you shouldn't use old tyres.

i recently drove from the NSW Central Coast to Adelaide for the Australian Masters Games and I knew when I set off that all four tyres would be getting close to no longer being legal by the time I got home.

Near Adelaide I noticed a split in the sidewall of one tyre so I made the decision to replace all four in Adelaide. The fact that we had changed our itinerary and were going to the Bendelby Ranges and Mutawinji NP was an extra reason to fit new tyres.

When I asked the tyre dealer what might have caused the split, he looked at the date code and said, "Probably mostly the fact that it is ten years old."

At first I was puzzled because when I consulted my records, I saw that I had last fitted four new tyres five years ago. Then I remembered that I had a flat tyre several months earlier and I had left the spare in place of the flat tyre. So the offending tyre was indeed ten years old because it was one of the previous set of tyres.

So while one example doesn't prove that ten year old tyres are a risk, it does at least suggest that it could be the case.

Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

Or you can fill the cracks with boot polish and set a world land speed record like Burt Munro in "The World's Fastest Indian" movie.

Burt Munro - Wikipedia

Best movie ever!

Originally Posted by Saitch

It came off a caravan.

The spare on my grandfathers van is a "Made in Australia" Dunlop. I'll have a look on the weekend for a date but knowing Grandad it's probably as old as me. I recall making him change the tyres on Nans Volvo years ago. Plenty of tread but the sidewalls were all cracking. They were only ~25 years old at the time.