Dry rotted tires strike again...

[aaron7]

Thought I'd post these pictures from our trip this past December.   Was on 40 headed East and had just crossed into Texas when the camper suddenly started vibrating very badly.  Pulled down exit 0 towards Glenrio and parked on the side of 66 to wait for Good Sam to save the day... not too much traffic down there

Our tires were from 2001 and showed very little dry rot in the tread area. None on the sidewall!

We had to take the camper as is due to money reasons but lets just say we ended up with 4 new tires in our cross-country trip... from all different states!

[DonD]

Looks familiar, glad no one was injured.

[pvoth1111]

That ones good for another hundred....mine just wouldn't hold air anymore.  i??



I know I had a pic here.... W%

[Mr. T]

I always thought the semi's were responsible for the road alligators.  Now I know the truth. 


Don T.

[tiinytina]

keep calm Drive on! LOL.. yea... PM.. when (and if) you can.. LOL...

[Alaskan Itasca]

I just got three new tires. I had one cord on a trip last year and had to put on the spare. I discovered from the tire guy the spare I had in use was a bias ply tire and likely was at least 25 years old. The cracked sidewalls on the spare and the corded tire sitting in the spare location is what sent me in for new tires. The right front tire was old enough it didn't have a date code stamped on the side wall. THe tire guy said radials were hard to get up here in the 80s so alot of bias ply tires ended up on RVs back in the day......The back 4 are from 2001 so they will get replaced next year.

I'm glad you can get new tires on the road, Once I leave town Tires become special order and get even more spendy than they already are....

[DonD]

 The 80's !!!!! I don't keep underwear that long   

[M & J]

You wear underwear?

[Alaskan Itasca]

I had some scary tires....I drove 700 miles on that 25+ year old tire, I had to put it on 150 miles from town on the way out, and then I had to get home. I didn't want to risk it on any more trips without replacing it and getting a new spare.

This also makes the point you should check your spare, it could be 25 years old....It just sits there waiting forever to be used, Forgotoned and unloved (and probably low on air) then all sudden it's game on and it's no good either...I got lucky mine held and the shop that put it on for me had air to pump it back up.....

[cosmic]

2 years ago I needed 2 tires for my rear. I found some used tires off of a 74 Indian and swapped them for the ones I had and 30 bucks each. this way if the old Indian needed to be moved around the yard it could be.
now the tires were older then the ones I had, but when I looked at them, they were perfect. Not a cracks anywhere.  Good tread and Michelins.
With in a year they were all cracked to hell on the side walls and cracked between the treads. I had to buy new tires for the rear the next year. So moral of the story is when they start to dry out there is no stopping them. They sat for a long time. Then start rolling and flexing, and before you no it. bang blow out. 
So when you buy tires. Check the manufactures date.

[DonD]

Tire story.
I bought an old Dodge from a little old lady (for real) and the car hadn't been over 50 mph ever and did have very old but good looking tires. My first road trip was short and the car just flew at 70-80-90 mph. I then began to notice the tires were feeling squirmy..very odd feeling. I took it to a buddies tire shop and we put it on the lift. He eyeballed the tires and said to watch the rear tires but don't get near them. He started the car, accelerated to high speed and I could see the tire treads were "floating" on the casings! they had delaminated and the tread area was not connected to the casing at the contact areas, just at the sidewalls. I was close to disaster, very close.