Got Old Tires?

[deano]

Big thing on the news about having too old of tires could be dangerous..... THEY say, not to have tires older than six years... Hmm, how many Cal Lookers have tires newer than six years old!

[Steve D.]

Me- tire's don't last that long on my car.

[JS]

Is that old tires can be dangerous news?
It´s been a well known fact for a long time in the arctic regions that old (5-6 years) winter tires harden, causing them to loose grip and giving you a longer brake stretch...

[Lee.C]

Guess I shouldn't run my old blurstreaks then 

[Black Sheep]

Think my ruber collection is older than me  

[JS]

Guess I shouldn't run my old blurstreaks then 

Well actually that depends. 
A friend of mine has some super cool Goodyear bias ply tires from the late 60´s on his beetle. Apparently they came from the OG wheels of a US muscle car that was imported to Norway. The original owner never used them because he bought a second set of Americans or whatever and stored the OG tires dry, dark and cool in his basement for all those years. And they actually perform just fine! I guess the story Deano was referring to was directed at tires with "normal" use...

[Lee.C]

Guess I shouldn't run my old blurstreaks then 

Well actually that depends. 
A friend of mine has some super cool Goodyear bias ply tires from the late 60´s on his beetle. Apparently they came from the OG wheels of a US muscle car that was imported to Norway. The original owner never used them because he bought a second set of Americans or whatever and stored the OG tires dry, dark and cool in his basement for all those years. And they actually perform just fine! I guess the story Deano was referring to was directed at tires with "normal" use...

I did try Rob's Bluestreak "Sports cars specials" on the manx once and it was VERY interesting indeed - Soooooo much sidewall flex 

I am still to try my "Pikes Peak Specials" but they are in alot better condition - the tread is nice and soft and as far as I know they were used fairly resently (off road)

I'll keep you posted

[Lee.C]

oh yeah I am still to try my 17" wide "Dragway specials" that have been cut into sand paddles on 15"x17" banded steels 

[Cornpanzer]

My Michelin 145 XZX's were purchased in 1985 for my first Cal-Look car.  Didnt really give it much thought until AFTER I went 127 mph on them 

[Jason Foster]

  Well although I do think old tires are not really safe I run them.

  My rear ex Stephan ex Schwimmer pirelli's are I think around 22 or 23 yrs. old. My front ex schwimmer pirelli's are a young 26 yrs. old.
       
         Living dangerous I guess...........

[DKK Ted]

Cool shot Jason, anyway, I think if you don't see any cracks anywhere, I would say your ok. Just my 2cents.

Ted

[nicolas]

Cool shot Jason, anyway, I think if you don't see any cracks anywhere, I would say your ok. Just my 2cents.

Ted

i think so too, but the rubber must harden anyway, especially with hot (or very cold) weather conditions? older tires that are on a car are more 'glazed' and don't have the same rebound as new ones.

[volksnut]

I believe their referring to those Walmart tires made in China 

[Rennsurfer]

My tires are less than a year old. So I'm good. I have a set of Pirelli Cinturato P3 135 tires, if anyone's interested for nostalgic reasons. Good tread, but the sidewalls are checked.

[Jason Foster]

Cool shot Jason, anyway, I think if you don't see any cracks anywhere, I would say your ok. Just my 2cents.

Ted

i think so too, but the rubber must harden anyway, especially with hot (or very cold) weather conditions? older tires that are on a car are more 'glazed' and don't have the same rebound as new ones.

  Yes that is true I will attest to that.  A stiff roll on the throttle in first or second  will send these babies spinning. Ridiculous night and day difference in traction between these and my DOT slicks. but other than traction in rear they handle fine.

[Zach Gomulka]

I love those 145 Pirelli's!!

[Brandon Sinclair]

It is recommended 6 years from the date of manufacturing not the sale date, and a lot of companies sell tires that are 4-5 years old but sit in the warehouse.  You can watch this clip and it shows how to determine the code when your tire was maufactured, and also tirerack.com has information on it.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11&

[Nico86]

I've used XZXs made in 1989, never had any problems.

[Rocket Ron]

wait till I get some pictures of the tyres I got with some porsche rims, real mens tyres   ;Dw

tomorrow I promise

[Rocket-Racing]

Hmm..    My oval has bias tires in the rear and kinda demands to have bias up front too. The only nice 5.60-15 tires that are reproduced are the Firestones and they are way to tall so I'm running old Goodyears. I know a lot of old tires get dry rot but the rubber in these seem to handle age very well.
The ones with white letters are from 1972. I drove about 23000 miles on them until they were worn out. The all black ones I use now are from '67 and '68... Daily driver all summer, about 8-9000 miles a year.
At least the rear ones are new 

[Geoff P DVKK]

Are these considered old 40 year old Gates Commando for my Manx. Dont think i'll drive on them but for shows they look just right!

[Neil Davies]

I wonder if older tyres last better. Think about it - new ones are supposed to last for 6 years or so, but most of us here have tyres that are 20 years old, and look in better condition than the newer tyres. Has the rubber compound changed significantly?

[Black Sheep]

They don't make em like they used too 
When I was a boy you could ...........

[qubek]

(..) most of us here have tyres that are 20 years old,(...)

I don't know. I have fairly new tires because my car is definitely more for go then for show, so I usually just don't post in topics about all those blue streaks etc. I mean - I like the looks of the Oval above, but I would never put tires like this on my car.

[Tomas/DBR]

Be careful out there...
On the way to SCC last time, this little incident happened on a friends car. Luckely nothing dramatically happened to him, the car or the rim.
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[Lee.C]

Are these considered old 40 year old Gates Commando for my Manx. Dont think i'll drive on them but for shows they look just right!

DUDE SELL THEM TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been searching for YEARS for some of those, I have even started a couple of threads on here asking the US guys to keep their eyes open for me - I have ONE 10" for the rear and TWO smaller ones for the front, I just NEED one more rear (10-15)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sell them to me 

[Zach Gomulka]

Be careful out there...
On the way to SCC last time, this little incident happened on a friends car. Luckely nothing dramatically happened to him, the car or the rim.
[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Same this happened to me a couple years ago with a 165 XZX on my GTV. So what did I do?? Found another set of used ones

[Rocket Ron]

these came off a rally 911

got to love that side wall protection

195 64 15 

[Geoff P DVKK]

Are these considered old 40 year old Gates Commando for my Manx. Dont think i'll drive on them but for shows they look just right!

DUDE SELL THEM TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been searching for YEARS for some of those, I have even started a couple of threads on here asking the US guys to keep their eyes open for me - I have ONE 10" for the rear and TWO smaller ones for the front, I just NEED one more rear (10-15)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sell them to me 

I was lucky to get a full set with my Manx, the fronts were ok but the rears have bad cracks and very rotten. I've been searching a while for replacements and have ads all over the place. I'f I find some spares i'll let you know.

[mg]

Check your trailer tires too.