To amplify a bit - in my experience some current production new tires may be no good at 4 years, others (and here I have to echo the part about the tires of the 50's and 60's that we recapped and seemingly ran forever) may be good for well beyond 10 years. If I remember correctly, the carcass of a nylon tire would last longer than a rayon tire - partly because rayon was more adversely affected by moisture and moisture could permeate thru the rubber particularly if there was any age checking. But we would recap a nylon tire with some minimal age checking with no problem. And remember recapping puts lots of heat into the carcass - and it was not uncommon to recap a truck tire several times. But remember too the average tire life in miles was 15000-20,000 or less and even then the average car wore out a set of tires in 3 to 5 years. The extreme premium tires with a conservative driver may have lasted 25,000 miles but even the little old lady going to grocery and church would probably not get 10 years out of a set of tires. And if you are talking heat buildup as it relates to tires coming apart on the highway, probably most of those - yes including many Firestones on Explorers as well as probably 50% of the cars on the road - are running tires under-inflated. And under-inflation is probably the worst cause of heat buildup in the carcass due to more flexing of the tire. Also, some rubber compounds age better than others so brand "x" may last twice as long as brand "y" before it develops any signs of aging / chunking. On 3/20/2014 9:42 PM, Edward Mills
Antique Tractors wrote:
I think the point others have made is there may not be a single universal answer regardless of engineering / science - it depends on the rubber compounding, the storage, and other factors that are different for each of us. |